Layers controller

Eight layers for your work

Guitar Scientist Editor allows you to work on multiple layers. This offers many advantages in how you can design and present your diagrams.

Visibility order

The higher the layer number, the higher the priority. If you place fret-markers on the first layer, and then you place other ones on the same fret on the layer two, these will sit on top, fret-markers on layer three will stay on top of the other two and so on. You can change the order of the layers (see 'Swapping Layers' at the bottom of this page)

The layers controller panel

The layers controller panel is located in the bottom right corner of your screen offers a basic set of features in its default minified state, it can be expanded to access advanced features.

Basic features of the layers controller panel

The panel is made of 8 columns, each one controls the respective layer. Let's examine it row by row.

ROW 1: Layer assigned shape and color

In the first row you will see the last shape and color you selected, this is how the fret-marker you place on this layer will look. You can change them and place different looking fret-markers on the same layer, but for clarity it is best to stick with one or two kinds of fret-marker per layer.

ROW 2: Content of the layer

In this thin row you will see a quick preview of the contents of the layer to help identify which layer contains which fret-markers.
You will see up to 3 small dots, the color of the first dot is the color you used the most for the fret markers in that layer, followed by the 2 other most used colors.
This row will also display a small square if you used rectangles on this layer, and a small line if you used lines on this layer.

ROW 3: Layer number and selector

This row is a series of layer numbers. Click on a number to select that layer.
Double click on this number to momentarily highlight the content of this layer in the document.

ROW 4: Toggle layer visibility

Hide and show the content of a layer

Advanced features of the layers controller panel

Toggle this set of features by clicking on the "gears" icon in the bottom left corner of the layers controller.

ROW 5: Toggle labels visibility on layer

You can use this feature to hide the labels of a specific layer. This is useful if you want to display the degrees of a chord and insert it into a scale, but you only want to show the labels on the chord. See an example here.

ROW 6: Semitransparent layers

Make the fret-markers of this layer see-through

ROW 7: Delete all

Click on this icon and all the fret-markers that belong to this layer will be deleted.

ROW 7: Select all

Click on this icon and all the fret-markers that belong to this layer will be selected (Read more on selection).

ROW 8: Swap layers

If you realize you need to change the order of the layers so that something else is displayed on top, you can swap them. Click on the swap icon on any layer, then click on the same icon on any other layer, all the content of the first layer will be moved to the second one and viceversa. To cancel the swapping after you clicked on the first icon, just click on the same one.