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i73
Inspiring
August 13, 2018
Question

Document `layersDescriptor` is null if only one layer exists

  • August 13, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 1585 views

I'm having long term bugs with having one layer in the Document:

ReadLayerDesc *readLayerDesc = gFilterRecord->documentInfo->layersDescriptor;

But this only happens when there's one image (Assuming the layer array is not initialized when there's only one layer present), even looking through the (FilterRecordPtr)`filterRecord` the only accessable data is the `documentInfo` property...

What's the solution to this to acquire a single layer from the descriptor with the filterRecord?

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

I
i73Author
Inspiring
August 13, 2018

Currently the only work around to this is for me to create a layer and just break out of my iteration of the `layersDescriptor` when it hit's the created layer.

I'm not a fan of hacks.

Tom Ruark
Tom Ruark
Inspiring
August 14, 2018

You probably have a background only document. Photoshop treats this kind of document special. In this case look at the targetCompositeChannels. We call it a simple document internally and as you have seen it reports NO layers. If you double click the "Background" text in the layers panel and give the layer a name you have now created a document with one layer. But that means no layers as you have one layer. So you need a document with more than one to get "layers" to have something besides NULL. Check out the PoorMans example and how it deals with this situation.

Recap:

Test with a "Background" only.

Test with a layer.

Test with a "Background and a layer.

Test with multiple layers.

I
i73Author
Inspiring
August 16, 2018

Thanks for the reply Tom, just to confirm.

The PS document changes when there's only one layer in the scene? (I understand there's not a list / "Layers" of them, it's just a little bit backwards from a technical OOP standpoint to switch a vector / list out for a object when they both contain the same properties in the end)

None of the artists use background layers, and if one is found I remove it in the automation process, since the background layer contain different properties than a layer.

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