Stardraw Forums

Feathers Layers

http://forums.stardraw.com/Topic19274.aspx

By harrison - 6/12/2025 9:34:34 AM

Hi, we've noticed that only some feathers are assigned to the correct layers

Control - Control Layer
Power - Power Layer
Lighting - Audio Layer
Audio - Audio Layer
Video - Audio Layer

Is there any chance the lighting and video feathers can be updated?

Thanks
By Rob Robinson - 6/12/2025 11:05:21 AM


Hi Harrison,

When you insert a Feather from the Symbol Browser, the top level refence to the symbol takes the Current Layer, i.e. if your Current layer is Audio Circuit Paths and you drag in a Video feather, note:
  • The symbol reference is on the Audio Circuit Paths layer while the objects it contains - its children - are on the layer(s) they were created on i.e. the Video Circuit Paths layer
  • If you hide the Video Circuit Paths layer, the feather will disappear because all its drawn objects are on that layer.
  • If you hide the Audio Circuit Paths layer, the feather will disappear because the symbol reference is on that layer; if we hide the parent (the symbol reference) then we don't show the children (the objects that make up the feather), even if they are on a visible layer.
The Feather symbols are correct, but you need to make sure you're putting them on the layers you want.
By harrison - 6/12/2025 11:58:27 AM

Hi Rob

Thanks for your detailed response, this is really helpful

Why do certain feathers default to their corresponding layers when others don't? Should they all be one way or the other? 
By Rob Robinson - 6/12/2025 12:13:33 PM


Hi Harrison,

What do you mean by "certain feathers default to their corresponding layers"?

The behaviour of symbols added from the Symbol Browser, whether they be feathers or any other kind of symbol, is that the symbol reference is on the layer you have selected as the Current layer when you insert the symbol, and the objects they contain live on the layers on which they were created in the original symbol.
By harrison - 6/12/2025 12:27:43 PM

Hi Rob

This is not what we experience today and on other drawings recently

We have audio as a default layer and when we draw feathers some of them did default to their corresponding layers which may have been a bug as now we've updated the software all feathers are now in the audio layer.

Thanks
By Rob Robinson - 6/12/2025 1:01:07 PM


Hi Harrison,

I'm glad all is now working as I described.  There have been no changes to how symbols behave in any recent updates so I suspect the cause of what you experienced may be something else - it's difficult to know who may have done what through the life of a project and the drawings it contains, e.g. inadvertently change the layers of objects and collections - but now that you understand what happens under the covers, all will be well.