About Scene Layers

Scene layers are containers that help you organize and view the contents of your scene. For example, you can put all the background objects into one layer and then hide that layer when you don't want to see them. Or you might want to make a layer's objects unselectable if you want to see them but don't want to interact with them.

Scene layers make it easy to toggle view visibility, render visibility, selectability, and animation ghosting, as well as set wireframe color and control geometry approximation settings. Besides that, you can treat a scene layer like a group and apply any property to its members in branch mode. You can create as many layers as you want in a scene.

There is always one scene layer that is considered "current". When you add new objects to the scene, they are automatically added to whichever layer is current.

Scene layers can be nested under another scene layer. The child layer inherits settings from its parent layer, but can still be controlled independently and remembers its own settings.

Scene Layer Manager

The scene layer manager is a grid-style view from which you can quickly view and edit all of the layers in a scene. It provides access to all of the layer-related tools and options.

To display the scene layer manager in a floating view

Choose View General Scene Layer Manager from the main menu, or press 6.

To display the scene layer manager embedded in the right panel

Click KP/L (keying panel/layers) near the bottom of the right panel.
Click Scene in the lower half of the right panel.

Scene Layer Manager Overview

A	The Layers menu contains commands for creating layers, moving selected objects into the current layer, and so on. Other commands are available by right-clicking in the grid.
B	The View menu contains various display preferences, including how layers should be sorted and which columns are visible. Press and hold Shift to keep the menu open while you toggle multiple items.
C	Click to add a new layer.
D	Scene layers are shown in rows. Double-click on a layer name to change it. Right-click on a name for a menu of options that affect the layer under the mouse pointer.
E	Scene layers with child layers have a light gray background. Click the triangle to collapse or expand the list of child layers. Changes to the parent's layer settings override the child layers' settings.
F	Child layers are shown indented under their parent.
G	The current layer is highlighted in green with a check mark. New objects are added to the current layer by default. Click in the first column to make a layer current. If the current layer is under a collapsed parent, the parent is highlighted in green but has no check mark.
H	Scene layer attributes: wireframe color, view visibility, render visibility, selectability, and animation ghosting. Click in a cell to toggle its value. Click+drag to toggle multiple cells in a rectangular area. Right-click anywhere in a column and choose Check All or Uncheck All. Double-click on a color swatch to set the wireframe color and other display attributes.

Scene Layers versus Groups

The main differences between scene layers and groups are:

All 3D objects must belong to one, and no more than one, scene layer.
Scene layers can belong only to the scene. Models cannot contain scene layers.
Every scene must contain at least one layer.

Layers are typically used for hiding and displaying objects as well as setting other view-related options, while groups are used more generally in many other tasks. For more information about groups, see Grouping Objects.

The Default Scene Layer

Every new scene contains a single layer named Layer_Default. You cannot delete the default layer until you've created at least one other layer. If you delete the default layer, the least recently created (oldest) layer in the scene becomes the new default layer. Objects from the deleted default layer are moved into the new default layer.

Scene Layers in the Explorer

You can view and edit layers in the explorer. This is most useful when you wish to move a number of objects between layers, since you can quickly drag and drop them from one layer to another.

The current layer is shown in bold. Right-click on any layer for a context menu with basic layer commands and other options.

To view all scene layers in the explorer

Do one of the following:

Open an explorer and choose Layers from the Scope menu (or press L).

or
Open the scene layer manager (press 6) and choose Layers Explore Layers.

To view all scene layers in a pop-up explorer

Choose Explore Layers from the Select panel on the MCP.

To view a specific layer in a pop-up explorer

Open the scene layer manager (press 6), then right-click on any layer's name and choose Explore from the menu.