Organizing your designs

To bring some more clarity and structure in your design you can use Layer Groups (folders). You can organize your design in logical parts to manipulate them more efficiently.

Layer groups have their own special properties, including colors and wireframe mode. Layer groups show as a folder icon in the Layers panel.

Adding a layer group

Click on the New Layer icon (at the top of the Layers panel) to add a new layer group.

Objects can be added to a layer folder by dragging them above the layer in the Layers panel. The layer folder will highlight. Releasing the mouse button with the layer folder highlighted will move the object(s) into the layer folder.

If there is a selected object in the Layer group, adding any new shapes or paths will automatically add them within the same layer group.

Note: object within the Layer group can be arranged by the Bring to Front(1) and Send to Back(2) which have respective shortucts:  / SHIFT   + / CTRL +   and / SHIFT + / CTRL +  

Frame mode

Anchoring elements inside

You can practice responsive design by applying anchors to the objects within the layer group. To start anchoring the objects, set the layer group as frame(1):

1. Select the Layer Group you want set as responsive container
   
2. Head over to the bottom part of the Tranform panel.
   
3. Select the Frame option(1)
   

Now you are able to anchor objects withing the particular layer group. So imagine the situation – you have a website header layer group, anchored to the top of the page. Now you want to anchor elements, such as logo, menu and social icons inside the header itself. This is where frame mode comes at handy.

Note:  by default into the frame mode all containing objects are anchored to the top left

Clipping objects inside

The frame is also a clipping object. Move objects outside the frame boundaries to hide them.

Moving the Layer Group

Layer group contents can be moved, resized, or rotated using the Layer tool M.

Extra Properties of the Layer Groups

Layer groups also have some extra properties that are not available to normal objects:

• Layer folders (and all their contents) can be set to wireframe view. This makes it easier to work on other content without hiding the layer folder content.

• Layer folders can be assigned a color. The layer folder color will define the colors of bounding boxes and anchor points on that layer.