Lock Selection

The Lock Selection parameter is a boolean value (default value Off), present in all Group Layer. These are the layers that are created when you Group a set of layers.

If the Lock Selection parameter is turned ‘On, then:

  • If you click on a grouped layer in the WorkArea window, the Group Layer will be selected, rather than the layer you clicked on. For example, you draw an Outline Layer, and then group it. By default the Lock Selection is Off, and clicking on your outline in the WorkArea will select the outline layer. With Lock Selection On, the group layer will be selected instead.

  • Right-clicking on a group layer offers a context menu entry to Select All Child Layers, which recursively selects all the layers under the current layer. If the Lock Selection is engaged for any group layer in the hierarchy, it stops the layers inside that group layer from being selected by this operation.

  • Hitting CTRL|A to select all the handle in the currently selected layers will select the Group Transformation Widget’s handles of selection-locked group layers, whereas it won’t when their Lock Selection are Off.

The effect of these three behaviors is for a group layer to act as if it was a primitive layer, hiding the details of its contents from selection or manipulation.