Layers, alignment and groups
Layer panel (left)
Every layer in the document is listed (top = front-most, drawn on top).
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Select | Click the row (name) — synced with the canvas selection |
| Rename | Double-click the name |
| Hide / show | The row's eye icon |
| Lock / unlock | The row's padlock icon (locked layers cannot be selected or edited on the canvas) |
| Reorder | Press and drag a row: drop it on the upper half of another row to place it above, on the lower half to place it below (a line with a dot shows where) |
| Put into a group | Drop on the middle of a group or frame row (an outline around the row) to move it inside, at the top (the group expands). The top and bottom edges of a group row still mean above / below it |
| Take out of a group | Drop it above or below a row outside the group |
| Delete | Select, then Delete |
The drop target is shown while dragging. Where nothing would change (onto itself, into its own group, another artboard) no indicator appears and nothing moves. Layers keep their place on the canvas when they change parent.
- Groups expand and collapse with ▸/▾.
- Artboards fold too: hover an artboard's section header and click its disclosure arrow to hide that artboard's layers (a folded header shows how many layers it holds). Handy when a document has many artboards.
- Find a selection in the panel: right-click a shape on the canvas and choose Reveal in Layers. Its artboard and the groups above it unfold, the panel opens if it was hidden, and the list scrolls to the row.
- Selecting a shape on the canvas highlights its row; clicking a row selects it on the canvas.
- Editing inside a group: double-click a group on the canvas to select the child under the cursor (double-click again to go deeper into nested groups). While a child is selected, clicking or dragging inside it moves, resizes or rotates the child; clicking outside selects the group again.
- Moving or resizing a child refits the group's bounding box to its children (nested groups refit inside and out). Groups that contain an animated layer are left alone to preserve the animation.
Align and distribute (Arrange menu)
Select two or more layers and use the Arrange menu.
- Align — left / centre / right, top / middle / bottom.
- Distribute — even horizontal or vertical spacing.
- (With a single layer selected, alignment is relative to the artboard.)
- The same alignment buttons sit at the top of the inspector's Layout section.
- Tidy Up Frames (Arrange menu) — lays every frame out in a near-square grid, 100 pt apart, keeping the order they read in now (rows top to bottom, left to right). Handy after adding many frames.
Reordering (z-order)
Change the stacking order of the selection from the Arrange menu or the context menu. These work inside groups and frames too (the layer moves among its siblings).
- Move Up (⌥⌘↑) / Move Down (⌥⌘↓) — one row up or down in the layer panel. At the top or bottom of a group, the layer steps out and lands just above or below the group.
- Bring to Front (⌘⇧]) / Send to Back (⌘⇧[) — all the way front or back.
- Bring Forward (⌘]) / Send Backward (⌘[) — one step.
Masks (Figma style)
Any layer can become a mask: the sibling layers above it in the same group (or artboard) are visible only inside the mask's shape. The mask itself is not drawn, and layers below the mask are unaffected.
- Set a mask: select a layer and choose Arrange ▸ Use as Mask (⌃⌘M) or Use as Mask in the context menu. The Use as Mask toggle in the inspector's Mask section does the same. Running the command again (Remove Mask) turns it back into a normal layer.
- With several layers selected, they are wrapped in a group and the bottom layer becomes the mask (Figma's mask group).
- Mask type (inspector Mask ▸ Type):
- Alpha — uses the mask's transparency (opacity, gradients and transparent image areas count). The default.
- Vector — uses only the mask's outline (fill and opacity ignored; always a crisp edge). Text uses its glyph outlines; images, video and groups use their box.
- Luminance — uses the mask's brightness (white = visible, black = hidden, grey = translucent).
- In the layer panel a mask layer shows a half-circle badge, and masked layers show a dotted connector on the left.
- Hiding a mask layer removes the masking, so the layers above show fully.
- Export: images and video reflect masks as is. SVG uses
<mask>; Lottie writes a copy of the mask as a track matte for every masked layer (top-level masks only; where masks overlap, the nearest one applies). - Crop (a layer clipped by its own rectangle or ellipse) and Track Matte (masked by the layer directly in front) remain available. See the Inspector.
Groups
- Group: ⌘G — wraps the selection in a group.
- Ungroup: ⇧⌘G — dissolves the group.
- Resizing a group scales its contents.
Note: layers that already have keyframes cannot be grouped (grouping would discard their animation); a message explains this. Group before animating, or remove the keyframes first.