Template:Maya2017 Layers
Layers
The layer box in Maya can be found under the channel box. Layers are very convenient to work with as you can organize your scene, assign colors to them, you can turn them on and off, you can select all objects in it all in once, etc. You can create a new layer by going to Layers > Create Empty Layer or clicking on the new layer icon:
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You can change the name and properties of this layer by double clicking it and adjusting the name and color (the color will be visible in wireframe mode, it is not a way to assign a color to your geometry!):
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If you want to use colors it is easiest to not use the first 5 bottom colors because Maya itself uses these colors to indicate selections etc, so this can cause some confusion.
To get the objects in the created layers you select the objects, then click on the layer with the right mouse button and let go above 'add selected objects'. You can remove a selected object from a layer by doing the same but letting go above 'remove selected objects'. To remove all objects from this layer let go above 'empty layer' and to delete the layer let go above 'delete layer'. If you want to delete a layer you can right click on the layer and let go above delete layer. If the layer has objects in it, the objects will become layer-less again. Putting all objects in layers in a logical way will make working in Maya easier because now you can for instance make all objects in a layer invisible, shown as a template or as a reference. To make the objects in a layer invisible by clicking on the V in the first box next to the layername. To make a layer function as a template click on the second box (the empty one) next to the layername until it shows a T. Now only the objects' outline can still be seen and you cannot select or do anything with these objects. To make a layer function as a reference click on the same box again until it shows an R. Every object in the layer will still be visible and it is possible to snap to components of the objects, but you cannot select or adjust them.
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You can also select all objects in a layer in once. You select the layer by clicking on it so it will be marked with blue (you can select a second layer by pressing shift and clicking on the second layer) and then go to layers > select objects in selected layers:
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In this menu you can also delete all unused layers. Check out the other options in this menu too.
