d e p a r t m e n t o f a r c h i t e c t u r e , u n i v e r s i t y o f o r e g o n
AutoCad Layers
April 15, 1997
I. LAYERS Description
Layers are groups of entities. Layers allow control of visibility, color, and linetype of groups of entities with a single command. Layers are one of the best ways of organizing a drawing.
- Each entity resides on one layer only. New entities go on the current layer.
- Each layer has several properties such as Color and Linetype which control the display of its entities.
- Each drawing may have any number of layers. Each layer may contain any number of entities.
- Each layer may be on or off. Each drawing has exactly one layer designated as current at any given time. The current layer is normally on. All new entities go on the current layer.
- Control layers with Settings: Layer Control menu to bring up the Layer Control dialog box or by typing LA for the LAYER command.
II. The Layer Control Dialog box:
- Change the property settings of a layer by highlighting it's listing, then choosing ON or OFF, Current, Set Color or Set Linetype.
- Create New layers by typing in a new name and clicking on New. Then highlight the new listing to change properties of the layer.
- Rename a layer by highlighting it, typing in a new name and then clicking on Rename.
- For clarity, each layer should be distinguished with a separate color and linetype (pattern) combination.
- Colors correspond to pen lineweights, and AutoCAD has pre-set Pen 1 = Red, Pen 2 = Yellow, Pen 3 = Green, Pen 4 = Blue, Pen 5 = Cyan , etc. Each pen is given a thickness at the time of plotting. (Keep the lineweight to consistently mapped to the pen number by saving the .PGP file)
- Use linetype and color BYLAYER only!!!
- Linetypes must first be Loaded with the LINETYPE command to be selected.
III. Changes
- Changing the layer of an object: DDMODIFY or CHPROP from the keyboard.
- PURGE removes a layer having no entities on it.