tool operates on standard blender layers, except for freeze and render on/off which operate on objects of corresponding layer. layer names and index of layer selected in item list are stored as a custom scene properties (just in case ;)).
initialize layer manager -> deletes all names, shows only occupied layers, unfreezes all, enables rendering of all, sets first layer visible regardless if it contains objects or not and names it ‘Default’ or, when run for the first time, builds a collection with the same attributes.
tools in item list (from left):
- show layer (visible when on)
- freeze layer (frozen when on)
- restrict render (allow when on)
tools under the list (from left):
- select all objects in layer (deselect all other)
- select from layer by name (see image below)
- move to layer
- show all layers that contain objects (hide empty)
- unfreeze all layers
- allow rendering of all layers
known limitations:
- freeze and allow render operations performed on individual objects are not reflected by the tools in the item list. toggle the tool that is out of sync once, to reflect again the global state of all objects in affected layer (you override the individual changes by global layer state)
- move to layer sets all selected objects so that they belong to only one layer
known bug: loading factory settings then enabling bmax tools addon and running “initialize layer manager” without restarting blender causes the script to crash
Uninitialized layer manager
Initialized layer manager 
Select from layer by name
enjoy 
Note: This tool was for obvious reasons (collections) not migrated into BMax Tools 3.0