Greeting again...

I have another probably stupid question but...

When I load in a flattened svg file (exported from CAD software) it imports fine and shows up on what the little dropdown layer menu at the bottom of the window calls (root). I would like to put this onto an actual layer so that I can turn its visibility on and off and other usual layer stuff but I can't seem to do that. As soon as I create a new layer the (root) layer goes away in the Layer control thing but all the stuff that was in that layer is still there and seemingly, besides being visible, inaccessible. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

[I am familiar with how layers work in Photoshop but not in things like Inkscape or illustrator so I am sure I am missing something]

Hi.

Create a new layer in the layer panel (Shift+Ctrl+L).
Select all, and move object to layer above/below by Shift+PgUp/PgDown.

Less prefferred solution but good to know feature is pasting in position.
Cut selected object (Ctrl+X), move to new layer and past in position (Ctrl+Alt+V).

You're not doing anything wrong, it's just a quirk of how some files are written (and how Inkscape creates layers in a file format that doesn't really have layers).

I would simply select and cut all objects in the root, make a new layer and use Menu: Edit>Paste in Place (Ctrl+Alt+V).

Thanks. Cut and pasting sort of works... sometimes. I'd be more specific but if there is a pattern to this I haven't been able to work it out. Sometimes the and past works and sometimes it doesn't. The reason that I know that it intermittant is because 90+% of the time when I paste, it pastes a rasterized version of the stuff I cut rather than the vector objects. Every now and then it pastes the vector objects. But then when I save it, it sometimes rasterizes those objects during the save. So I have to start all over again. Paste in place also isn't working like I would expect and seems to be just kinda randomly placing the pasted objects - I've been able to work around that by setting the coordinates by hand. But then when I go to edit and add some stuff, copy-and-past is again rasterizing. Every time. I can't seem to copy-paste vector objects within a single layer (i.e. not between layers) at all.

Using a Mac? There are settings for the clipboard:
https://inkscape.org/learn/faq/#copypas ... es-objects

I'd rather stick with the Shift+PgUP/PgDown solution. Not only because you have an os specific bug with your clipboard but because that's an unnecessary overkill with assumably larger files. (Cad drawings usually give a hard time to work with as the fills are either triangulated -autocad- or the hatchink is broken apart to individual line segments etc.)

tylerdurden wrote:Using a Mac? There are settings for the clipboard:
https://inkscape.org/learn/faq/#copypas ... es-objects

Yes I am. I'll give that a try when I get back to this later this afternoon (I hope). Thanks!