Exclude objects from View Layers

PROPOSAL: Allow objects to be excluded from view layers (the same option that exists for collections).

Currently in Blender, layering is not practical. Indeed, the only way to exclude an object (mesh, curve, surface, volume, etc.) is by using collections. Collections are the only datablocks that have the ability to be excluded from a view layer, which gives us the ability to organize our layers. However, this approach is not practical.

In certain cases, we might want to exclude just one object, or sometimes multiple objects. In such scenarios, the only solution is to “group” these objects into a collection in order to exclude them, or to create a collection for each individual object to have complete control over all the objects. As you can imagine, this is far from practical, especially in projects with a multitude of elements.

It is true that collections can be instantiated, which facilitates layering. However, since collection instances are, by definition, empties (and therefore objects), they also cannot be excluded from a view layer… UNLESS… they are placed in a collection. As you can see, it’s a vicious cycle.