Grouping groups basic question

[RafaCruz]

Hi!

I have a basic question. I created a new layer and dropped all the groups inside and named it "ilustración". 
When I use the align tool, all the elements move independently and no as whole group, which is what I want.
When I group together (control + G) all groups that I have named beforehand, what I get is a new group that contains all the layers from all the preveious groups, while said groups remain empty outside the new group. Now the align tool works how I wanted but the structure inside the new grouo is chaos.
Is there a way to group groups keeping the structure and names intact?

Thanks a lot for your help!!!

[Doug A Roberts]

You want 'ilustración' to be a group, rather than a sublayer.

Open up 'Layer 12' and your structure will still be there. Rename 'Layer 12' to 'ilustración', drag it out of the top level 'ilustración' and delete the now-empty layer.

[RafaCruz]

Hi Doug,

Thanks a lot for your answer. I did what you suggested but it did no work. I think it is becuase I did not explained myself clearly. Here is what I did:

I had a lot of grups with names, I created a new layer (ilustratación) and I dragged all the groups inside. I did not use "Control + G". If I use "Control + G" the groups desappear.

In this picture you see the structure after I dragged all the groups into the new layer. You can see Layer 12, 13, 14 and Barrera 3.

Here you can see what happens when I use "Control + G". If I rename Layer 12 to "Ilustración" and drag it out, I still dont have the structure with the groups and its names.

It is kind of tricky.

Thanks a lot for your help!!!

[Doug A Roberts]

You seem to be using groups and sublayers interchangeably. Sublayers are just organisational folders; they don't affect how objects behave.  This is what I think you want to do:

1. Create groups from each named sublayer. Rename them to match the former sublayer.

2. Group all the new groups into a group called 'ilustración'.

I don't know of a way to do this automatically without creating/renaming each individual group.

[RafaCruz]

Hi Doug,

Thanks a lot, that is exactly what I ended up doing and it worked :). Thanks a lot for your help!

[Kurt Gold]

If the main purpose is to align ungrouped selections to artboards as if they were groups, I'd recommend to try the script PositionOnArtboard by Sergey Anosov. It has a very useful option to move (align) selections like groups without actually grouping them and therefore retaining the actual layer integrity.

Position On Artboard