Hi Brendon thanks for posting in the Lucid Community. Layers function a little differently in Lucidchart as they are typically used to add interactivity to your diagram (rather than just being a designing/planning tool). You can think of the page as your base layer or default view as it will show content on all visible (i.e. not hidden) layers.

As an alternative you might want to consider creating a Master Page with locked content as your template background. Please take a look at our Master Pages article for more information about that and feel free to let me know if you have any questions. 

I've tried the Master Page idea but it's also a clunky workflow. 

It just doesn't really make sense why I couldn't have my active layer on top or if I can't do that then I shouldn't have to double click into the layer like it's a group - I should be able to just click on the layer and edit it. It doesn't really make sense why the group and layer function essentially do the same thing. 

Hi Brendon thanks for giving that a try. I apologize for the limitation and we truly appreciate the feedback on this.

Layers in Lucidchart certainly can be used for styling purposes like you described but they are designed more for organization and interactivity in your diagram. For example you can add hotspot shapes to toggle the visibility of certain layers on and off. With that purpose in mind the Page layer would contain any elements of the document that you want to be permanently visible- and you would use layer visibility controls to show and hide content on layers stacked in front of the content on the Page layer.

It should also be possible to access a layer without double-clicking and change the order of your layers from the Layers panel.  You can access the Layers panel by selecting this icon in the toolbar below your canvas:

I recommend looking through our article on layers for more details on this.

With that said we're always looking to improve Lucidchart so we would love to hear your perspective on layers and Master Pages. Would you mind adding your thoughts to this feature request form? Our product development team uses this feedback to understand how we can make our product more useful and effective for users so submitting feedback here is the best way to promote a feature change you would like to see.