I went into layers and tried to turn a layer off by picking the hide layer bottom, but it doesn't seem to work. I'm I doing something wrong or does it work?
By "turning a layer off" you actually mean making it invisible and hiding all the objects it contains. If there were no objects in that layer or its objects where present but not on the baseboard or baseboards in front of you then you would see no change.
As a test:-
open the layers tab
select a layer (click on its name to highlight the name)
make sure that it is visible (eye symbol is open, not closed) and unlocked (the padlock symbol is open, not closed)
use the objects tab and add a few scenery items (e.g. trees)
