Is it possible to change the layer or order a canvas appears in the PD environment?
In graphic software this might be referred to as 'send to back', 'send to front' etc, or the idea of layers.

I want to use different coloured canvases to section off different areas of the patch that do different things, so its easier to see.

I've written most of the patch already, but if I create a new canvas, it appears infront of objects and behind connectors, which is very strange.

I can only get objects to appear ontop of the canvas if I insert them after the canvas has been drawn. This, of course, would mean I would have to re-insert ALL the objects, and theres lots.

I have considered separating different parts of the patch into subpatches, but a) I have a large screen and like to see the big picture and I will be exhibiting the patch in operation so it would be nice for poeple to see the whole thing. Indeed, I have used subpatches for small elements of the overall patch, but not just to organise how it looks.

Apologies if this has been asked before, I searched and couldnt find anything.

Hi Scape.

Here's a quick amateur solution.

What I did when I ran up against this was, (i) select concerned objects, (ii) cut, (iii) create canvas, and then, (iv) paste goodies back on top.

I hope that's useful.

Keep well ~ Shankar

Excellent!
That is a very hacky way of doing it, is there a 'wishlist' for the next version of PD?

Doesn't seem to work for text3d objects unfortunately... anyone know a workaround?

text3d objects? like in GEM?

[gemhead 1] , [gemhead 2],,,,etc sets the rendering order.

Ah I did have the numbering but I had a trigger object connected wrongly to my gemhead. Tnx!

Better solution I've just founded when you can't cut because of many cords :

• Close your patch from pure data

• Open the patch.pd with a text editor like notepad ++

• Find the line where your canvas is defined
  should look like it : #X obj 154 346 cnv 15 500 100 empty empty mon_petit_canvas 20 12 0

• Cut this line and past it after the first line of the text file.

• Save and Close in text editor

Voilà !

Or to bring object(s) to front:

1. select object(s)
2. cut
3. undo

This will not damage existing connections.

P.S. sending an object to back == bringing all other objects to front.

If you are on Linux and are willing to give Pd-l2Ork a shot, then you can bring objects to the front/back via Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down (or via the menu).

Cheers!
Gilberto