Is there any way to manipulate the visibility of a shared layer on a canvas so that it doesn’t affect visibility across the other canvases? I want shared layers where the content is shared between canvases, but the visibility is manipulated on a per-canvas level. This is useful for showing large projects that have different phased builds. I want to have a canvas for each of the different phases, with all the later phases hidden on each canvas. But changing the visibility of a shared layer alters the visibility on all of the canvases, making this impossible. Is there anything I’m missing? If it’s not available, can someone point me at the feature request page?
I am not sure I totally understand what you are trying to do. Sounds like there are elements that are shared across all canvases but other bits that aren’t? Is that correct?
I had to do something similar using ArtBoards because of how they see objects. So I have an Artboard layer, then a Artboard Text layer (which is not an Artboard) to hold text that should only be displayed when the Artboards are visible.
Sounds like you need a common legend (shared layer) with a phase layer (canvas specific text). Would be nice if the shared layer visibility could be controlled per canvas but all you could do would be to delete the shared layer from a canvas.
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I agree with @ScoutsHonor’s suggestion or using multiple shared layers. I’d make a different shared layer for each phase, and that way you can apply just the phase that you want to each canvas.
Thanks,
Lanette
Right, but that doesn’t work when exporting. So, for example, if I have three phases to a project. I create a shared layer for Phase 1, a shared layer for Phase 2 and a shared layer for Phase 3. And a generate three canvases, one for each Phase. What I want to see when I export the entire document into a single PDF on the first page is Phase 1 visible and phases 2 and three invisible, and for the second page Phase 1 and Phase 2 visible with phase 3 invisible, and so on. The issue is that visibility spans across the different canvases so I can’t prescribe that differential visibility recipe for the individual canvases.
What I effectively have had to do is just create a single canvas with different layers for all the different phases. When I want to create a PDF that shows all the different phases built out, I’ve had to adjust the visibility, export that, then adjust the next phase’s visibility, then export that, and so on. I end up with 12 different PDFs that I collate into a single one.
You can delete the shared layer you don’t need for each canvas. You can have multiple shared layers on any canvas you need it on. I’m sure it would be handy to be able to show/hide them on a per canvas basis, but since you can’t, add/delete them from the canvas as needed instead. You can always drag the shared layer to another canvas if you want to add it again. It’s a workaround, but will give you the same results.
Also, when you export to PDF you can choose to export them all into one document with pages.
Hope this helps,
Lanette
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Thanks, Lanette. That actually solves my problem. I guess I never thought to remove the layers entirely. I figured shared implied they were locked down to all the campuses, but now I see why that was a bad assumption. Thanks!
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It is a nice feature, just ensure you are only deleting from that one Canvas and not using the Delete from All Canvas (they are kind of close together).
