Topic: correct layer and bycolor, bylinetype....

[MSTG007]

question, is ok to place entities under the correct layer, with difference colors and linetypes on the same layer?

[M-dub]

Sorry?  What do you mean?  Place entities in the drawing on the correct layer, but change their colours and linetypes to something other than bylayer?
If so, I would say....iffy.  If you were actually asking me as your supervisor or something, I'd say "You better have a damn good reason."

Not sure if that's what you mean...

[t-bear]

fROM THE STANDPOINT OF EASE OF IDENTIFICATION ALONE (dAmNed CaPs!) bylayer is the sensible option.  How do you find all the widgets when they're three different colours?  We define piping runs by layer with vacuum as one colour and pressure another and condensate a third.  You can tell at a glance which run is which.  bylayer with VERY few exceptions!   I think we have two and they're text options.....

[hudster]

Our pipe layers are all the same colour, just linetype destinguishes them from each other, but I wrote a script to change the colour of them all to separate colours, and another to change them back prior to plotting.

[CADaver]

We use xrefs extensively, and for that reason we have a chiseled in stone rule that EVERYTHING is ALWAYS bylayer, NO exceptions.  Until I can get all of our clients to plot by weight instead of color, we use color for plottiing.  If the source drawing has changed the color of an element to something other than bylayer, we can't control it's plotting characteristics when xref'd.

[SPDCad]

From an architectural standpoint and my personal experience, colours and linetypes should be by layer.  
At my place of work we have a code study drawing where the fire resistance rating (FRR) for walls is shown.  We like to xref the plans into the code study drawing and switch all the floor plan drawing layers to a colour that prints in a lighter tone.  That way the FRR stands out more.  Also in other drawings we use the same layer to show different things. For example the bulkhead layer  on the floor plan is a hidden line to shown things that happen above.  On the reflective ceiling plan (RCP) the bulkhead layer (which is part of the floor plan drawing and xrefed into RCP) is set to a differnet colour and a different linetype, thereby showing the ceiling layout.
   When a colour or line type is set to a different thing other then the layer its on, it is impossible to do the things I mentioned above. Also its harder to tell if the object is on the correct layer or not.
   We also convert a lot of other disciplines (ie. Mechanical, Electrical, Civil) to show some of the items on our drawings and its much easier to rename, change colour and linetype by layer then it is to isolate a change to layer.
   Well that’s my argument for why the colour and linetype should be by layer.  After all you can have an endless number of layers and autocad keeps adding tools that make it  easier to handle and manipulate layers .

[MSTG007]

GOTCHA....  SO INSTEAd of (sorry) having layer  

THING
 with yellows greens and reds , it should be

THING_YELLOW
THING_GREEN
THING_RED

right?

[M-dub]

Uhhh....sure

Can you be a little more specific as to what you're actually dealing with by any chance?

[CADaver]

GOTCHA....  SO INSTEAd of (sorry) having layer  

THING
 with yellows greens and reds , it should be

THING_YELLOW
THING_GREEN
THING_RED

right?

ummm... sorta?

We name layers based on function then suffix them when needed.

[yyou]

Most of our entities are colored by layer.  The exceptions are hidden objects.  Ducts, grilles, pipings, equipments...ect. if they are below other objects we force them to thin-plotted color and hidden linetype, layer stay the same.

[Kate M]

We name layers based on function then suffix them when needed.

Agreed, I think meaningful layer names are *very* important. It drives me nuts when I get an architectural drawing and try to turn off unecessary layers, only to find out they're all named "a-pen-08" etc, and it's impossible to isolate what we need.

[CADaver]

We name layers based on function then suffix them when needed.

Agreed, I think meaningful layer names are *very* important. It drives me nuts when I get an architectural drawing and try to turn off unecessary layers, only to find out they're all named "a-pen-08" etc, and it's impossible to isolate what we need.

I just got a series of files from an outside contractor (who thought we were joking with the contrct requirements) and all the layer names are based on the names of his old girlfriends, JANET-3, CRISSIE-5, KAYLA-2, etc., and nothing was bylayer.  He's re-working them now to comply with contract.

[Royalchill]

much easier to edit  a dwg if you keep things bylayer and linetype. less room for mistakes.  :ugly:

[glee]

From an architectural standpoint and my personal experience, colours and linetypes should be by layer. 

   When a colour or line type is set to a different thing other then the layer its on, it is impossible to do the things I mentioned above. Also its harder to tell if the object is on the correct layer or not.
   We also convert a lot of other disciplines (ie. Mechanical, Electrical, Civil) to show some of the items on our drawings and its much easier to rename, change colour and linetype by layer then it is to isolate a change to layer.

We do the same.  And it works the other way too when our consultants use our backgrounds and just want to screen them so that their ductwork etc show up clearly.  Can't do that if we change colors by entity on a layer. 

We use a modified version of the AIA standards for our layers.  Cut out the clutter and so on, so that it works for us.  Post our standards for all our consultants to download and repeat it again during coordination meetings (with printed handouts).  So far so good.  Eveyone's happy and been that way for awhile. 

[hyposmurf]

Most of our entities are colored by layer.  The exceptions are hidden objects.  Ducts, grilles, pipings, equipments...ect. if they are below other objects we force them to thin-plotted color and hidden linetype, layer stay the same.

We do the same,it would seem over kill to have an extra layer showing hidden objects for each layer.Youre in the same industry as me yyou