Selecting multiple levels

[Gus]

Hi: I had been using OpenToonz for two months aproximately, and I believe  I am slowly making friends with it. Anyway, I guess I may be still using a small percentage of the software capabilities. I have two first questions : 1.¿ how do you select a drawing levels (a.k.a. layers ) in order to move the entire drawing on the stage? 2. The cutting tool seems not to be working, as I click and drag. ¿ I am missing something? ¡I would appreciate any advice !

[John Dancel]

Hi Gus,

1) If I understand what you are asking for, you want do this.

Use the Edit Tool, select Col1 (or whichever level you want) and then select "Position"

Then grab the center point (see next to my X), and move it to wherever you want on the stage:

You may want to shift the center point over to the center of your image first, but it isn't required.  To do that, use the same edit tool, but select "Center" instead of "Position". 

NOTE: This creates a key frame in the Xsheet depending on which frame you were when you did it.  In the Xsheet, you might want to 1st select the frame # of your level where your image appears on the stage for the very first time or frame 1 to be on the safe side.

2)  Think of the cutting tool as a pair of scissors.  When you position the tool on a line and then click the button, it snips it at that position.  It won't be obvious until you select the line and move it.

Hope this helps

[Gus]

Hi John: first ,thank you very much for your clear, detailed explanation.I appreciate your posting of images to clarify your explanation. Second, I must apologize for not explaining myself properly. In the first question regarding selecting level, the proper question should have been: ¿how  do I select various or all the levels of a particular image or drawing, in order to move the entire image  around  the canvas?. As you surely know, for example in Adobe Animate , unless some  layers are locked, you select all  of them clicking and dragging, and then moving  the image  on the canvas.¿Can I do this  in OpenToonz?. For the second question regarding the cutting tool, I had been been a complete moron ( d'oh!)! The cutting tool in my Toonz had been working properly, but I didn't noticed it (d'oh! again!). I guess the reason was that I expected the cutting tool was similar to that of ToonBoom. In ToonBoom,  the cutter  eliminates or deletes a particular segment when you click and drag over it. On the other hand,in Toonz the cutter SPLITS a particular segment (not erases it), and then you can move apart one or more of the segments with the editing tool or the selection tool. ¿Is that correct?. I was reading again about the Cutting Tool in  the ToonzHarlequin User Guide, and  I realized it says "split a vector", not cut or erases. So I went, as you told me, to click and select, and ¡TA DA! ,the line split apart in two segments. Thank you again. 

[Herbert123]

No, OpenTOonz does not allow you to select multiple columns, and position the content of all selected columns simultaneously. It will always move the content of the single active column.

A couple of work-arounds exist:
1) add a peg in the schematic view (not the FX schematic view), and connect the objects that belong together to this peg. With the peg selected all those objects will move together.
2) select the columns you wish to move together, and convert to a subsheet. Select the subsheet column, and move the content. It is also possible to explode a subsheet in order to return those columns in the main Xsheet.
3) select the object in one column with the selection tool (S), and copy/cut it. Then switch to the other column, and paste the object(s). All objects are now merged into one layer, and you will be able to position all objects simultaneously.

[Gus]

Hi herbert123: Thanks for your answer. I was afraid that; indeed, OpenToonz doesn't have the multiple selection option. Maybe Toonz Harlequin may have this option, but as far as I had been searching the User Guide, it didn't showed. I will try the solution you sugested me. ¡Thank you very much again!.

[TurtleTooth]

Actually you can either create a subsheet with the levels you want to move as one, or parent levels to each other using the schematic viewer.  This would allow you to move multiple levels at one time.

[Gus]

Hi Turtle Tooth: ¡thanks a lot for your help! I'll try your suggestion.