Workflow tips for working with tilemaps and layers

Hi, I've been fighting with tilemaps for a while and I'm having trouble getting used to it after moving from a different game engine. I kinda understand works in theory, but I find myself constantly clicking the wrong thing and unable to get into an intuitive creative workflow. Please share your tips, and let me know if I have something completely wrong.

When tilemaps are on different layers and I want to switch from one to the other, Is this how you’re supposed to do it?:

1. Make sure any layer with a tilemap above the layer I want to work on is locked so I don’t click on the wrong tilemap object in step 3

2. Click the layer I want to work on

3. Click the tilemap object in the layout

4. Click the drawing tool

5. Click the tile I want to draw

6. Draw tiles

Am I missing something or is this the intended workflow? So many clicks.

More questions:

- When I drag a tilemap from the Project bar into the layout, it copies the tiles I’ve drawn from another instance of that tilemap, then I have to erase all those tiles. Why doesn’t it give me a blank instance of that tilemap to start from scratch? Is this normal?

- Can I lock a tilemap’s position ONLY so I don’t accidentally drag the entire environment around when I misclick a smaller object?

- Is it helpful to work with multiple overlapping tilemaps on the same layer? I thought trying that might save a few clicks but I can’t even select the tilemaps without locking tilemaps that are higher in the Z order, so essentially the same issue as before.

Thank you SO much for any advice.

Am I missing something or is this the intended workflow? So many clicks.

Yeah, it's not ideal.

You can select any of the overlapping objects under the mouse cursor by holding the Tab key. Once you select the correct tilemap, you can start editing tiles - it will remain selected, so you don't need to lock the layer.

When I drag a tilemap from the Project bar into the layout, it copies the tiles I’ve drawn from another instance of that tilemap,

That's how objects in Construct work - new instances inherit properties from the first "default" instance. This also applies to instances created at runtime.

A common practice is to use a separate "Repository" layout for default instances, where you can configure them properly and not worry about changing them by accident.

Can I lock a tilemap’s position ONLY

I'm not sure this is possible.

dop2000 You are awesome - that definitely cleared some things up for me. I really, really appreciate it!