Keyboard Shortcut to Toggle Layer Visibility by Name in Layer Settings

[TheilerLino]

In Archicad 28, managing layer visibility typically requires navigating through the Layer Settings dialog and manually toggling the visibility icons using the mouse. This process can be time-consuming, especially when working with projects that contain numerous layers.

Feature Request:

Introduce a keyboard shortcut functionality within the Layer Settings dialog that allows users to:

• Quickly focus on the layer name input field.

• Type the desired layer name to search and highlight it.

• Use a specific key (e.g., Enter or Spacebar) to toggle the visibility (show/hide) of the selected layer.

This enhancement would streamline the workflow by reducing reliance on the mouse.

Use Case:

When working on detailed components, it's often necessary to temporarily display surrounding elements or specific layers for a particular construction step. Currently, this requires multiple mouse interactions to locate and toggle the desired layers, which can be time-consuming. Implementing a keyboard shortcut for this function would significantly expedite the process, enhancing productivity during detailed design tasks.

[Barry Kelly]

A couple of things I would like to point out, not sure if you are aware of.

You can search layer names in the layer dialogue, then it is a simple click to them them on/off individually, or you can select a group or all of the layers and change them all at once.

Set up a "working" layer combination that turns on all of the layers you might want to see.

You can even set up multiple "working" layer combination for different scenarios.

Now you just swap layer combinations rather than turning on/off individual layers.

Barry.

[TheilerLino]

Thank you for the input, Gerry. I would like to skip the step where I manually toggle layer visibility using the mouse. In other CAD software, there's been a feature for many years that allows toggling layers using the spacebar.

Layer combinations are certainly helpful; however, in complex constructions, I often require 4–6 different layer combinations, which can be confusing or cumbersome for other team members.

[danielk]

Hi,
It is not quite what you asked for, but it might help by removing a few clicks from the process:
https://bimdots.com/product/layer-palette/

[TheilerLino]

Hi, 
Wow that's a big step in the right direction. 
Thank you for sharing!