Blender Scripts by FourMadMen.com

FourMadMen.com presents the Layer Manager script.

Version: 1.3.2

Download Version 1.3.2. This one is a multi-file release so don't forget to checkout the Readme.txt

First let me say Thanks! as always to all the testers.
Some of the last minute improvements came from talking to them.
And let me also take this time to thank all the users who have e-mailed comments and suggestions to me over the years. Thanks you all.

If you find this script useful, please consider making a donation to help keep this website alive.
A donation is purely voluntary and is not required to download this Blender script.

What's new in Version 1.3.2

User interface re-design. Now uses checkboxes and icons for various layer options (Fig. 1)
Layer updates now applied to ALL visible 3D areas (Thank you Star Weaver)
User interface is now scrollable via mouse wheel and up and down arrow keys (Fig. 2)
Active Layer Group selections can now be copied to new group (or you can create a new default just as before)
Setting of drawtype for all objects in layer (Fig. 3)
Updated Main Menu (Fig. 4)
New Layers Menu (Fig. 5)
New Help Menu (Fig. 6)
Expanded keyboard shortcuts
Multiple user interface layout options. Vertical (Fig. 7). Horizontal (Fig. 8,). Classic (Fig. 9,).

(Click image for large version)

Features

Layer Names
Layer Groups
Layer Locking
Layer Drawtype
Shows Active Layer
Layer Merging and Flattening
Moving objects
Selecting objects in layer by object type
Object Info
Hide/Reveal Layers
Quick rendering of layer groups that start with name "Render"
Scrolling Interface
Menu, Icon, and Keyboard driven
Autoload/autoconvert old layer file settings
Import/Export settings using new file format
And more... (full documentation pages coming soon)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Q: Exit
+: Add new layer group (and make active)
X: Delete active layer group
H: Hide selected layers
R: Reveal hidden layers
M: Move selected objects to selected layers
Shift+M: Merge selected layers
F: Flatten selected layers
O: Object info popup (very crude right now, will make better and am open to suggestions)
V: Invert visible layer selection
S: Invert selected layers selection
L: Invert locked layer selection
R: Invert renderable layer selection
`: View All Layers
A: Select/Deselect All Layers
0-9, Shift 0-9: Toggle Layer Visibility
Up Arrow: Scroll up
Down Arrow: Scroll down

Button Modifier shortcuts

<Layer Visible Button> Click to toggle, CTRL+Click to view only that layer
<Layer Selected Button> Click to toggle, CTRL+Click to select only that layer, SHIFT+Click to Lock/Unlock
<Layer Name> Click to change name
<Layer Info> Click to select objects in layer by type, SHIFT+Click to select object in layer not of type, CTRL+Click to select ONLY objects in layer

Notes

If only need 99% functionality of Layer Locking and Drawtye handline (see last note) then you won't need the space handlers at all
Spacehandler is loaded via "Menu > Load Spacehandler"
The DRAW Handler is required for full Layer Locking and Drawtype handling (i.e. newly added objects will be updated if using the spacehandler)

Next Steps...

Complete documentation of all features (Yep. Promises, promises)

Return to script index

Previous Releases

Version 1.3.1
(Download this older version)

Selection of objects in layer by Material
Quick rendering of layer groups (does not have to be the active group).
Any layer group name that starts with "Render" will be added to the main menu.
Great for rendering internal scenes (with walls and floors) without cluttering
the 3D view during modeling.
Added cache mechanism for more efficient handling of objects by layer
It would appear that there are custom Blender builds that use Python versions
earlier than 2.5. So for maximum compatibility (potentially going back as far as
Blender 2.43, though testing was restricted to 2.46 and 2.47) the Python 2.5 ternary
syntax has been replaced with a normal if/else block.

Version 1.3
(Download this older version)

Complete code re-write.
Now runs from the "System" scripts menu (Don't forget to delete the old version)
Settings now stored within the .blend file
Multiple user interface layout options. Vertical (Fig. 1). Horizontal (Fig. 2,). Classic (Fig. 3,).
Auto reisize of interface to fit display window. Animated Gif (Fig. 4), Video 2,432KB Xvid (Fig. 5)
Layer locking now fully functional
Can be run as a popup in 3D View (Fig. 6). Video 2,432KB Xvid (Fig. 7)
Selection of objects in layer by object type (Fig. 8)
Selected object information (Fig. 9)
Simplified user interface
Expanded keyboard shortcuts
Expanded tooltip information
Embedded spacehandler code

Version 1.2
(Download this older version)

Moving selected objects to selected layers
Beginning of the layer locking system. (Note: Object lock and un-locking is finicky at best due to the (in my opinion) needed re-write of the event/redraw system. Perhaps when spacehandler scripts play nicely with the undo system this will improve.)

Version 1.1

CTRL+Left Click was not refreshing visible layer list properly.
Added 2 new layer group buttons: View and View Group. View will add the layer group items to the visibility list and View Group will show only those items in the group.
Added new general button: New. Clicking New will reset all group and layer information.

Version 1.0b

Fixed issue with the autoload feature not refreshing the visible layer list after loading saved settings.

Version 1.0a

No longer allows ESC key for exiting (Q Key and Exit button remain)
Auto load most recent layer file if it exists

Version 1.0

Layer Groups
Hide/Reveal Layers (Fig. 2)
Set layer visiblility from script GUI. LMB to select (Additive). CTRL+LMB make only target layer visible.
Saving and Loading of layer Information
Set layer names