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Organizing layers

A project with more than a handful of layers benefits from explicit organization. Layer order, visibility, and naming convention all affect what you see on the map and how easily you and your collaborators can navigate. For the click-by-click on visibility toggles and reordering, see Layers → How to toggle layer visibility and Layers → How to manage a layer.

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson you should be able to:

  • Use layer order to control draw order on the map
  • Use visibility to compare and present without affecting analysis
  • Apply naming conventions that scale past a handful of layers

Layer order = draw order​

The layer panel order is also the draw order on the map: layers higher in the panel render on top of layers below. This matters for:

  • Reference layers — CAD polylines (from .dwg), shapefile boundaries, contour vectors, and other context content imported as background layers. Should generally sit at the bottom so QD-visible features render over them.
  • Boundary or footprint layers — usually under feature layers, so labels and arcs from features stay readable
  • Markup or annotation layers — usually at or near the top, so callouts are not buried

The integrated raster base map always sits below every layer in the panel — it's managed via the base-map switcher, not as a layer. Layers in Siter are always vector.

Reordering does not change analysis behavior; it only changes what is on top.

Visibility is for what you see, not what runs​

Hiding a layer:

  • Removes it from the map view
  • Does not affect analysis — features on hidden QD-visible layers still produce arcs and violations

Use visibility for:

  • Comparing two configurations side-by-side ("with imagery" vs "without")
  • Cleaning the map for a screenshot or briefing without destroying data
  • Focusing on one part of a complex project while the rest stays out of the way

To exclude features from analysis without deleting them, move them to a background layer — visibility alone does not gate analysis.

Naming conventions that scale​

A project with five layers can name them ad hoc; a project with fifty cannot. Conventions that hold up:

  • Prefix by purpose — Imagery /, Magazines /, Operating /, IBD candidates /. The prefix sorts the layers into logical groups in any alphabetical sort.
  • Suffix with state — Magazines (DRAFT), Magazines (FINAL). Communicates working state to collaborators.
  • Avoid date-stamping — dates rot quickly. A layer named Magazines 2025-Q1 becomes confusing in 2026.

Pick a convention early and stick to it; renaming a hundred layers later is unpleasant.

info

A background layer will automatically append the suffix [BK] to the layer name

Try it​

In a project with several layers, drag an imagery layer to the bottom of the panel and a markup layer to the top. Confirm the map's draw order updates accordingly. Then hide a QD-visible layer with at least one PES and re-run analysis — the PES's arcs should still appear in the results panel even though they are invisible on the map.