Distort tool is changing Layer! Why?

[Janus]

Hello!

For a few days I worked on a complicated engraving with several layers. Now I have to distort the proportions a bit. No problem with the distortion tool.
But afterwards all elements are on the same layer. Absolutely useless.

Why is that so? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for every help
Jan

[Adrian]

Any operation that results in the creation of a new item (cutting vectors, distorting them, converting to curves etc) will place the new vectors on the currently active layer. You need to make sure that the layer you want them on is active before doing the operation or use the right click context menu to move them to the required layer afterwards.

With multiple layers you have to move them back to where you want them afterwards.

[Janus]

Hello Adrian!

Thanks for your answer! You describe the situation very precisely. But this is useless (for me). I have several layers for different engraving tools. Each layer with many, many elements. Everything on one layer, after distortion, is just garbage.

I understand that it is like that now. But if I change the size/form of a part there is no reason to change the layer. If I make a normal selection, I can change height, width, rotation without changing the layer.
Why is distortion so different? There is no need to change the layer. Only change form and position of graphic .

Jan

[Adrian]

That's just the way the software works. A baked distortion is a new entity so it's created on the active layer. Other operations such as resizing, rotating don't create a new entity so the layers aren't affected.

[jimwill2]

I just created a file to see what you were talking about and after I had distorted and baked I used "convert to curves" and was able to ungroup and move everything back to original layers. Is this what you need?

[Adrian]

I just created a file to see what you were talking about and after I had distorted and baked I used "convert to curves" and was able to ungroup and move everything back to original layers. Is this what you need?

Once the distortion is baked it's back to normal vectors so you shouldn't need to convert to curves. If it's not baked then it will be in a special mode that convert to curves "breaks" back into normal vectors. It won't help the OP as he will still need to move all his vectors back to the original layer either way.

[FixitMike]

What one could do:
Add a border to the file that surrounds everything you want to distort. Copy this border to all of the layers.
Use the distort tool separately on each of the layers, including the border each time.
Delete the borders if necessary. You can select all of them by box selecting right to left anywhere on them.