When building complex interactive scenes, you often need to organize shapes in a way that makes transformations and management easier. In Konva.js, groups and layers are essential tools for this purpose. A group lets you collect multiple shapes together so you can move, scale, or rotate them as a single unit. For instance, if you have a rectangle and a circle that belong together, grouping them means you can drag both at once or apply a transformation to the entire set. Groups can even contain other groups, allowing you to build a hierarchy of elements for advanced scene management.

Layers, on the other hand, are used to separate different parts of your canvas. Each layer can hold any number of shapes or groups, and you can show or hide entire layers for effects like toggling visibility or isolating content. This is especially useful in applications where you want to manage background, drawing, and UI overlays separately.

When you apply a transformation—such as translation, scaling, or rotation—to a group, all its child shapes are affected in unison. This hierarchical approach makes it much easier to manage scenes with many related objects. You can also nest groups within groups, creating a tree-like structure for even more control. With layers, you can order content, control visibility, and optimize redraws, as each layer can be drawn independently.

Grouping and layering are fundamental for building whiteboard or diagram editors, as they allow you to structure your scene logically and interactively. By mastering these features, you can create highly organized, flexible, and user-friendly canvas applications.