This is something I’m not familiar with.
Coming from Adobe I’m all about layers. I downloaded a watch face for google wear and it also used layers.
But I just read on the help docs this site says to incorporate as much as I can into the background.
Is it true that using floating layers uses more resources?
For instance, right now I made separate layers for two different guages. would it be better to merge those with the background?
Normally I’ll collapse all layers in Photoshop that will never change into one layer and load that one layer into the Creator. If an object will change, move, or become invisible, (or get themed) then that will be a separate layer.
-John
OK good deal. i’ll follow that method.
Thank you
Man I sure wish we could group things. would make it so much easier to move items
Agreed. Adding a new object, then pushing it down 40 layers to the bottom of the Creator takes a few passes to get down there.
Yeah it’s a struggle. Sometimes send to back and bringing it up is quicker but still can be a pain. I think if you add a layer it should be inserted above the currently selected layer like Photoshop. That would be soooo nice. @Facer_Official 
[ off topic 
]
One thing I’ve been doing a lot of lately is creating “sections” for grouping layers visually.
Meaning, I’ll create a text layer, set it to 0 visibility and make the text “--------------”
For this watchface:
There’s a lot of stuff going on – the lower left quadrant has random signs, middle road has random events occur in its area, etc.
So, my layers look something like:
MIDDLE EVENT 1 - BIKES
MIDDLE EVENT 1 - POLICE
MIDDLE EVENT 1 - AMBULANCE
(Obviously the layers aren’t named as such, but it helps to name them in such a way to make it clear what belongs in what “group”
I’ll either create a new layer, send it to the back and manually drag it up so it’s higher and obvious it doesn’t belong in a section. IE: HEART RATE layer clearly wouldn’t belong in the MIDDLE EVENT area.
Similarly, I’ll duplicate a layer that’s close and rename it. So in this example, I’d duplicate LOWER LEFT and move it to the right of the watchface (so I can keep things on the same Y axis) and rename the layer LOWER RIGHT. I’d duplicate the “------------” layer twice and sandwich the new LOWER RIGHT layer with them.
It just makes it easier for myself when revisiting a design to see how I did something, or if people inspect the watchface
Anyways, sorry to derail 
My god i’d never be able to keep track of all of that.
Even if we could color code layers it would help.
That’s a really nice looking watch face and one heck of an interesting background. Nice job!
hmmm… thats a good idea. I use pre-text like:
BATT dial
BATT pointer
BATT tickmarks
BATT icon
I use a similar concept.
The background would be
BG - Black 0
BG - Blue 1
Etc.
Bezel
B - Black 0
Ticks
T - Black 0
Glow
G - green
Things like that.
For the interactive items I’ve been prefixing with
00-battery icon,
00-battery text,
00-battery,
01-xxx,
etc.
So … we need containers (and eventually re-use), and section breaks.
Exactly!
I’ll tell you one other thing I think would greatly assist in desiging.
LIBRARIES. If I upload a pic and want to use that same pic on another watch face I have to upload it again. Takes more space on the server and in the case of me, I would like to use several default files for things.
Lastly, along with libraries, if I upload a custom font face, that should be available for ALL faces. Fits in with the library, but I shouldn’t need to upload a custom font to every watch face I want to build!