Selection disappears when made floating

[samalfredsson]

Hello,

I'm trying to save different selections of an image to separate layers, so that they can be edited independently. This worked fine before, but for some reason my usual process stopped working. What I did before was:

1. Make a selection in the original image
2. Make the selection floating (Right click-->Selection-->Floating)
3. Create new layer from the floating layer (Right click on floating layer-->To new layer)
4. When I wanted to edit the selection, I select the considered layer and Right click-->Alfa layer to selection

When I try to do this now, the selection disappears when I make the selection floating in step number two, and I'm not able to use the alfa to selection option in the new layer.

Any ideas why this is happening? If I create a new image it works fine. I've also tried removing a bunch of much layers but no success.

Many thanks in advance for some clarification on this!

[rich2005]

Probably a bigsur selection 'crawling ants' or similar issue. as this bug report https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/5952

Quite a few complaints about this as: https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-is-big...ue-rsolved

Not much you can do at the moment.

[samalfredsson]

Not sure if this is the case. It has worked before and also, it works if I create a new image, it's only in the particular image I'm working on that I have the issue.

And I don't have Big Sur, running Catalina.

[Ofnuts]

What is the "selection" that disappears? The "Floating selection" layer? The marching ants? If the latter did you check the visibility of the selection (View ➤ Show selection, or the quickmask, or the selection editor). Screenshots could help...

[Krikor]

(07-05-2021, 07:11 PM)samalfredsson Wrote: Hello,

I'm trying to save different selections of an image to separate layers, so that they can be edited independently. This worked fine before, but for some reason my usual process stopped working. What I did before was:

1. Make a selection in the original image
2. Make the selection floating (Right click-->Selection-->Floating)
3. Create new layer from the floating layer (Right click on floating layer-->To new layer)
4. When I wanted to edit the selection, I select the considered layer and Right click-->Alfa layer to selection

When I try to do this now, the selection disappears when I make the selection floating in step number two, and I'm not able to use the alfa to selection option in the new layer.

Any ideas why this is happening? If I create a new image it works fine. I've also tried removing a bunch of much layers but no success.

Many thanks in advance for some clarification on this!

I would suggest another approach:
Make the selection;
1 - Edit - Copy;
2 - Edit - Past as - New Layer In Place

You can use the new alpha layer for selection.

[PixLab]

Why don't you use "selection to path"? once your have a selection go to the path tab and click "Selection to Path" icon  (red arrow)
Then when you need your selection, just click on the icon "path to selection" in the path tab (blue arrow), you don't need to put the eye on to see the path, just select the path you want and "Path to selection"

Advantages , you can get back to your selection when you want on ANY layer as it is saved as a path, no need to use alpha to selection especially when you have something else on that layer, many different selections can be saved and recovered as you wish, but most important, is because now your selection is a path, you can move/add some nodes, adjust a path's curve with control points and so ... then "Path to selection"

   

[rich2005]

Quote:1. Make a selection in the original image
2. Make the selection floating (Right click-->Selection-->Floating)
3. Create new layer from the floating layer (Right click on floating layer-->To new layer)
and
it's only in the particular image I'm working on that I have the issue.

The only way I can replicate that is when there is an existing (tiny) selection and the select tool is in subtract mode.

Check in the selection tool mode options...but there is an indicator next to the selection tool cursor.

[samalfredsson]

Thanks for all the answers and sorry for not be able to describe the issue that well! The main issue is that the selection (marching ants) disappears when I make the selection floating, however a floating layer is still created but if I use that to create a new layer and then use "Alfa to selection" I only get a rectangular selection around the area of my original selection. This was not the case previously, then I got my original selection back.

Thanks for the proposal to use paths for this, sound like that might be a better solution!

[Ofnuts]

(07-06-2021, 01:57 PM)samalfredsson Wrote: Thanks for all the answers and sorry for not be able to describe the issue that well! The main issue is that the selection (marching ants) disappears when I make the selection floating, however a floating layer is still created but if I use that to create a new layer and then use "Alfa to selection" I only get a I only get a rectangular selection around the area of my original selection. This was not the case previously, then I got my original selection back.

Thanks for the proposal to use paths for this, sound like that might be a better solution!

Hmm. If I select then copy/paste:

• After I paste, I have  a "floating selection" layer, but I still have the marching ants
  
• If I do Layer ➤ To new layer to convert the floating selection to a normal layer, the selection is indeed removed, but I can do Layer ➤ Transparency ➤ Alpha to selection to recover it
  

Looks like your selection is just invisible, check View ➤ Show selection (Ctrl-T). And if its dashes are not moving, the "rectangular selection around the area of my original selection" is just the layer boundary (when you copy/paste, the layer created is just big enough to hold your selection;  in technical terms, it is the "bounding box" of the selection).

Also, you don't need to convert your selection to a path to save it (this is only correct if you have a sharp and anti-aliased selection, and if you are not too worried by a slight loss of accuracy). The always correct and completely accurate way to save a selection is to use Select ➤ Save to channel. To restore your selection, open the Channels list, right click the saved selection, and Channel to Selection. See here for more details.