Illustrator

Isolate groups and sublayers

Isolation mode isolates groups or sublayers so that you can easily select and edit particular objects or parts of objects. When you use isolation mode, you don’t need to worry about what layer an object is on, nor do you need to manually lock or hide the objects you don’t want affected by your edits—Illustrator automatically locks all other objects so that only the objects in the isolated group are affected by the edits you make.

An isolated group or sublayer appears in full color, while the rest of the artwork appears dimmed. The isolation mode border appears across the top of the illustration window, separated by a line that is the color of the isolated group’s layer or the isolated sublayer. The isolated group’s or sublayer’s name and location (sometimes referred to as bread crumbs) appears in the isolation mode border.

Note: When you edit a symbol’s definition, the symbol appears in isolation mode. (See Edit or redefine a symbol.)
Isolating the pear sublayer

When isolation mode is active, the Layers panel displays only the artwork in the isolated sublayer or group. When you exit isolation mode, the other layers and groups reappear in the Layers panel.

Note: You cannot enter opacity mask editing mode from inside isolation mode, or vice versa.

For a video on using layers and isolation mode, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0041.

Isolate a group

 Do one of the following:

  • Double-click the group using the Selection tool.

  • Click the Isolate Selected Group button  in the Control panel.

  • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the group and choose Isolate Selected Group.

  • Select the group in the Layers panel and choose Enter Isolation Mode from the Layers panel menu.

Isolate a sublayer

 Select the sublayer in the Layers panel, and choose Enter Isolation Mode from the Layers panel menu.

You cannot isolate top level layers.

Exit isolation mode

 Do one of the following:

  • Click the Exit Isolation Mode button  or anywhere in the isolation mode bar.

  • Click the Exit Isolated Group button  in the Control panel.

  • Double-click outside of the isolated group.

  • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) and choose Exit Isolated Group.