Imagine a filing system that has only one category into which you put all your records. For only a handful of documents, such a filing system might work. However, as soon as you start to accumulate more documents, you would want to start separating them into meaningful categories, perhaps alphabetically or by their use, so you could find them more easily.
The same is true for drawings. If you have a simple drawing with only a few objects, you can get by without using layers. But as soon as your drawing gets the least bit complicated, you'll want to start sorting your objects into layers to keep track of what's what. Layers don't restrict you when you're editing objects such as blocks or groups, and you can set up layers so that you can easily identify which object belongs to which layer.
In this chapter, you'll learn how to create and use layers to keep your drawings organized. You'll learn how color can play an important role while you're working with layers, and you'll also learn how to include linetypes such as dashes and center lines through the use of layers.
In this chapter, you'll learn to do the following:
Organize information with layers
Control layer visibility
Keep track of blocks and layers
You can think of layers as overlays on which you keep various types of information (see Figure 5.1). In a floor plan of a building, for example, you want to keep the walls, ceiling, plumbing fixtures, wiring, and furniture separate so that you can display or plot them individually or combine them in different ways. It's also a good idea to keep notes and reference symbols, as well as the drawing's dimensions, on their own layers. As your drawing becomes more complex, you can turn the various layers on and off to allow easier display and modification.
For example, one of your consultants might need a plot of just the dimensions and walls, without all the other information; another consultant might need only a furniture layout. Using manual drafting, you would have to redraw your plan for each consultant or use overlay drafting techniques, which can be cumbersome. With AutoCAD, you can turn off the layers you don't need and plot a drawing containing only the required information. A carefully planned layering scheme helps you produce a document that combines the types of information needed in each case.
Using layers also lets you modify your drawings more easily. For example, suppose you have an architectural drawing with separate layers for the walls, the ceiling plan, and the floor plan. If any change occurs in the wall locations, you can turn on the ceiling plan layer to see where the new wall locations will affect the ceiling and then make the proper adjustments.
AutoCAD allows an unlimited number of layers, and you can name each layer anything you want with the exception of these characters: < > / ″ : ; ? * | , = ′.
You'll start your exploration of layers by using a palette to create a new layer, giving it a name, and assigning it a color. Then you'll look at alternate ways of creating a layer through the command line. Next you'll assign the new layer to the objects in your drawing. Start by getting familiar with the Layer Properties Manager:
Open the
Bathfile you created in Chapter 4. (If you didn't create one, use either04b-bath.dwgor04b-bath-metric.dwg.)To display the Layer Properties Manager, click the Layer Properties tool in the Home tab's Layers panel, or type LA
The Layer Properties Manager shows you at a glance the status of your layers. Right now, you have only one layer, but as your work expands, so will the number of layers. You'll then find this palette indispensable.
Click the New Layer button at the top of the palette. The button has an icon that looks like a star next to a sheet.
A new layer named Layer1 appears in the list box. Notice that the name is highlighted. This tells you that by typing, you can change the default name to something better suited to your needs.
Type Wall. As you type, your entry replaces the Layer1 name in the list box.
With the Wall layer name highlighted, click the Color icon in the Wall layer listing to display a dialog box in which you can assign a color to the Wall layer. The Color icon can be found under the Color column and currently shows White as its value. The icon is just to the left of the word white.
The Select Color dialog box opens (see Figure 5.2).
In the row of standard colors next to the ByLayer button, click the green square, and then click OK. Notice that the color swatch in the Wall layer listing is now green.
Click the X at the top of the Layer Properties Manager's title bar to close it.
From this point on, any object assigned to the Wall layer will appear green unless the object is specifically assigned a different color.
In AutoCAD 2010, the Layer Properties Manager is a non-modal palette, which means that any change you make within the palette will take effect immediately in the drawing. It also means that the palette can stay open even while you perform other, non-layer-related operations. Throughout this chapter, I'll ask you to open or close the Layer Properties Manager, but if you prefer, you can keep it open all the time. If you decide to keep it open, you may want to use the palette's Auto-Hide feature. Click the Auto-Hide icon toward the top of the palette's title bar so that it changes to a single-sided arrowhead.
With Auto-Hide on, the palette will minimize to display only its title bar. To open the palette, click the title bar. To minimize it, point the cursor anywhere outside the palette for a moment. You can also force the palette to the left or right margin of the AutoCAD window. To do this, right-click the palette title bar, and select Anchor Left or Anchor Right.
In the preceding exercise, you chose a color from the Index Color tab of the Select Color dialog box. Most of the time, you'll find that the Index Color tab includes enough colors to suit your needs. But if you're creating a presentation drawing in which color selection is important, you can choose colors from either the True Color or the Color Books tab of the Select Color dialog box.
The True Color tab offers a full range of colors through a color palette similar to the one found in Adobe Photoshop and other image-editing programs (see Figure 5.3).
You have the choice of using hue, saturation, and luminance, which is the HSL color model, or you can use the RGB (red, green, blue) color model. You can select HSL or RGB from the Color Model drop-down list in the upper-right corner of the dialog box (see Figure 5.4).
You can also select from a PANTONE color book by using the Color Books tab. The Color Book option lets you match colors to a PANTONE color book for offset printing (see Figure 5.5).
The Layer Properties Manager conforms to the Windows interface standard. The most prominent feature of this palette is the layer list box, as you saw in the preceding exercise. Notice that the bar at the top of the list of layers offers several buttons for the various layer properties. Just as you can in Windows Explorer, you can adjust the width of each column in the list of layers by clicking and dragging either side of the column head buttons. You can also sort the layer list based on a property by clicking the property name at the top of the list. And just as with other Windows list boxes, you can also Shift+click names to select a block of layer names, or you can Ctrl+click individual names to select multiple layers that don't appear together. These features will become helpful as your list of layers grows.
Above the layer list, you can see four tool buttons.
You've already seen how the New Layer tool works. The tool next to the New Layer tool, the New Layer VP Frozen In All Viewports tool, looks similar to the New Layer tool and performs a similar function. The main difference is that the New Layer VP Frozen tool freezes the newly created layer. To delete layers, you select a layer or group of layers and then click the Delete Layer tool. Be aware that you can't delete layer 0, locked layers, or layers that contain objects. The Set Current tool enables you to set the current layer, the one on which you want to work. You can also see at a glance which layer is current by the green check mark in the Status column of the layer list.
Another way to create or delete layers is to select a layer or set of layers from the list box and then right-click. A menu appears, offering the same functions as the tools above the layer list.
You'll also notice another set of three tools farther to the left of the Layer Properties Manager. Those tools offer features to organize your layers in a meaningful way. You'll get a closer look at them a little later in this chapter.
You've seen how the Layer Properties Manager makes it easy to view and edit layer information and how you can easily select layer colors from an onscreen toolbar. But you can also control layers through the Command prompt.
You won't see the Pstyle option in the layer prompt or the Truecolor /COlor Books options in the color option prompt unless you're using named plot styles. See Chapter 9 for more on plot styles.
Use these steps to control layers through the Command prompt:
Press the Esc key to make sure any current command is canceled.
At the Command prompt, enter –Layer
Enter an option [?/Make/Set/New/ON/OFF/Color/Ltype/LWeight/MATerial/
Plot/Freeze/Thaw/LOck/Unlock/stAte/ Description/rEconcile]:
You'll learn about many of the options in this prompt as you work through this chapter.
Enter N
At the
Enter name list for new layer(s):prompt, enter Wall2Enter C
At the
New color [Truecolor/COlorbook]:prompt, enter YellowAt the
Enter name list of layer(s) for color 2 (yellow) <0>:prompt, enter Wall2Press
Each method of controlling layers has its own advantages. The Layer Properties Manager offers more information about your layers at a glance. On the other hand, the Layer command offers a quick way to control and create layers if you're in a hurry. Also, if you intend to write custom macros, you'll want to know how to use the Layer command as opposed to using the Layer Properties Manager because palettes can't be controlled through custom toolbar buttons or scripts.
When you create an object, that object is assigned to the current layer. Until now, only one layer has existed—layer 0—and it contains all the objects you've drawn so far. Now that you've created some new layers, you can reassign objects to them by using the Properties palette:
Select the four lines that represent the bathroom walls. If you have trouble singling out the wall to the left, use a window to select the wall line.
With the cursor in the drawing area, right-click and choose Properties from the shortcut menu to open the Properties palette. This palette lets you modify the properties of an object or a set of objects. (See the upcoming sidebar "Understanding Object Properties.")
Click the Layer option on the list in the Properties palette. Notice that an arrow appears in the layer name to the right of the Layer option.
Click the downward-pointing arrow to the far right of the Layer option to display a list of all the available layers.
Select the Wall layer from the list. Notice that the wall lines you selected change to a green color. This tells you that the objects have been assigned to the Wall layer. (Remember that you assigned a green color to the Wall layer.)
Close the Properties palette by clicking the X at the top of its title bar.
The bathroom walls are now on the new layer called Wall, and the walls are changed to green. Layers are more easily distinguished from one another when you use colors to set them apart.
Using the Quick Properties Panel
This chapter focuses on the tools in the Ribbon and the Properties palette to set the properties of an object. You can also use the Quick Properties panel to change the color, layer, and linetype of objects. When the Quick Properties panel is turned on, it appears automatically when you select an object. You can turn it on or off by clicking the Quick Properties tool in the status bar.
Next, you'll practice the commands you learned in this section and try some new ones by creating new layers and changing the layer assignments of the rest of the objects in your bathroom:
You can change the name of a layer in the Layer Properties Manager. Select the layer name that you want to change and click it again so that the name is highlighted, or press the F2 function key. You can then rename the layer. This works in the same way as renaming a file or folder in Windows.
Click the Tub and Toilet blocks, and then right-click and choose Properties from the shortcut menu to open the Properties palette.
Click Layer in the list of properties, and then select Fixture from the drop-down list to the right of the layer listing.
Click the X at the top of the title bar of the Properties palette to dismiss it, and then press the Esc key to clear your selection.
Create a new layer for the door, name the layer Door, and make it red.
In a block, you can change the color assignment and linetype of only those objects that are on layer 0. See the sidebar "Controlling Colors and Linetypes of Blocked Objects" later in this chapter.
Just as you've done with the walls and fixtures, use the Properties palette to assign the door to the Door layer.
Use the Layer Properties Manager to create three more layers for the ceiling, door jambs, and floor, as shown in Table 5.1. Remember that you can open the Select Color dialog box by clicking the color swatch of the layer listing.
Table 5.1. Create These Layers, and Set Their Colors as Indicated
Layer Name | Layer Color (Number) |
|---|---|
Ceiling | Magenta (6) |
Jamb | Green (3) |
Floor | Cyan (4) |
In step 3 of the previous exercise, you used the Properties palette, which offered several options for modifying the block. The options displayed in the Properties palette depend on the objects you've selected. With only one object selected, AutoCAD displays options that apply specifically to that object. With several objects selected, you'll see a more limited set of options because AutoCAD can change only those properties that are common to all the objects selected.
So far, you've created layers and then assigned objects to those layers. In this section, you'll learn how to use the layer drop-down list in the Properties toolbar to assign layers to objects. In the process, you'll make some additions to the drawing.
The current layer is still layer 0, and unless you change the current layer, every new object you draw will be on layer 0. Here's how to change the current layer:
Click the Layer Control list box on the Home tab's Layers panel.
A drop-down list opens, showing you all the layers available in the drawing. Notice the icons that appear next to the layer names; they control the status of the layer. You'll learn how to work with these icons later in this chapter. Also notice the box directly to the left of each layer name. This shows you the color of the corresponding layer.
Momentarily placing the cursor on an icon in the layer drop-down list displays a tool tip that describes the icon's purpose.
Click the Jamb layer name. The drop-down list closes and the name Jamb appears in the toolbar's layer name box. Jamb is now the current layer.
You can also use the Layer command to reset the current layer. To do this here, enter –Layer
Zoom in on the door, and draw a 5″ line; start at the lower-right corner of the door and draw toward the right. Metric users should draw a 13 cm line.
Draw a similar line from the top-right end of the arc. Your drawing should look like Figure 5.6.
Because you assigned the color green to the Jamb layer, the two lines you just drew to represent the door jambs are green. This gives you immediate feedback about which layer you're on as you draw.
Now you'll use the part of the wall between the jambs as a line representing the door header (the part of the wall above the door). To do this, you'll have to cut the line into three line segments and then change the layer assignment of the segment between the jambs:
Click the Break At Point tool in the Home tab's expanded Modify panel.
At the
Select object:prompt, click the wall between the two jambs.At the
Specify first break point:prompt, use the Endpoint osnap override to pick the endpoint of the door's arc that is touching the wall, as shown previously in Figure 5.6.Click Break At Point on the expanded Modify panel again and then repeat steps 2 and 3, this time using the jamb near the door hinge location to locate the break point (see Figure 5.6).
Although it may not be obvious, you've just broken the right-side wall line into three line segments: one at the door opening and two more on either side of the jambs. You can also use the Break tool (below the Break At Point tool) to produce a gap in a line segment.
The Break At Point tool won't work on a circle. You can, however, use the Break tool to place a small gap in the circle. If you create a small enough gap, the circle will still look like a full circle.
Next you'll change the Layer property of the line between the two jambs to the Ceiling layer. But instead of using the Properties tool as you've done in earlier exercises, you'll use a shortcut method:
Click the line between the door jambs to highlight it. Notice that the layer listing in the Layers panel changes to Wall. Whenever you select an object to expose its grips, the Color, Linetype, Lineweight, and Plot Style listings in the Properties toolbar change to reflect those properties of the selected object.
Click the layer name in the Layers panel to open the layer drop-down list.
Click the Ceiling layer. The list closes and the line you selected changes to the magenta color, showing you that it's now on the Ceiling layer. Also notice that the color list in the Properties toolbar changes to reflect the new color for the line.
Press the Esc key twice to clear the grip selection. Notice that the layer returns to Jamb, the current layer.
Click the Previous tool from the Zoom flyout in the View tab's Navigate panel. You can also enter Z
In this exercise, you saw that when you select an object with no command active, the object's properties are immediately displayed in the Properties toolbar under Color Control, Linetype, Lineweight, and Plot Style. Using this method, you can also change an object's color, linetype, lineweight, and plot style independent of its layer. Just as with the Properties palette, you can select multiple objects and change their layers through the layer drop-down list. These options in the Properties toolbar offer a quick way to edit some of the properties of objects.
Now, you'll finish the bathroom by adding a sink to a layer named Casework:
With the Casework layer selected in the layer list, click the Set Current button at the top of the palette.
Click the color swatch for the Casework layer listing, and then select Blue from the Select Color dialog box. Click OK to exit the dialog box.
Click X in the Layer Properties Manager palette. Notice that the layer drop-down list in the Layers panel indicates that the current layer is Casework.
Next you'll add the sink. As you draw, the objects will appear in blue, the color of the Casework layer.
Choose All from the Zoom flyout on the Utilities panel, or type Z
Click the Insert tool on the Home tab's Block panel, and then click the Browse button in the Insert dialog box to open the Select Drawing File dialog box.
Locate the
Sinkfile, and double-click it.In the Insert dialog box, make sure the Specify On-Screen options in both the Scale and Rotation groups aren't selected; then, click OK.
Place the sink roughly in the upper-right corner of the bathroom plan, and then use the Move command to place it accurately in the corner, as shown in Figure 5.7.
Real world Scenario: Getting Multiple Uses from a Drawing Using Layers
Layering lets you use a single AutoCAD drawing for multiple purposes. A single drawing can show both the general layout of the plan and more detailed information such as equipment layout or floor-paving layout.
The following two images are reproductions of the San Francisco Main Library's lower level and show how one floor plan file was used for two purposes. The first view shows the layout of furnishings, and the second view shows a paving layout. In each case, the same floor plan file was used, but in the first panel, the paving information is on a layer that is turned off. Layers also facilitate the use of differing scales in the same drawing. Frequently, a small-scale drawing of an overall plan will contain the same data for an enlarged view of other portions of the plan, such as a stairwell or an elevator core. The detailed information, such as notes and dimensions, might be on a layer that is turned off for the overall plan.
I mentioned earlier that you'll sometimes want to display only certain layers to work with in a drawing. In this bathroom is a door header that would normally appear only in a reflected ceiling plan. To turn off a layer so that it becomes invisible, you click the Off button in the Layer Properties Manager, as shown in these steps:
Click the Ceiling layer in the layer list.
Click the lightbulb icon in the layer list, next to the Ceiling layer name. The lightbulb icon changes from yellow to gray to indicate that the layer is off.
Click the X at the top of the Layer Properties Manager's title bar to close it. When you return to the drawing, the door header (the line across the door opening) disappears because you've made it invisible by turning off its layer.
You can also control layer visibility by using the Layer Control drop-down list on the Layers panel:
On the Home tab's Layers panel, click the Layer Control drop-down list.
Find the Ceiling layer, and notice that its lightbulb icon is gray. This tells you that the layer is off and not visible.
Click the lightbulb icon to make it yellow.
Click the drawing area to close the Layer drop-down list; the door header reappears.
Figure 5.8 explains the roles of the other icons in the Layer drop-down list.
When you start to work with layouts in Chapters 8 and 16, you'll learn about viewports. A viewport is like a custom view of your drawing. You can have multiple viewports in a layout, each showing a different part of your drawing. Layer properties can be controlled for each viewport independently, so you can set up different linetypes, colors, and layer visibility for each viewport.
With only a handful of layers, it's fairly easy to find the layer you want to turn off. It becomes much more difficult, however, when the number of layers exceeds 20 or 30. The Layer Properties Manager offers some useful tools to help you find the layers you want quickly.
Suppose you have several layers whose names begin with C, such as C-lights, C-header, and C-pattern, and you want to find those layers quickly. You can click the Name button at the top of the layer list to sort the layer names in alphabetic order. (You can click the Name button again to reverse the order.) To select those layers for processing, click the first layer name that starts with C, and then scroll down the list until you find the last layer of the group and Shift+click it. All the layers between those layers are selected. If you want to deselect some of those layers, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the layer names you don't want to include in your selection. Another option is to Ctrl+click the names of other layers you want selected.
The Color and Linetype buttons at the top of the list let you control which layers appear in the list by virtue of their color or linetype assignments. Other buttons sort the list by virtue of status: On/Off, Freeze/Thaw, Lock/Unlock, and so forth. (See the sidebar "Other Layer Options" later in this chapter.)
Now try changing the layer settings again by turning off all the layers except Wall and Ceiling, leaving just a simple rectangle. In this exercise, you'll get a chance to experiment with the On/Off options of the Layer Properties Manager:
Click the top layer name in the list box; then Shift+click the last layer name. All the layer names are highlighted.
Another way to select all the layers at once in the Layer Properties Manager is to right-click the layer list and then choose the Select All option from the shortcut menu. If you want to clear your selections, right-click the layer list and choose Clear All.
Ctrl+click the Wall and Ceiling layers to deselect them and thus exempt them from your next action.
Click the lightbulb icon of any of the highlighted layers.
A message appears, asking if you want the current layer on or off. Select "Keep the current layer on" in the message box. The lightbulb icons turn gray to show that the selected layers have been turned off.
Click X. The drawing now appears with only the Wall and Ceiling layers displayed. It looks like a simple rectangle of the room outline.
Open the Layer Properties Manager again, select all the layers as you did in step 2, and then click any of the gray lightbulbs to turn on all the layers at once.
Click the X at the top of the Layer Properties Manager's title bar to close it.
In this exercise, you turned off a set of layers by clicking a lightbulb icon. You can freeze/thaw, lock/unlock, or change the color of a group of layers in a similar manner by clicking the appropriate layer property. For example, clicking a color swatch of one of the selected layers opens the Select Color dialog box, in which you can set the color for all the selected layers.
Chances are you'll eventually end up with a fairly long list of layers. Managing such a list can become a nightmare, but AutoCAD provides some tools to help you organize layers so you can keep track of them more easily.
On the left side of the Layer Properties Manager is a set of tools and a list box designed to help you with your layer-management tasks (see Figure 5.9).
In the upper-left corner of the palette is a toolbar with three tools:
The New Property Filter tool lets you filter your list of layers to display only layers with certain properties, such as specific colors or names.
The New Group Filter tool lets you create named groups of layers that can be quickly recalled at any time. This tool is helpful if you often work with specific sets of layers. For example, you might have a set of layers in an architectural drawing that pertains to the electrical layout. You could create a group filter called Electrical that filters out all layers except those pertaining to the electrical layout. The filters don't affect the layers in any way; they just limit which layers are displayed in the main layer list.
The Layer States Manager tool lets you create sets of layer states. For example, if you want to save the layer settings that have only the wall and door layer turned on, you can do so by using this tool.
Below the New Property Filter, New Group Filter, and Layer States Manager tools is a filter list, which is a hierarchical list displaying the different sets of layer properties and group filters. Right now, you don't have any filters in place, so you see only All and All Used Layers.
In this section, you'll learn how the tools and the filter list box work. You'll start with a look at the New Property Filter tool:
In the Filter Definition list box, click the blank box just below the Color label. A button appears in the box (see Figure 5.10).
Click in the blank box again; then enter red
Click twice in the blank box below the one you just edited. Again, a button appears.
This time, enter green
You can also select a color from the Select Color dialog box by clicking the button that appears in the box.
In the Filter Definition list, click in the Name column in the third row down. A cursor appears, followed by an asterisk.
Enter F
In the Filter Name text box at the upper-left corner of the dialog box, change the name Properties Filter 1 to My List, and then click OK.
Now you see the My List filter in the list box on the left side of the Layer Properties Manager.
The layer list shows only the layers that have properties conforming to those you selected in the Layer Filter Properties dialog box. Notice that My List is highlighted in the filter list to the left. This tells you that My List is the current layer property filter being applied to the layer list to the right.
You can change the layer list display by selecting different options in the filter list. Try these steps:
Click the All option in the filter list at the left side of the dialog box. The layer list to the right changes to display all the layers in the drawing. Also note that a brief description of the current layer filter is displayed at the bottom of the dialog box.
Click the All Used Layers option in the filter list. Now only layers that contain objects are displayed.
Click My List. The layer list changes back to the limited set of layers from your filter list.
Double-click My List. The Layer Filter Properties dialog box opens and displays the list of layer properties you set up earlier for My List. You can edit the criteria for your filter by making modifications in this dialog box.
Click Cancel to exit the Layer Filter Properties dialog box.
The preceding exercise shows how you can filter out layer names based on the properties you specify in the Layer Filter Properties dialog box. But suppose you want to create a layer filter list by graphically selecting objects on the screen. You can use the New Group Filter tool to do just that:
Right-click the Group Filter1 listing panel to the left, and then choose Select Layers
Click a line representing a wall of the bathroom; then click the door. Press
You may have noticed the Select Layers
Earlier you saw how you can double-click a properties filter to edit a properties filter list. But group filters work in a slightly different way. If you want to add layers to your group filter, you can click and drag them from the layer list to the group filter name. Here's how it's done:
In the Layer Properties Manager, select All from the filter list to the left.
Click the Fixture layer in the layer list; then Ctrl+click the Jamb layer in the list. These are the layers you'll add to the Group Filter1 layer group.
Click and drag the Fixture layer to the Group Filter1 listing in the filter list.
To check the addition to Group Filter1, click it in the filter list. The Fixture and Jamb layers have been added to the Group Filter1 list.
If you want to delete a layer from a group filter, you can use the shortcut menu, as shown in these steps:
With the Group Filter1 list selected, select the Jamb layer from the layer list, and then right-click it.
Select Remove From Group Filter in the shortcut menu. (Make sure you don't select Delete Layer.) Jamb is removed from the Group Filter1 list.
You can also convert a layer property filter into a group filter. Select the layer property filter from the filter list, right-click, and then select Convert To Group Filter. The icon for the layer property filter changes to a group filter icon, indicating that it's now a group filter.
You've seen how you can add property and group filters to the Layer Properties Manager by using the tools on the left side of the palette. One tool you haven't explored yet is the Layer States Manager. To understand how this tool works, you'll need to learn a little more about AutoCAD; look for a discussion of the Layer States Manager in Chapter 15.
Before you move on, you'll want to know about a few other options that appear in the Layer Properties Manager (see Figure 5.11):
The Invert Filter check box at the bottom of the Filters list changes the list of layers to show all layers excluding those in the selected filter. For example, if the My List filter contains layers that are red and you select Invert Filter, the layer list will display all layers except those that are red.
The Refresh tool in the upper-right corner updates the layer information in the Layer Properties Manager.
The Settings button in the upper-right corner opens the Layer Settings dialog box. This dialog box controls the way you're notified when new layers are added to a drawing (see Figure 5.12).
In the next section, you'll find some tips for how to use layer names so that you can use text filters more effectively.
In the previous section, you saw how to create a layer property filter by using the name of a layer. If you name layers carefully, you can use them as a powerful layer-management tool. For example, suppose you have a drawing whose layer names are set up to help you easily identify floor-plan data versus ceiling-plan data, as in the following list:
A-FP-WALL-JAMB
A-FP-WIND-JAMB
A-CP-WIND-HEAD
A-CP-DOOR-HEAD
L-FP-CURB
C-FP-ELEV
The first character in the layer name designates the discipline related to that layer: A for architectural, L for landscape, C for civil, and so on. In this example, layers with names containing the two characters FP signify floor-plan layers. CP designates ceiling-plan information.
These layer examples are loosely based on a layer-naming convention devised by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). As you can see from this example, careful naming of layers can help you manage them.
If you want to isolate only those layers that have to do with floor plans, regardless of their discipline, enter ??FP* in the Name column of the Layer Filter Properties dialog box. You can then give this layer property filter the name Floor Plan by entering Floor Plan in the Filter Name text box (see Figure 5.13).
After you've created the Floor Plan layer properties list, you can pick Floor Plan from the filter list on the right side of the Layer Properties Manager and only those layers with names containing the letters FP as their third and fourth characters will appear in the list of layers. You can turn off all these layers, change their color assignment, or change other settings quickly without having to wade through layers you don't want to touch. You can create other filter properties to isolate other groups of layers. AutoCAD keeps these filter lists for future use until you delete them by using the Delete option in the shortcut menu. (Right-click the name of the properties filter, and choose Delete.)
In the ??FP* example, the question marks (??) tell AutoCAD that the first two characters in the layer name can be anything. The FP tells AutoCAD that the layer name must contain F and P in these two places of the name. The asterisk (*) at the end tells AutoCAD that the remaining characters can be anything. The question marks and asterisk are known as wildcard characters. They're commonly used filtering tools for both the Unix and Windows operating systems.
As the number of layers in a drawing grows, you'll find layer filters an indispensable tool. But bear in mind that the successful use of layer filters can depend on a careful layer-naming convention. If you're producing architectural plans, you may want to consider the AIA layer naming guidelines.
You'll often want to use different linetypes to show hidden lines, center lines, fence lines, or other noncontinuous lines. You can assign a color and a linetype to a layer. You then see International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and complex linetypes, including lines that can be used to illustrate gas and water lines in civil work or batt insulation in a wall cavity.
AutoCAD comes with several linetypes, as shown in Figure 5.14. ISO linetypes are designed to be used with specific plotted line widths and linetype scales. For example, if you're using a pen width of 0.5 mm, set the linetype scale of the drawing to 0.5 as well. (See Chapter 16 for more information on plotting and linetype scale.) You can also create your own linetypes (see Chapter 28).
Linetypes that contain text, such as the gas line sample at the bottom of Figure 5.14, use the current text height and font to determine the size and appearance of the text displayed in the line. A text height of zero displays the text properly in most cases. See Chapter 10 for more on text styles.
AutoCAD stores linetype descriptions in an external file named Acad.lin, or Acadiso.lin for metric users. You can edit this file in a text editor like Notepad to create new linetypes or to modify existing ones. You'll see how this is done in Chapter 28.
To see how linetypes work, you'll add a dash-dot line in the bathroom plan to indicate a shower curtain rod:
Click New, and then type Pole to create a new layer called Pole.
If you're in a hurry, you can simultaneously load a linetype and assign it to a layer by using the Layer command. In this exercise, you enter –Layer
In the Pole layer listing, under the Linetype column, click the word Continuous to open the Select Linetype dialog box. To find the Linetype column, you may need to scroll the list to the right by using the scroll bar at the bottom of the list (see Figure 5.15).
The word Continuous truncates to Contin when the Linetype column is at its default width and the Continuous option is selected.
The Select Linetype dialog box offers a list of linetypes to choose from. In a new file such as the
Bathfile, only one linetype is available by default. You must load any additional linetypes you want to use. Click the Load button at the bottom of the dialog box to open the Load Or Reload Linetypes dialog box. Notice that the list of linetype names is similar to the layer drop-down list. You can sort the names alphabetically or by description by clicking the Linetype or Description heading at the top of the list (see Figure 5.16).In the Available Linetypes list, scroll down to locate the Dashdot linetype, click it, and then click OK.
Notice that the Dashdot linetype is added to the linetypes available in the Select Linetype dialog box.
Click Dashdot to highlight it; then click OK. Dashdot appears in the Pole layer listing under Linetype.
With the Pole layer still highlighted, click the Set Current button to make the Pole layer current.
Click X to exit the Layer Properties Manager.
Turn off Running Osnap mode; then draw a line across the opening of the tub area, from coordinate 4′-4″,1′-10″ to coordinate 4′-4″,6′-10″. Metric users should draw a line from coordinate 133,56 to 133,208.
Although you've designated this as a Dashdot line, it appears solid. Zoom in to a small part of the line and you'll see that the line is indeed as you specified.
Because you're working at a scale of 1″ = 1′, you must adjust the scale of your linetypes accordingly. This too is accomplished in the Linetype Manager dialog box. Here are the steps:
Click the Linetype drop-down list in the Home tab's Properties panel and select Others.
The Linetype Manager dialog box opens. Click the Show Details button in the upper-right corner of the dialog box. Some additional options appear at the bottom (see Figure 5.17).
The Linetype Manager dialog box offers Load and Delete buttons that let you load or delete a linetype directly without having to go through a particular layer's linetype setting.
Double-click the Global Scale Factor text box, and then type 12 (metric users type 30). This is the scale conversion factor for a 1″ = 1′ scale (see "Understanding Scale Factors" in Chapter 3).
Click OK. The drawing regenerates, and the shower curtain rod is displayed in the linetype and at the scale you designated.
Click the Zoom Previous tool so your drawing looks like Figure 5.18.
You can also use the Ltscale system variable to set the linetype scale. Type Ltscale
Remember that if you assign a linetype to a layer, everything you draw on that layer will be of that linetype. This includes arcs, polylines, circles, and traces. As explained in the sidebar "Assigning Colors, Linetypes, and Linetype Scales to Individual Objects" later in this chapter, you can also assign different colors and linetypes to individual objects rather than relying on their layer assignment to define color and linetype. However, you may want to avoid assigning colors and linetypes directly to objects until you have some experience with AutoCAD and a good grasp of your drawing's organization.
In the previous exercise, you changed the global linetype scale setting. This affects all noncontinuous linetypes within the current drawing. You can also change the linetype scale of individual objects by using the Properties button on the Properties toolbar. You can also set the default linetype scale for all new objects with the Current Object Scale option in the Linetype Manager dialog box.
When individual objects are assigned a linetype scale, they're still affected by the global linetype scale set by the Ltscale system variable. For example, say you assign a linetype scale of 2 to the curtain rod in the previous example. This scale is then multiplied by the global linetype scale of 12, for a final linetype scale of 24.
You can also set the default linetype scale for individual objects by using the Celtscale system variable. After it's set, only newly created objects are affected. You must use the Properties palette to change the linetype scale of individual existing objects.
If the objects you draw appear in a different linetype from that of the layer they're on, check the default linetype by selecting Other from the Linetype Control drop-down list on the Home tab's Properties panel. Then, in the Linetype Manager dialog box, highlight ByLayer in the Linetype list and click the Current button. In addition, check the linetype scale of the object itself by using the Properties palette. A different linetype scale can make a line appear to have an assigned linetype that might not be what you expect. (See the sidebar "Assigning Colors, Linetypes, and Linetype Scales to Individual Objects.")
If you're working through the tutorial, your final task is to set up an insertion point for the current drawing to facilitate its insertion into other drawings in the future. Follow these steps:
Type Base
At the
Enter base point <0′-0″,0′-0″,0′-0″>:prompt, pick the upper-left corner of the bathroom. The bathroom drawing is complete.Click the Save tool in the Quick Access toolbar to record your work up to now.
You may have noticed a Lineweight column in the Layer Properties Manager. If you click this option for a given layer, the Lineweight dialog box opens, which enables you to control the plotted thickness of your lines. Plotted lineweights can also be set through direct object property assignment. You can view lineweights as they will appear in your final plot by making setting changes in the Lineweights Settings dialog box, which you'll learn about in Chapter 16.
With the Lineweight option and Lineweight Settings dialog box, you have greater control over the look of your drawings. This can save time because you don't have to print your drawing just to check for lineweights. You'll be able to see how thick or thin your lines are as you edit your drawing. You'll get a chance to delve into lineweights in Chapter 16.
The Insert dialog box and the Layer Properties Manager let you view the blocks and layers available in your drawing by listing them in a window. The Layer Properties Manager also includes information about the status of layers. However, you may forget the layer on which an object resides. You've seen how the Properties option on the shortcut menu shows you the properties of an object. The List option in the Tools
Use these steps to see an alternate way to view the properties of a block:
Click the List tool from the Home tab's expanded Properties panel.
If you just want to quickly check which layer an object is on, click it. Its layer will appear in the Layer Control drop-down list of the Layers panel.
At the
Select objects:prompt, click the Tub block, and then pressIn the AutoCAD Text Window, a listing appears that shows not only the layer the tub is on, but also its space, insertion point, name, rotation angle, and scale.
The information in the Text Window, except the handle listing, is duplicated in the Properties palette you see when you right-click and choose Properties. But having the data in the AutoCAD Text Window gives you the flexibility to record the data in a text file in case you need to store data about parts of your drawing. You can also use the AutoCAD Text Window to access and store other types of data regarding your drawings.
The Space property listed for the Tub block designates whether the object resides in Model Space or Paper Space. You'll learn more about these spaces in Chapters 8 and 16.
With complex drawings, it can be helpful to get a text file that lists the layers or blocks in your drawing. You can do this by using the log-file feature in AutoCAD. At the Command prompt, enter Logfilemode
Once the log-file feature is closed, you can use Windows Notepad to open the AutoCAD log file located in the C:Documents and SettingsYourNameLocal SettingsApplication DataAutodeskAutoCAD 2008R17.1enu folder. The name of the log file will start with the name of the current drawing, followed by a series of numbers and the .log filename extension, as in 04c-bath-metric_1_1_6500.log.
If you have difficulty finding the log file, enter (getvar "logfilepath") at the AutoCAD Command prompt to get a listing of the log-file location. The log file may also be in a hidden folder, so you may have to turn off the hidden folder setting in Windows Explorer. See Appendix B for instructions on how to do this.
With the log-file feature, you can record virtually anything that appears at the Command prompt. You can even record an entire AutoCAD session. The log file can also be helpful in constructing script files to automate tasks. (See Chapter 27 for more information on scripts.) If you want a hard copy of the log file, print it from an application such as Windows Notepad or your favorite word processor.
- Organize information with layers
Layers are perhaps the most powerful feature in AutoCAD. They help to keep drawings well organized, and they give you control over the visibility of objects. They also let you control the appearance of your drawing by setting colors, lineweights, and linetypes.
- Master It
Describe the process of creating a layer.
- Control layer visibility
When a drawing becomes dense with information, it can be difficult to edit. If you've organized your drawing using layers, you can reduce the complexity of a drawing by turning off layers that aren't important to your current session.
- Master It
Describe two methods for hiding a layer.
- Keep track of blocks and layers
At times, you may want a record of the layers or blocks in your drawing. You can create a list of layers using the log file feature in AutoCAD.
- Master It
Where do you go to turn on the log file feature?