Paste Canvas Layer

Revision as of 18:10, 13 January 2010

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The Paste Canvas layer is a special layer that can hold other layers. It is generated via the Encapsulate command accessed via the context menu in the Layers Panel or through the Layer Menu in the Canvas Menu Caret. As well as grouping a set of layers it can also translate them, scale them, and even modify the time for the layers it contains.

Paste Canvas layers can also be created through the New Layer Menu, using New Layer > Other > Paste Canvas.

A Paste Canvas layer has the following parameters:

• Z Depth
• Amount
• Blend Method
• Origin
• Canvas: This is "Inline Canvas" by default if the Paste Canvas layer was created by encapsulating other layers, or "Pasted Canvas" if it was created from the New Layer Menu. This parameter lets you select another canvas.
• Zoom
• Time Offset
• Children Lock
• Focus Point (since SVN r2290)

Canvas Parameter

The canvas parameter presents a drop-down menu of the exported canvases, plus an extra entry called "Other...". Selecting "Other..." presents the user with a text entry box asking for the name of the canvas to use. The name typed should have the following format (where [ ] indicates an optional part, ( ) is for grouping, and * means "0 or more times"):

  [[filename]#][:]id(:id)*

In its simplest form, this is just an id, ie. the exported name of one of the child canvases of the current canvas.

Other possibilities are:

• if a '#' is present, the part before the '#' is interpreted as the filename of an external .sif file to use.
• if the '#' is the first character of the string (ie. the filename is blank) then the '#' is ignored, and the current canvas is used instead
• if a ':' appears before the first id, it means to start at the root canvas of the current canvas
• each subsequent :id steps down into the specified child

Examples:

• /usr/share/doc/synfig/examples/business_card.sifz#:IndividualCard -- gives the absolute path to a .sifz file, and says to use the canvas that was exported from its root canvas as "IndividualCard"
• ../../examples/business_card.sifz#:IndividualCard -- the same, but with a relative path to the .sifz file
• #:sy:head:eyes:left -- look in the current composition, and starting from the root, navigate down through the canvas tree. Find a child canvas of the root canvas called 'sy', look in 'sy' for a child canvas called 'head', and so on.
• :sy:head:eyes:left -- exactly as above. an empty filename is the same as not using the '#' at all
• eyes:left -- without a ':' before the first id, this starts at the current canvas (presumably the PasteCanvas in question is in the "head" subcanvas of the "sy" subcanvas of the root)

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