When working with deeply nested geometry layers, it is a major drag to hunt and scroll around, up and down, finding the correct layer when many will be similarly named.

I realize that Tim has recently added some new functionality to the searchability of layers. I have not got a version or update that has those features.

But, for about a year+ I have sat on ideas, and this is another of some 85-100 I have though of.

It should be possible to click on a layer in one of the three aforementioned palettes and maybe via an accelerator or modifier key, cause the other palettes to respond automatically or when in a mouse-over event scroll up or float up the name of the layer already highlighted or modifier-floated on another palette. This would be very useful and user-friendly to avoid long, deep, error-prone scrolling.

It also should be possible to click a branch and paste a clone, with an auto-append letter or number that does not ever throw the error "duplicate layer exists", since that only leaves the user the one annoying respons: OK, or escape, with no way to correct the name without losing the scroll/right-click/create effort.

Also, once and for all, there needs to be an ability to decisively move or transpose layers, whether or not they are in the same branch. To my mind, all that needs to be done is a freeze in progress, rename the affected elements, do some house cleaning, and, if necessary, throw away a number of undo history elements, and then force a mandattory save-as so the changes do not wreck the original file, but then there also should be a forced save-as before entering this step. And, at least dump them to a log so the user can interactively backstep through an associated intermediately-saved file.

Also, in the case of very deep layering, it should be possible for the user to have a columnar check box area to select stuff to be dealt with in a task or session. This is similar to just grabbing selections in the model and then keystroking "Show Only", and then doing "Unhide" to grab omitted items. But sometimes, more control might be had from selecting from the layers themselves -- I think.

Alternatively, a control key assignment could pop up a blank "Task Palette" allowing the user to drag and drop at will any layers to be worked on, then, the original layers could drop out or fade out of view without new intervention. So, dragging layer names from the Select Mask, Concept Explorer, or Inspector would populate a new task layer that combines in one place the major items the user pre-selects to be shown.

Also, NOW is the time to make stretchable the Inspector. Some layers have names that are long and similar for the length visible, forcing me to go into the CE to prepend some symbol just to convince myself that the layer I am clicking on is not a twin-named, but different-branched layer. THIS is what spawned my ideas for the paragraphs above. There is no convincing reason why the Inspector is not stretchable when the CD and SM are.

And, on the uppermost information bar, alongside the geometry name, say "Mesh_19391052", there should be the full, readable layer name. This, also, reduces ambiguity when dealing with many layers having clones. It is a lot of effort to rename hundreds of layers just to deal with dis-ambiguifiying things. If they are my own drawings, I can take some of the blame. But, if the drawings or layer structure are provided, changing the names may not be permitted or wise, especially if collaboration work is going on.

If it helps developers to visualize what is in my mind, imagine the schema tools for databases. Imagine joining tables in order to reduce sets of downstream options. The more layers or branches clicked, and depending on what tool bars are snapped or linked together, the fewer layers that can be interacted with. This is virtually like the Select Mask, except some new tricks can be introduced if innovatively tuned to exploit the Inspector, CE, and SM.

Along with the upper information bar, if material properties have been assigned to solids, then the info bar could display a running summary, invoked by a key strok, or show the totals for all items highlighed either at the geometry or the layer level. Better yet, a whole, separate paletted displaying area, mass, volume, materials, and resident layers would be nice. Just make a widget that collects this from what likely is already in memory.

Just some ideas I hope are likeable.