Layers

Every tab starts with a single layer, and for many diagrams that's all you need. When a tab grows busy (a background grid, the main content, a pass of review notes), layers let you split it into named bands you can hide, lock, dim, and restack independently, just like an image editor. Layers are saved with the tab and sync live, so everyone sees the same stack.

Opening the panel

Open the panel with the Layers button next to the zoom controls (bottom-right). It floats like the other panels: drag it to any corner (panel docking), tune it from its gear menu, and collapse it back into its button when you're done. On a phone, or in the minimal panel layout, Layers lives in the compact dock row at the top-right instead, and opens as a popover.

Reading the panel

Each row is one layer, top of the stack first, and shows:

• an eye to hide or show the layer,
• a mini preview of just that layer's elements, framed against the whole tab so you can see where its content sits,
• the layer's name (double-click to rename it inline), with a padlock mark when the layer is locked and an "Empty" tag when nothing lives on it,
• an ellipsis opening the layer's menu.

Click a row to make that layer active, and rest the pointer on one for a moment to temporarily see only that layer on the canvas (more on the hover preview). The footer holds Merge Up and Merge Down on the left, Add and Delete on the right; a new layer lands directly above the active one and becomes active itself.

Right-click a row (or click its ellipsis) for the full menu, which opens beside the panel: rename and delete up top, then Layer (an opacity slider, Bring to Top, Send to Back, and Hide Others), Content (lock and clear), and Merge.

The active layer

Exactly one layer is always active, and everything you add lands on it: palette shapes, text, arrows, pastes, imports, AI-built elements. While the active layer is hidden or locked, adding is paused (a notice explains why) so you never create something you can't immediately see or touch.

Which layer is active is yours alone; a collaborator can work on a different layer of the same tab at the same time.

Stacking, front, and back

Layers are stacking bands: everything on a higher layer paints above everything on a lower one. Bring to Front and Send to Back on elements work through layers too: the selection moves onto the top (or bottom) layer, creating a fresh one if that layer holds anything else, and a layer those buttons empty out is cleaned up automatically. To place elements deliberately, use the Move to layer tiles in the right-click menu's Layer category; each tile carries a live preview of its layer.

For restacking layers themselves, moving elements between layers, merging, clearing, deleting, and the smart auto-naming that names a fresh layer after the first label you type onto it, see Organising and Merging Layers.

Hiding, locking, and dimming

The eye hides a layer everywhere, including exports and embeds; the lock makes a layer's elements read-only; the opacity slider dims a whole layer; Hide Others solos one layer in a click. All of it is covered in depth in Hiding, Locking, and Dimming Layers.

Layers and exports

Exports match what you see: hidden layers are left out of PNG, SVG, PDF, and Mermaid exports, and out of shared thumbnails, while layer opacity carries through. If you want hidden layers included in an image export anyway, the export options screen offers a Hidden layers toggle whenever at least one layer is hidden.