Order of visibility of layers

[bluesea]

Dear forum,

I think this question affects many users, but after some research, I have not found a clear and unique answer yet.

This is my concern:
Is there a possibility to set the order of display of the layers? This should affect which layers (= all entities of a layer) are displayed in the foreground and which behind, in the background.
I have only found the option for setting foreground / background for single objects / entities.

Thank you very much.
bluesea

[MiHeGo]

Dear Bluesea,

Have you tried to rename your layers according to the required sequence ? Personnally, I prefix my layer names by "01_", "02_" etc.
But from my experience, the only way to have entities displayed in front of other entities is indeed by playing with the "Edit" button in the CAD toolbar. Just try and ... succeed or retry...

Good luck,

Michel

[bluesea]

Michel,

thanks for your answer. My layers are actually already in the correct alphanumeric order.
Still, the program continues turning the layer on which the last action was performed, on top of the other layers.

Thanks anyway.

[andrew]

bluesea: note that layers in CAD do NOT control which entities are on top or below each other (unlike in image manipulation software such as Gimp).

Layers are used to organize a drawing in a logical way. To move entities into the foreground or background, use "Modify - Move to Back / Front" instead.

[bluesea]

andrew,

thank you for your reply!
What you describe is exactly the behavior that I have experienced. That's why I was wondering about Chanvier's suggestion.

So, basically, all I can do is to use the "Modify - Move to Back / Front" command. Which is obviously quite tedious if you have a large number of layers and will have to apply the command to all of them, and then again and again each time you just change a little detail on one of the layers...

So, although I am generally quite happy with QCad, I am not really convinced and satisfied about the QCad solution regarding the visibility...

[andrew]

bluesea: May I ask what kind of drawings you are making that require that kind of control over display order?

The display order of entities traditionally does not matter in CAD. Think about manual drafting or pen plotters: whether you draw line A over line B or the other way around yields the same result on paper.

In QCAD, some basic display order control was introduced mainly to allow the user to move bitmaps and solid fills to the back. These types of entities are normally used very sparingly in CAD drawings.

[bluesea]

andrew,

thanks for your comment and sorry for the long delay until my reply.

I am mainly doing drawings of objects like furniture etc., with a lot of different layers. I like printing the drawings out in color, so the order of visibility of the layers is important for me.

Regards,
bluesea