Layers and layer transforms

A layer is a group — and like a Maya group, it can be moved, rotated and scaled as one thing, around one pivot.

Ctrl+G New layer from selection Page Up Select parent Page Down Select children O Picker Outliner

Making layers

Ctrl+G: the selected finger buttons go into a new, named layer.

Select items and press Ctrl+G — or right-click them ▸ New Layer from Selection — to move them into a new layer in one step, as Maya's Ctrl+G does.

• If they already share a layer, the new one is nested inside it.
• If they all sit in one panel, the layer belongs to that panel.
• Layers nest freely in the Picker Outliner: drag one onto another. A hand layer with pinky, middle and index layers inside it is the typical shape.
• Each grid lists only its own layers. Drag a layer onto another grid's header to move it, and everything nested in it, to that grid.

Moving a whole layer

Select a layer in the Outliner: the Channel Box shows the layer's own channels.

Select a layer in the Picker Outliner and the Channel Box shows its own Translate, Rotate, Scale, Pivot and Visibility. Every item in the layer — and in the layers nested under it — moves around one pivot, the way children move under a Maya group. Each item keeps its own channels.

On the canvas the layer gets a frame, a pivot and its own move, rotate and scale gizmos:

Input	Does
W / E / R	The layer's move, rotate and scale gizmos — the same arrows, ring and arms as an item's, with live read-outs
MMB drag anywhere	Drive the last-clicked axis (shown yellow)
Shift + MMB drag	Choose the axis from the drag direction
S	Switch move between the layer's own axes and the canvas axes
Shift while rotating	Snap the angle
No tool active: drag the pivot	Move the layer
Ctrl + drag the pivot	Rotate
Shift + drag the pivot	Scale
Hold D	Move the pivot itself, with any tool

A negative scale mirrors the whole layer.

Center Pivot, Reset and Freeze are in the Channel Box and on the layer's right-click menu, next to Select Layer Items. Every change is one undo step, and the values are saved with the picker.

Selecting through the hierarchy

Key	Does
Page Up	One step up: the item's picker parent, else its layer; from a layer, its parent layer
Page Down	One step down: an item's picker children; from a layer, its items (or its first child layer)

Channels, many at once

A layer's channels behave like an item's. Click a channel name to select it, Ctrl + click to add or remove one, Shift + click for a range, or drag across the names. Then MMB drag — on a name, a value or empty space — to change every selected channel at once, as one undo step.