Topic: Setting the color of a layer

[Keith Brown]

So I am trying to modify a routine that I got from BlackBox that works perfectly.  What it does is create a new layer based on the layer of a selected object and the value that is in the LayerAppend variable.  It sets the color of the layer based on a hard coded value.  Here is the routine
 

Code - Auto/Visual Lisp: [Select]

1. (setq Hanger_LayerColor acWhite)  ;; Set desired hanger layer color here
2. (setq Hanger_LayerAppend "-Hngr")     ;; Set name to append to duct layer here
3.  
4. ;; Set color for the hanger layer
5. (vla-put-color
6.     (vla-add
7.         (vla-get-layers
8.             (vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object))
9.          )
10.  
11.         ;; set desired layer name as global variable
12.         (setq *Duct_layerName*
13.           (strcat
14.             (cdr (assoc 8 (entget (ssname ss 0))))
15.             Hanger_LayerAppend
16.            )
17.          )
18.      )
19.  
20.     Hanger_LayerColor
21. )
22.  

What I would like to do is modify the routine so that if the value of Hanger_LayerColor is nil then it takes the color of the object layer.  So this is what I thought would work.
 

Code - Auto/Visual Lisp: [Select]

1. (setq Hanger_LayerColor acWhite)  ;; Set desired hanger layer color here
2. (setq Hanger_LayerAppend "-Hngr")     ;; Set name to append to duct layer here
3.  
4. ;; Set color for the hanger layer
5. (vla-put-color
6.     (vla-add
7.         (vla-get-layers
8.             (vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object))
9.          )
10.  
11.         ;; set desired layer name as global variable
12.         (setq *Duct_layerName*
13.           (strcat
14.             (cdr (assoc 8 (entget (ssname ss 0))))
15.             Hanger_LayerAppend
16.            )
17.          )
18.      )
19.  
20.     (if (= Hanger_LayerColor nil)
21.        (cdr (assoc 62 (entget (ssname ss 0))))
22.        (Hanger_LayerColor)
23.      )
24. )
25.  

But this doesn't work and only generates an error  ** Error: bad function: 7 **.
 
I am an extreme newbie when it comes to lisp and I feel like this should be an easy thing to code.  I am just stuck.

[Lee Mac]

After a quick glance, change:

Code - Auto/Visual Lisp: [Select]

22. (Hanger_LayerColor)

to:

Code - Auto/Visual Lisp: [Select]

22. Hanger_LayerColor

Also note that DXF Group 62 will not be present for entities with colour set to ByLayer.

[Keith Brown]

After doing some more research that was one of the first things that I did.  I am now getting the error that the activex server returned an error: Parameter not optional.  This leads me to believe that I am not getting the color of the object correctly.

[Keith Brown]

I did some more testing and the error is definitely in the code where I am trying to grab the color of the object. 
So......... Now I am trying to figure out how to get the color of the first item in a selection set.

[Lee Mac]

Hint:

Code: [Select]

_$ (vla-put-color <VLA-Layer-Object> nil)
; error: ActiveX Server returned an error: Parameter not optional

Also note that DXF Group 62 will not be present for entities with colour set to ByLayer.

[dgorsman]

Maybe throw in another (if ... ) around the (cdr ...) at the end, such that if it *is* nil it will get the layer of that object and extract the ACI value.

I wonder if we can still assign acBylayer/"BYLAYER" as a color of a layer... I know it can be done with line types.

[Keith Brown]

I decided to go another route and instead of getting the color of the object I went with getting the color of the layer that the object resides on.  I think that this will work for my purposes.  Here is the code.
 

Code - Auto/Visual Lisp: [Select]

1. (setq Hanger_LayerColor acWhite)  ;; Set desired hanger layer color here
2. (setq Hanger_LayerAppend "-Hngr")     ;; Set name to append to duct layer here
3.  
4. ;; Set color for the hanger layer
5. (vla-put-color
6.     (vla-add
7.         (vla-get-layers
8.             (vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object))
9.          )
10.  
11.         ;; set desired layer name as global variable
12.         (setq *Duct_layerName*
13.           (strcat
14.             (cdr (assoc 8 (entget (ssname ss 0))))
15.             Hanger_LayerAppend
16.            )
17.          )
18.      )
19.  
20.     (if (= Hanger_LayerColor nil)
21.        (cdr (assoc 62 (entget (tblobjname "LAYER" (cdr (assoc 8 (entget (ssname ss 0))))))))  ;; Get the color of the object layer
22.        Hanger_LayerColor
23.      )
24. )
25.  

So if I change the value of Hanger_LayerColor to nil the new layer will have the color of the objects layer.  If I leave it alone the new layer will have a white color.  Exactly what I wanted.