Carlos, I still think that your brain must be an amazing place in which to live. Peter ... View more

First, yes, I'm talking about a mask for each layer. If I understood you correctly about your locking/unlocking needs, I don't see a way around it. The keyboard commands lock/unlock objects, groups, etc., but not layers; unfortunately Illy treats sublayers as objects. If you select a layer and apply the keyboard command, the objects in the layer are locked, but not the layer. that has to be done by clicking the lock box in the Layers panel, as does unlocking the layer. So, I thought I had a solution for you, but unfortunately not. If you come up with one, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks, Peter ... View more

I beg your pardon. The topmost object in the layer becomes the layer clipping mask when the layer is highlighted and the button is clicked. The object does not have to be selected, but the layer must be highlighted. The masking object must be in the layer it is to mask. ... View more

You lost me on "objects being "grouped" and pushed to one layer": nothing is grouped, nothing is pushed. All it does is visually clip objects on the layer (or sub-layer. Everything is just as editable as it was before applying the layer. Locking-unlocking is a separate issue, is it not? Oh, wait: Adding a clipping mask to objects groups them and puts them on one layer, but that's not the process I described. Don't select objects to be masked in addition to the masking object: highlight the layer in the Layers panel and click the Make/Release Clipping Mask button at the bottom of the panel, dont go to Object>Clipping Mask>Make. ... View more

Make a mask for each layer: an artboard-size rectangle aligned to the artboard. With it selected, select the layer in the Layers panel and click on the Make/Release Clipping Mask button at the bottom of the panel. You can lock it in place, you can turn its functioning on and off in the Layers panel, and it shouldn't "mess up easy layer configuration and editing" (not quite sure what that means). Yes, you are still creating a clipping mask, but it's applied to the layer rather than the objects or groups. I agree that it would be really useful to have one-click access to this, but in the meantime… Peter ... View more

That's what I'm suggesting: that when you right-click and tell Illy to open it (or, in this case, place it) you get the dialog with profile options, so it opens as a .ai set up as you want it rather than having it open as a .jpg (or whatever) document with no swatches, styles, etc. ... View more

Feature request for Place In New Document, which brings up choice of profile? ... View more