Can you guys please add a merge function? Having to many layers open for one thing is quite the hassle to keep up with :((
Hi @Noms , and welcome!
That feature already exists in Vectornator but, to truly understand it, you’ll need to get out of “paint think” and into “vector think”, so before giving you the solution we’re going to take a journey down Comprehension Road (past Memory Lane and take the second turn right).
Firstly, you need to understand the difference between layers and objects.
In a paint app, you only have layers, like sheets of glass, and you put paint (pixels) onto them. You can’t go back later and edit and individual stroke of paint. The paint becomes (essentially) the layer content.
A vector app is more like one of those kids’ toys/games with felt people, animals, trees, etc, that you move around on a felt background, except in the app the background is, again, similar to layers of glass. At any time you can come back and edit objects: individual curves, shapes, etc. The objects remain independent of the layers.
To combine/merge layers, simply select then copy-paste all the objects from one layer to another layer (hint: you can lock or hide other layers to make it easier to select everything on one layer).
However, this will not reduce the number of objects showing in the Layers panel, so it probably is not what you really want.
You also probably don’t want to “merge” objects, because in vector terms this makes them all one object, and one vector object can only have a single set of fill and stroke (outline) properties, even if there are multiple “pieces”, so they will all have the same colour fill and stroke.
You can do this in Vectornator, if you wish, by using either the Combine or Add or one of the other Boolean operations.
Solution:
What you probably want to do, when you are thinking in vectors instead of paint, is to group objects together, either on the same or different layers.
This will both reduce the clutter shown in the Layers panel, and also enable you to move/scale/rotate all the grouped objects as if they were a single object.
Select all the objects you want to group together, and use the Group icon, or Cmd+G on a Mac.
The nice thing about grouping is you can always ungroup if you need to access or modify the objects later.
Want to change one eye to a wink, or a frown to a smile, or how long your character’s hair is? Easily done with a vector app, by editing (or replacing) objects, you don’t have to “paint over”.
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Oh wow! This helps a bunch thank you!
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