Appearance
Layer Management
Layers organize your drawing into logical groups. Every entity belongs to exactly one layer. You can control visibility, locking, color, and selectability per layer without affecting other parts of the drawing.
The Layers Panel
The Layers panel sits on the right side of the screen. Click the Layers header to collapse or expand it. The header badge shows how many layers are currently visible out of the total layer count (e.g., 3/5).
Creating a Layer
Type a name in the input field at the bottom of the panel and press Enter or click +. The new layer immediately becomes the active layer, and any currently selected entities are moved to it.
If you have entities selected when you create a layer, those entities are automatically reassigned to the new layer — a fast way to reorganize a drawing.
Layer names must be unique. Creating a layer with an existing name does nothing.
The Active Layer
The active layer is shown highlighted in the panel and displayed in the status bar as Draw: [layer name]. Every entity you draw goes onto the active layer.
To change the active layer, click its name in the panel. The active layer indicator in the status bar updates immediately.
Renaming a Layer
Double-click a layer name to enter inline edit mode. Type the new name and press Enter to confirm, or Escape to cancel. All entities on that layer follow the rename automatically.
You can also right-click a layer and choose Rename... from the context menu.
Layer Color
Each layer can have an assigned color. Entities on that layer inherit the layer color when they are drawn (unless overridden per entity in the Properties panel).
To set a layer color:
- Right-click the layer in the panel.
- Choose Color... from the context menu.
- Pick a color in the color picker dialog and click OK.
To remove the color override and return to the default, choose Reset color from the same context menu.
The layer name in the panel is rendered in the layer's assigned color, making it easy to distinguish layers at a glance.
Linetype per Layer
The linetype (solid, dashed, dotted, etc.) is set per entity through the Properties panel and the current style controls in the toolbar. There is no separate linetype assignment at the layer level; use the entity style properties to control line appearance.
Toggling Visibility
Click the eye icon to the left of a layer name to toggle it between visible and hidden. Hidden layers are not rendered and cannot be selected.
To show or hide multiple layers at once:
- Type in the search box to filter layers by name.
- Use the Show (eye) and Hide (circle) buttons in the filter bar to apply visibility to all currently filtered layers at once.
The status bar shows Sel: X layers to indicate how many layers are currently selectable.
Locking and Selectability
PlanCAD has two distinct lock concepts:
Selectable / not selectable (the dot icon): Controls whether entities on a layer can be picked or box-selected. A layer that is visible but not selectable appears in a dimmed color in the panel. Click the dot icon to toggle. Ctrl+click a layer to toggle its selectability without changing the active layer. Shift+click selects a range of layers and makes them all selectable.
Locked (the padlock icon): Prevents editing of entities on the layer. A locked layer is shown in red. Entities can still be selected visually but cannot be moved, modified, or deleted until the layer is unlocked. Click the padlock icon to toggle.
To lock all layers at once, right-click any layer and choose Lock all. To unlock all, choose Unlock all.
Moving Entities to a Layer
When you have entities selected, a small arrow button (<-) appears next to every non-active layer in the panel. Click it to move the selected entities to that layer.
Alternatively, right-click any layer and choose Move selection here. This option is disabled when there is no selection.
Selecting All Entities on a Layer
Right-click a layer and choose Select all (N) where N is the entity count. This adds all entities on that layer to the current selection.
Layer Search and Filter
Type in the search box at the top of the panel to filter the list by name. The filter is case-insensitive. The Show/Hide buttons act only on the filtered set, so you can quickly hide or show a group of layers by typing a common prefix.
Merging Layers
To merge two or more layers into one:
- Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple layers in the panel.
- Right-click the selection and choose either:
- Merge into "[first layer]" — consolidates all selected layers into the first one.
- Merge into new... — opens a dialog to name the destination layer (created if it does not exist).
All entities from the merged layers are reassigned to the destination layer. The source layers are deleted.
Deleting a Layer
Right-click a layer and choose Delete. This option is disabled when only one layer exists — every drawing must have at least one layer.
Deleting a layer also deletes all entities on it. There is no automatic reassignment; use Move selection here or merge before deleting if you want to keep the entities.
Layer Count Badge
Each layer row shows a small number on the right indicating how many entities it contains. This count updates live as you draw and edit.