Hi Friends,
I was just playing around with the Spirograph Effect, made a neat thing and added some color to it. Now I need to move the Stroke from the root layer to another layer. But as soon as I move it, it disappears. I notice that the root layer appears in the dropdown layer list at the bottom of the window, but not in the Layers dialog. Other than that, I really don't understand exactly what the root layer is.

Can someone explain what the root layer is, and why it doesn't appear in the Layers dialog? And why does the Stroke disappear when I try to move it out of the root layer?

Thanks for your help
(PS -- I looked in the Guide and the Manual, but didn't find anything about the root layer.)

The root layer is the layer that holds all other layers. You could also think of it as the area that all objects appear in before any layers exist.

No idea why your "stroke" disappears when you movie it to a new layer. Perhaps you're moving it to a hidden layer. Having said that you can't move a stroke independent of the object it's attached to. I think perhaps you mean to use the term "path" in place of "stroke" in which case we're both on the same page.

Note that when you select an object and move it to another layer the layer you move it to will be hilighted in the layers dialog and the dropdown list will switch to that layer. So it should be clear where you've moved the object to.

Uuummm...
Ok, yes, I do mean that I'm trying to move the path. And the path does move to whatever layer I want (unless hidden). But the Stroke on the path disappears. And when I look at the F/S dialog, it indicates that there IS a stroke!

I've tried "removing" and replacing the stroke, but I can't get any stroke to show up. And yes, the stroke has a width and is fully opaque. Also the master opacity is fully opaque.

I was thinking it might be something about the root layer that is causing the stroke to disappear. But I guess that's not the case.

Regarding the disappearance of some objects when I try to clip them,in a different image and described in a different topic (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1306) -- could I have something corrupted somewhere? Maybe I should try reinstalling. What do you think?

I'm not sure. I can't really say unless you were to post the file so I could test myself. I don't think re-installing would make a difference, but it won't hurt and will certainly eliminate the possibility.

brynn wrote:Uuummm...
Ok, yes, I do mean that I'm trying to move the path. And the path does move to whatever layer I want (unless hidden). But the Stroke on the path disappears. And when I look at the F/S dialog, it indicates that there IS a stroke!

I've tried "removing" and replacing the stroke, but I can't get any stroke to show up. And yes, the stroke has a width and is fully opaque. Also the master opacity is fully opaque.

I was thinking it might be something about the root layer that is causing the stroke to disappear. But I guess that's not the case.

Regarding the disappearance of some objects when I try to clip them,in a different image and described in a different topic (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1306) -- could I have something corrupted somewhere? Maybe I should try reinstalling. What do you think?

I had a problem kind of like this on just regular hand drawn paths. When the stoke and fill of a path stopped being 'editable'. First couple of times I'd turned off both the fill and the stoke by mistake on path. I'd turn them back on and the path would show up for a while, but as soon as I changed any other paths in the file. The "mistakenly zero'd" path would reset it self to no fill and no stroke. The path showed up in the XML dialog box, and I edited the attributes there and it looked ok to my noob eyes. But again as soon as I move that path (or any other path in the file) the stroke and fill disappeared on the "zero'd path again.

I ended up just deleting the path and drawing it again. I dunno if reinstalling inkscape will help, either. I think I read something in the inkscape bug reports about a path get detach, disconnect or lost form the tree or something. Once that happens you are kind of screwed.

I've had it happen in both 0.46 and 0.45. I've also had it happen the file and stroke get stuck a specific color and width/opacity. I've ended up deleting the un-editable paths redrawing those too. I think it's happen over a dozen times now. I did a drawing with a lot of little paths that were almost the same but not quite. So I was copy and pasting then tweaking the pasted paths a lot. It happen more often on a pasted path the file and stoke would stop being editable.

I guess saying you got to draw it again is much help... I can commiserate is all... I've also seen the root and some temporary layers with names like g0123862 show up while I was cutting and pasting.

Ah, well yes, redrawing the path with stroke is exactly what I'm planning to do!

And yes, I see that g1234 a LOT, too. For some reason, when I try to drag a Group, the group comes apart and I end up only dragging one object. And when I look in the Layer area, it shows the g1234. For a long time, I stopped what I was doing and "regrouped" (no pun!). But recently I've found I can just Undo, plus select the layer the group was in, and the g ## goes away. It seems once I'm dealing with the original group, instead of the g ## group, I find it never was really ungrouped. But I guess that's OT

Meanwhile, I was preparing to upload a copy of the image, so you could examine it, micro. And get this -- I can't reproduce the problem in the identical image! All I did was File > Save a Copy. So it should have preserved even the problem, right? Yet the problem persists in the original, but not in the new one! Geez!

So, I guess it's going to remain a mystery
Thanks microUgly and EarlyBlake for your help with this one. It's so frustrating trying to sort out bugs, from random glitches (like this), from just not knowing how to use the program! So I just want to again extend my sincere thanks for this forum's help. I truly could not use Inkscape without the excellent support I get here.

You're the best

Oh I thought the magic un-grouping was just me.