Translate Layer Names and Properties

You can reorganize a drawing's layers to match a set of layer standards.

Convert Layers to Established Drawing Standards

With the Layer Translator, you can convert layers in one drawing to layer standards that you define.

For example, if you receive a drawing from a company that does not follow your company's layer standards, you can convert the drawing's layer names and properties to your company's standards. You can map layers in the drawing you are currently working on to different layers in another drawing or standards file, and then convert the current layers using those mappings. If the drawings contain layers of the same name, the Layer Translator can automatically change the properties of the current layers to match those in the other layers.

You can save your layer translation mappings in a file and reuse them with other drawings.

View Selected Drawing Layers

With the Layer Translator, you can control which layers are visible in the drawing area.

You can choose to display objects on all layers in your drawing, or objects on layers you specify. By viewing selected layers, you can visually verify the contents of those layers.

Purge Unreferenced Layers

With the Layer Translator, you can purge (delete) all unreferenced layers from a drawing.

For example, if your drawing includes layers that you do not need, you may want to remove those layers. Reducing the number of layers makes working with the remaining layers more manageable.

Procedure

To convert a drawing's layers to standard layer settings

Click Manage tab CAD Standards panel Layer Translator. At the Command prompt, enter laytrans.
In the Layer Translator, do one of the following:
- Click Load to load layers from a drawing, a drawing template, or a drawing standards file. In the Select Drawing File dialog box, select the file you want. Click Open.
- Click New to define a new layer. In the New Layer dialog box, enter a name for the new layer and select its properties. Click OK.
You can repeat step 2 as many times as you want. If you load other files containing layers of the same name as ones already shown in the Translate To list, the layer properties first loaded in the list are maintained; any duplicate layer properties are ignored.
Map layers in the current drawing to the layers you want to convert to. Use either or both of the following methods to map layers:
- To map all identically named layers from one list to the other, click Map Same.
- To map individual layers, in the Translate From list, select one or more layers. In the Translate To list, select the layer whose properties you want to use. Click Map to define the mapping. You can repeat this method for each layer or group of layers to be translated.
To remove a mapping, select the mapping from the Layer Translation Mappings list. Click Remove. To remove all mappings, right-click in the list. Click Remove All.
(Optional) You can perform the following tasks in the Layer Translator:
- To change the properties of a mapped layer, in the Layer Translation Mappings list, select the mapping whose properties you want to change. Click Edit. In the Edit Layer dialog box, change the linetype, color, lineweight, or plot style of the mapped layer. Click OK.
- To customize the process of layer translation, click Settings. In the Settings dialog box, select the options you want. Click OK.
- To save layer mappings to a file, click Save. In the Save Layer Mappings dialog box, enter a file name. Click OK.
Click Translate to perform the layer translations you have specified.

To specify which layers are displayed in the drawing area

To purge all unreferenced layers from a drawing

Quick Reference

Commands