Cannot view cloned layer solo?

[Steve5D7C]

Maybe I'm missing something, but there seems to be no way to view a cloned paint layer on its own. If I have just two layers, one a source layer and another a paint layer that is cloning the source, if I turn off the source layer's visibility the cloned layer disappears as well.

Obviously this is not ideal -- at all -- for workflow. It should be possible to view ONLY what's on the cloned layer to look for issues. Is there some way to do this?

If not, this is another strange, unintuitive Substance behavior.

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Hello Steve,

This is an interesting question and I can get the frustration.

You're perfectly correct, when the source layer is disabled, the clone layer will disappear as well, but this is a normal behaviour.

When you create a new layer, set it to Pass trough and paint with the Clone Tool, this is a non-destructive workflow, meaning that if the source layer is changing, the clone layer will adapt.

So, when the source layer is hidden, the clone layer has nothing to adapt to, therefore nothing to show. This is how the Pass trough works, it flattens the stack from below and applies what's on the layer.

With that being said, I still get how frustrating it can be depending on your workflow, but this is unfortunately the logical consequence of the structure of the Clone Tool, and I personally think it also brings some cool possibilities.

Have a nice day.

[Steve5D7C]

I would think it would be obvious that artists would want this, and whether or not there is a "logical" explanation is beside the point. There should be a way to solo ANY LAYER in order to see what its contribution is to the final material, period. I simply don't accept that this isn't possible from a technical perspective either -- I'm used to working with 3D renderers and the ability to pass almost limitless data types into buffers with primary and secondary rays turned on or off at will. You're telling me there's no way to simply get your software to hide the pixels on one layer whilst keeping the pixels in the layer above it visible? Maybe you need better software engineers?

[Léna Piquet - Froyok · Accepted solution]

Hi,

There is no need to be agressive or condescending about it. So please be a bit more respectful or everybody interacting here (and not just us at Adobe).

As for your question, we had people resquest that feature a few times already and it's in our backlog. We simply haven't implemented it yet. It currently has a low priority. 

It is not as simple as it seems,  as there are several considerations to have regarding the way our layer system and engine currently work which means this feature would take a bit of time to implement. We know some artists would greatly benefit from it, but right now our focus is on other tasks. 

Regards,

Léna Piquet (Froyok) | Senior Product Manager

[Steve5D7C]

I tend to get condescending with people who waste my time with platitudinous responses or dumb questions about what I have and haven't tried, or whose idea of help is stating the blatantly obvious. This just creates noise whilst giving the illusion that they are somehow "helping". Thank you for the only useful response in this thread. I hope to see this implemented as quickly as possible.

[Steve5D7C]

This is a completely pointless, redundant post. It's already been confirmed above that this is a functionality. Also, maybe assume that other people aren't idiots?