Layers

The free version of pCon.planner contains both a Layer dialog and a Layer Filter. They are both to be found in the Extras group on the Home tab.

The Layer Filter is opened by clicking on the button of the same name in the Extras group on the Home tab. The Layer Filter enables you to hide or unhide certain layers of the design quickly and easily without reverting to the Layer dialog.

In pCon.planner PRO there is both a Layer dialog and a Layer Filter: each can be configured to apply either to the whole design (i.e. globally) or simply to the viewport currently active. The layer management functions are available in the design area and in the Layout area.

The palette of functions included in the free pCon.planner is supplemented in pCon.planner PRO with further options for dealing with layers. Just a reminder here that if no settings have yet been made in the Layer dialog, it will always show all the layers in a design.

•01: Quick Filter
The Quick Filter allows you to filter for the name of the layer with every entry.

•02: Filter layers by selected objects
In the Layer dialog, the only layers which will be shown are those on which there are objects selected in the plan.

•03: Mark Layers on selected objects
In the Layer dialog, the layers on which there are objects selected in the plan will be highlighted in blue.

•04: Select objects on highlighted layers
All objects on the layers highlighted in blue in the Layer dialog can be selected at once using this function. Click on the downward-pointing arrow and a short menu will open. You can select more layers in the dialog and use the item Add to Selection (for example) to cause objects on those other layers to be marked as well in the plan.

•05: Assign marked layer to selected objects
This function allows you to assign objects selected in the plan to the layer highlighted in the dialog.

•06: Create a new layer
A new layer can be defined here.

•07: Delete all objects on highlighted layers
All objects in the plan which are on the layers highlighted in blue in the Layer dialog can be deleted at once using this function. The layer itself will be deleted at the same time.

•08: Open context menu
Clicking with the right mouse button in the area highlighted in red opens a context menu which contains some of the functions listed above. This menu also makes other functions available, such as renaming particular layers or selecting/deselecting all layers.

The clickable symbols (light bulb or grey sphere) in the Layer dialog serve to control the visibility of all the layers (symbols in the All column) or of the layers in the active viewport (symbols in the Viewport column).

The settings shown in the areas contained in the red frame in the left-hand screenshot are explained below.

•01: In the first section, All layers are set to be visible (the light bulbs are on). The grey spheres in the Viewport column indicate that the global settings have been adopted for the active viewport. This means that the layers will be visible there, too.

•02: In the second section, All layers are set to be invisible (the light bulbs are off). However, these layers have been set to be visible in the Viewport (the light bulbs are on in this column).

•03: In the third section, All layers are set to be visible (the light bulbs are on). However, these layers have been set to be invisible in the Viewport (the light bulbs are off in this column).