Question on layer control

[celkins]

I have a drawing with an external referance. The xref is existing topo in MS and we draw new facilities in PS. The problem I'm having is someone pulling up the existing topo drawing and thawing a layer that was supposed to be frozen and that showing up in the plot of my PS drawing. What I want to be able to do is freeze some layers in my PS drawing and no matter what someone does to them in the original drawing they stay frozen, but also, I want to allow the xref to update the layers that I do not want frozen. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[CarlAK]

I believe the system variable 'VISRETAIN' will do just what you're looking for. You should be able to set layer visibility, color, linetypes in your Parent drawing and it will overide current settings of the original, xref'd drawing. (I don't remember offhand if that setting is 1 or 0, check help file)

 

[celkins]

I've tried that. That is the same as checking or unchecking the box that says "retain changes to xref layers". When checked it keeps the layer states as they are regardless of changes to the xref. Unchecked it allows the xref to control the layer aspects. I want the layers frozen in current viewport to remain frozen and allow changes to the ones that are not frozen. When we have tried to use VISRETAIN, when unchecked, it clears the "frozen in current viewport" assignments in the drawing when the xref reloads. If checked, it doesn't allow the xref to update colors etc. to those that are not frozen.

 

[CarlAK]

I think I see what you are saying -you basically want to retain your viewport's frozen/thawed status but otherwise want the xref to be updated. I was surprised that VISRETAIN affects that also, but apparently it does. Only workaround that comes to mind is to use layer states or layer manager and set it for each viewport. Or find a way to live with VISRETAIN set to 1.

 

[nebster]

There are only two ways that I know of to solve your problem: One of them is to write a lisp routine and place it in the s::startup portion of your loading acad.lsp or acad2000.lsp. the other is a software purchased from:

http://cadlock.com/

I don't work for them, nor do I endorse their software, I just happen to know of them, because I was looking into a way that I could ship drawing files that could not be plotted.

I have written a routine that keeps people from changing the LTSCALE in drawings and placed it in the s::startup, it shouldn't be too difficult to write one for layers as well.