Inconsistent video layering

[optiphonic]

Hey all

I've noticed this issue brought up in other places, but the answer seems to be that's intended behaviour.

I'm talking about how, if you select a layer by name somewhere, the name will change if you change the layer.

Because there is a name there, it implies that it is the name that you are selecting.

I understand that this is how it works under the hood, but I don't think that makes sense for all user perspectives.

In my mind, each layer is its own entity. For complex compositions, I'll use groups etc, and the index of that specific layer over the whole composition is not a piece of information I think about.

I think that an effective solution would be to add an option in the system level settings that makes layer selections ignore the ordering. If you want to go all out, this setting could be on each level selection property.

I think this could be implemented by having layer selection properties use some kind of uuid to reference layers. Something that will uniquely reference that layer and will be consistent across order and naming.

Thanks

[Menno]

It is intended behaviour, but you can modify it to your liking. The system works by replacing the # sign that's part of the name.
If you have trouble recognizing the layers you can rename them and leave out the #. Then there's nothing to replace and thus no automatically changing numbers. You can also give the layers colours if you wish.

[optiphonic]

Hey Menno, thanks for your reply.

Removing the # in a name and only having my text still causes my issue.

For example, here is my file before inserting a new layer:

As you can see, I have selected 'My layer' as the input for the Video Router.

This is what happens when I insert a layer below 'My layer'

You can see that the input has changed. This is unintended behaviour and not within my power to modify, as far as I'm aware.

My request would be to be able to reference a layer uniquely, instead of by its index.

Thanks for your time

[Menno]

Oooh is that what you ment yeah ok i get it now. I thought you ment select the layer for example to get it to show in the layer panel and then if you drag it around the number updates automatically.

Yeah that looks logical that you might want that when selecting it in a router somewhere so +1 from me.