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Design Sketch Basics Sketch Features Selecting, Moving, and Resizing Layers

Have I made a mistake if my duplicated rectangle 1 layer is named "Rectangle 1 copy" instead of Rectangle 2?

I doubt that I have done differently than shown in the video, but just want to double check.

5 Answers

Christopher Downer
STAFF
Christopher Downer
Treehouse Guest Teacher

Nope, you haven't done anything wrong at all.

In Sketch 3.2.2 (the latest version at the time of writing), there's an option in the Preferences, under the "Layers" tab with a checkbox saying "Rename Duplicated Layers". Uncheck that if you don't want 'Copy' added to the end of your new layers.

Layers will add a number on as a suffix if they are drawn, rather than duplicated (ie, I draw a rectangle, and that's called "Rectangle 1", and I draw another whose name will be "Rectangle 2". If I duplicated that, it'll be "Rectangle 2 Copy")

Thanks Chris!

Francesco Belvedere
Francesco Belvedere
15,206 Points

An easy way to do this in Sketch is to just hit COMMAND + D to duplicate the layer and then immediately hit COMMAND + R to rename that layer. If you dont do it right away you can easily end up with a mess of unorganized layers making it much harder to work wit your document.

FB //

Traci McGrew
Traci McGrew
2,559 Points

Is there a setting so that Sketch names the layers consecutively for you? It looked like in the video after Chris duplicated the layer it named it "rectangle 2" for him. When I duplicated the layer "rectangle 1" I also got "rectangle 1 copy" instead like the original poster. Which of course I can rename on my own to "rectangle 2" or whatever I want but it looked like in the video it did it for him. I also tried unchecking the setting Chris mentioned in his comment on this thread. All that did was keep it the same name- meaning "rectangle 2" when copied just got me another layer with the same name "rectangle 2" thereby 2 layers with the same name. Just wondered how in the video he got them to consecutively name the layers for him upon duplication. Or maybe that was a previous version of Sketch? As of this moment I am using version 3.3.2

Christopher Downer
Christopher Downer
Treehouse Guest Teacher

Fear not, you've not done anything wrong! This was the behaviour in Sketch at the time of recording, but the way Sketch names duplicated layers changed in version 3.3.2.

To give some background on why that changed; it's because whenever a user added a number to the end of their layer, such as "iPhone 6" it would change to "iPhone 7" when duplicated, and that was deemed quite undesirable.

Francesco Belvedere
Francesco Belvedere
15,206 Points

Not sure of your entire question but from the sound of it — it wouldn't be a MISTAKE necessarily. When you automatically duplicate items in most software they just append a "copy" keyword to the end of the name. So you would end up with Rectangle 1 copy, then Rectangle 1 copy copy, and Rectangle 1 copy copy copy or something similar.

The point here sounds like you should ALWAYS rename your duplicated layers to avoid this and stay organized.

If that doesn't help could you post some more details around your question?

FB //

Traci McGrew
Traci McGrew
2,559 Points

Ah, yes, that would be undesirable... Wouldn't have thought of that. "iPhone 6 copy" that could be renamed would be much better. Thanks.