2.5. Layer management

2.5.1. Layer Manager

If you right-click on the plot, another editable item listed is the Layer Manager. Selecting this opens the Layer Manager in the Tote.

Right-click on the layer named Chart Features (which should now have a number of items added to it, including the grid), and from the drop-down menu labelled Layer: Chart Features >, de-select the toggle-item labelled Visible.

You may also expand any of the Layers to see the items they contain. This is a particularly good way of editing individual position fixes where you know their DTG; simply double-click on the relevant DTG and it will open in a property editor window.

There is also a button to open the Layer Manager from the Stepper Control, which you'll learn more about shortly.

2.5.2. Layer buttons

There are two buttons at the top of the Layer Manager. The first of these allows you to create and name a new, empty, top-level layer. This can be used to tidy up large numbers of annotations. New annotations (drawings) are always placed on the Misc layer. You can tidy them up by creating a layer dedicated to a set of annotations and cut/paste them into it. Once on a layer these annotations can be switched on and off at once (using the Layer/Visible property), a useful analysis feature.

Once you are more familiar with the Debrief XML format, custom layers can be created to contain, for example, exercise areas or underwater hazards. Information in these custom layers can be dropped into new plots and switched on and off as required.

The second button is to update the "tree" of data you are looking at, although normally the Layer Manager is good at recognizing changes and it updates itself.

2.5.3. Cut/Copy Paste

Finally, items may be cut, copied and pasted between Layers using the commands contained in the menus obtained by right-clicking on the item. The cut command may be used on it's own to delete an item. Copying items is a quick way of making duplicates of a correctly formatted annotation or screen item such as a rectangle or ellipse.

In addition to copying/moving items between layers, items and layers themselves can be copied or moved between sessions within Debrief.

To paste a layer (or track) into the top level of the layer manager just click on the white space below the displayed layers and select Paste Item form the popup menu.

All top-level layers (that it screen items which appear at the top level in Layer Manager, such as Tracks, ETOPO data and Layers themselves) can have a line width assigned to them. This setting is observed when plotting all items in that layer. The smallest line width supported is hairwidth, which plots the finest line the particular output device (screen or printer) can produce. The line-width parameter can be accessed by right-clicking on the screen item directly in addition to via the Layer Manager.