Datasheet

If some of your entities have linetypes that aren’t scaled to your liking, instead of
changing that with LTSCALE, use PROPERTIES to make changes to each individual
object in a viewport in the layout.
Layers
A number of things about layers can give you problems. Here are a few of them:
• Locking allows you to lock a layer so that it’s visible but not changeable. You can still
use osnaps on the visible entities. Most users would benefit from using layer locking
more often to avoid inadvertent changes to their drawings.
• Layer filters, and freezing layers by viewport (VPLAYER) are useful advanced com-
mands in the Layer Properties Manager dialog box.
• You can change layer names in the Layer Properties Manager dialog box; but the
RENAME command is faster when you’re changing names of layers from a bound
XRef, because you can use wildcards. Layer 0 is the only layer you can’t rename.
• Plot/No Plot settings can be made for layers, so there’s no longer a need to use the
Defpoints layer for that purpose. Don’t make Defpoints the active layer, because any
objects you add to it won’t plot.
I’ve seen two cases of odd behavior with objects placed on the Defpoints layer: One user was
unable to select a viewport even though it was visible, and another placed points on that
layer but couldn’t change their appearance. In the viewport case, freezing layer 0 created the
problem. And points can’t be displayed as anything other than a single pixel on the Def-
points layer. The only reason to place objects on the Defpoints layer is the security of know-
ing that no one will accidentally plot them.
People sometimes confuse layer locking with viewport locking in a layout. They do different
things and aren’t related. Locking a layer doesn’t affect the display of objects in any way.
Locking a viewport doesn’t prevent you from changing objects in that viewport.
Linetype problems are often the result of confusion between metric and imperial units. If you
need an LTSCALE of 25 or so to see linetypes properly in a layout, you’ve probably started your
drawing in imperial units but are drawing objects measured in millimeters. If you need a small
setting, say .04, then it’s likely that you have the opposite problem: You started a drawing in
metric units but are drawing in inches. See the earlier section “Control Imperial vs. Metric Units.”
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