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Layers

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 3:19 am
by Frank
Nick et al,

I very much like the idea of layers and being able to separate different branches of my tree both to work on and to view. I also greatly appreciate the faster closing of the program.

If I want to view ancestors of a person on one layer and later the descendants of one of that person's ancestor on another layer, I seem to have problems with the families that are in common on the ancestor layer and on the descendant layer. In other words, I must choose which layer a family is on as it appears I cannot have a family on more than one layer.

I appreciate it is not difficult to move a family from one layer to another but as the numbers and complexity increase, it would be useful not to do so.

That would be on my wish list, to have families on more than one layer. Nick, I am afraid you have spoiled us with layers

Layers

Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 5:55 am
by jhunt02
I would like this feature too. There are some families on my tree that I'd like to have on several different layers.

I suppose a join table similar to Links will be needed for this. This may make it a bit tricky to manage imports where the families in the source database are on multiple layers, and where there are multiple layers in the target database.

Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:53 pm
by laschapas
Hi all

The new layers feature seemed to be a good idea in theory, but it has created questions as to how best to use it. As far as I can see every family has only one link to one layer, therefore cannot be on two layers. You can only select one layer or all layers. In an ideal world you would be able to select multiple layers. If you separate children from parents on different layers this creates problems.

Here is how I use layers. I have nine layers. Each grandparent and all connected families are on a separate layer, 4 layers so far. All the families which are possibly linked to each grandparent, but as yet have no proven link, are grouped onto four more layers. I then have a layer for the descendants of these four grandparents, ie. parents, aunts, uncles, & cousins. I have turned on the option "Display marriage year in family rectangles" I also have turned on "snap to grid" with a grid spacing of 180 pixels on 1680x1050 22inch screen. I have positioned my 822 families so that all marriages in a decade are on the same horizontal level. Go up one level you go back ten years. If I zoom out to 8% the selected layer stands out from the other families. I can work on all the people connected to one grandparent. Ideally I would like to have the option to select a grandparent layer and the possible linked to grandparent layer at the same time, but I can't. Maybe my use of the layers feature is compromised by its limitations, I would be interested in what other people think.

John Wood

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:41 am
by donne
I find no logic in the idea of layers applied to a genealogical chart. Essentially it seems to have just two dimensions to my mind. I would be interested in the thoughts of others, but I have only used layers to highlight a temporary selection of families while working on them. For example, using 'select descendents of' to create a selection and then transferring that selection to a 'layer' allows the temporary layer to be selected and highlighted.

Layers

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 5:12 am
by jhunt02
I like to organize my ancestors into 'clans' (each one centered around one or two family names) using layers. I've also used layers to group families by geographic origin. They make it easier for me to work with groups of people who, in my mind, somehow 'belong together'.

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:20 pm
by donne
I think the idea of 'clans' or groups of families is much more in line with what layers actually does and may be better named as such. One of the problem I have met in working with these 'layers/groups' is that they have definite edges. Thus if you select a child in a family on the edge of a layer/group, KKPro will tell you that any marriage of that child is in layer xyz but doesn't allow the family window of the child's marriage to be opened as it would if no layer was selected. To get to it, it seems necessary to open layer manager and select the appropriate layer, all the while remembering the name of the layer and the individual concerned since in order to open layer manager you seem to have to close all open family data windows. It would be quite useful if the option was presented for moving automatically to the xyz layer so that a descendency could be traced through layers without interruption.

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:10 am
by laschapas
The edit family icon does not allow you to select a family that is on another layer than the one opened. You can however use the search facility to select and edit these families. So it cannot be accessing the data that is the problem, it must be down to how the program tries to access the data. Tools -> Remove duplicates automatically resets layer selection to all layers.

I find the main advantage of layers to be visual. When zooming out of the tree area you get a view of how the selected families fit into the overall scheme.

I like the idea of automatically switching layers when you reach a person linked to families on two separate layers.

John Wood