Drawboard Projects: Layers

On the Web application and iOS application, teams can add, mark up on and share multiple markup layers on drawings and documents.

Teams can create, name and manage layers in various ways defined by their specific needs and workflows. Layers can be used to separate workstreams or teams that are marking up the same drawing, they can be used to create and compare design variations, to flag markups that are ready for implementation plus more. 

Team, Growth and Enterprise plan users have access to create and manage multiple Public layers. Public layers are viewable to everyone in the team.

In addition to Public layers, Growth and Enterprise plan users have access to multiple Private layers. With Private markup layers, users can customize layer visibility to ensure that aspects of projects are visible only to the collaborators who need to see them. 

In this article, we’ll show you:

• The difference between General, Personal, Public and Private layers in Drawboard Projects
• How to add new Private and Public layers
• How to show and hide layers
• How to use Focus mode to spotlight markups on a selected layer
• How to adjust the opacity of PDF content to make annotations more prominent on-page

Layers in Drawboard Projects

General layer

Every drawing and document has one General layer. The General layer is a public layer that is visible to every user on a drawing or document. Markups made on the General layer are visible to all users.

Personal layer

Every drawing and document has a Personal layer. Your personal layer is a layer visible only to you. Users can utilize the personal layer to make markups that they don’t want seen by other users. For example: users may choose to make draft markups on their Personal layer and then move them to a shared Private layer or Public layer when ready for review or implementation.

Public layers

Public layers are visible to every user on a drawing or document. Admins can create and name Public layers. They can also make Public layers private by tapping the 3 dots on the selected layer and then selecting Layer settings.

Private layers

Private layers are visible only to specific users. All users on Growth and Enterprise plans can create Private markup layers. When a user creates a Private markup layer, they can invite one or more users to access to the layer.

Creating new layers

Add a new Public layer

Note: Only admins can create new Public layers

From the canvas of any drawing or document:

1. Select the Layers icon in the left-hand-side menu to open the Layers panel
2. Tap Add layer
3. Name the layer
4. Tap Done.

All users will be able to see and mark up on the layer.

Add a new Private layer

Note: The ability to add Private layers is available on Growth and Enterprise plans.

From the canvas of any drawing or document:

1. Select the Layers icon in the left-hand-side menu to open the Layers panel
2. Tap Add layer
3. Name the layer
4. Toggle Make this a private layer on
5. Select the users (if any) you would like the layer made visible to

Users that have been invited to the layer will be able to see and mark up on the layer.

Moving markups from one layer to another

Users may wish to change the layer that a markup or set of markups appears on. For instance, some teams may wish to create draft markups on a Private or Personal layer and then 'push' the markups to a Public layer when ready for implementation.

To change the layer that a markup or set of markups appears on:

1. Select the markup/s you want to move to a different layer. Once selected, a menu will appear at the bottom of the canvas
2. Tap the Layer icon to change layer
3. Select the layer you want the markup/s to appear on

The markup/s will now appear on the selected layer.

Note: users can only move markups that have been created by them.

Hiding/showing layers

To hide a layer, from the Layers panel tap the eye icon on the layer that you would like to hide.

To hide all layers, tap the eye icon at the top of the layers panel. Tapping this eye icon once will hide all layers except for the one you have selected. Tap it again to hide all layers (including your selected layer).

When a layer is hidden, the eye icon will disappear from the layer.

To show a layer that is hidden, tap the empty box on the layer. The eye icon will appear and all markups on that layer will become visible. 

Using Focus mode

Focus on the markups you need to review or work on with Focus mode. Focus mode dims all other markups aside from those on your selected layer.

To switch Focus mode on, tap the Focus mode toggle at the top of the Layers panel.

Customize the opacity of dimmed markups on Focus mode

To increase and decrease the opacity of dimmed markups, adjust the Focus Level slider. On the Web application, you can access the Focus level slider at the bottom of the Layers panel. On the iOS application, tap the opacity icon next to the Focus mode toggle.

Adjusting PDF content opacity 

Users can reduce the opacity of PDF content to make annotations more prominent on-page.

To decrease the opacity of PDF content, tap the opacity icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and then slide the opacity slide to the left to reduce opacity and to the right to increase opacity.

On the Web application, users have the option to include and exclude specific markup layers in their exports. To learn about exports, check out our support article.