Ahhh, damn coffee's a dud.
If I understand you now that seems an inefficient way to do that, but I don't have all the details. What's your overall objective, to set all the layers to spec? If it were me I'd create a table and have a program walk the table, setting the layer colors, linetype etc per the table.
Any chance of posting a sample drawing (zipped) to
lilly pad (use your login name + password to access) and / or a list of the desired layer properties?
If so I'll look at it this evening.