Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published April 2006

Layer Walk - Previous

A couple years ago [Michael's Corner - May 2004] I covered the Express tool Layer Walk. At a training recently in Omaha, I was quite pleased to have one of my students use the feature to find the layer on which a customer had drawn the viewport frames.

The specific feature of Layer Walk that I find the most useful is the ability to display all the layers of a drawing, whether they are Off or Frozen. The Select All item in the Layer Walk shortcut menu brings 'em all front and center.

OK, so there are all the layers. You make your change to the drawing such as changing the size of the viewport frame or making a copy of the viewport; whatever. Now you need to put the layers back the way you found them before you turned them all On. Granted, you could have saved the layer state by name, but have you ever used the Layer Previous feature?

It's fabulous. It is essentially a layer-specific "undo". Click the Layer Previous feature to put the layers back the way they were before you turned them on with Layer Walk.

Display All Layers in 3 Seconds…Then Put 'Em Back

1. Open any drawing with multiple layers.
2. Turn a couple Off, Freeze a couple other ones.
3. Launch Layer Walk (Express >Layers >Layer Walk). You may have to expand it vertically.
4. Right-click in the list, then click Select All.
5. Important - Clear the check box for "Restore On Exit" before you click Close.
6. Make any change to the drawing; copy or draw something.
7. Now click Layer Previous on the Layers toolbar to go back to the previous layer state.

Note: Layer Previous retains all previous layer states during that drawing session.

A2007 Sidebar: The Express "Layer" tools are now incorporated into core AutoCAD 2007 and have their own menu, Layers II.

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