Managing Drawings with Layers in AutoCAD

by John Flanagan

Creating and Assigning Layers

A layering scheme is one of the most important organising tools in any drawing. A standard layer scheme should be included in your template drawings. Use the Layer Properties Manager to create new layers and change the properties or status of existing layers, as shown.

Layer Properties Manager

The Layer Properties Manager is a palette and can stay open while you are working in the drawing. It can also be docked and hidden to create space in the drawing area. When layers are modified in the Layer Properties Manager, the changes are automatically applied to the drawing and listed in the Layer Control list in the Home tab>Layers panel.

● When you create layers, you set their colour, linetype, lineweight and plot or no-plot status, and the plot style (if applicable).

● Layers defined in a template establish a consistent layer standard for all drawings based on that  template.

● The icon in the Status column indicates whether the layer contains objects, does not contain objects, or is the current layer.

Tip: To create several new layers quickly, click New Layer once and type the layer names separated

        by a coma.