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 September 2008

Update: A2008 & A2009 Import Layer States

In February 2007 I addressed the saving of a layer state, and in that article I also mentioned - albeit in passing - that you could Export a layer state from Drawing A, then use the Import feature to import those layer states into Drawing B.

As it turns out, my customer at Union Pacific Railroad discovered that, in fact, you need not Export a layer state from another drawing, you can just select it from a list! When checking on the version in which this was introduced, I see it has been there since AutoCAD 2008. Here's what Jim discovered…

Instructions to Load a Layer State from Another Drawing

1. On the Layers toolbar, click Layer States Manager.
2. Click Import to open the Import Layer State dialog box.
3. From the Files of Type dropdown list, you can select Drawing (*.DWG), Standards (*.DWS), Drawing Template (*.DWT), or Layer State (*.LAS). Choose "Drawing (*.DWG)".
4. Navigate to the folder containing a drawing that has layer states already in it, then click Open.
5. All available layer states will be listed. Toggle off any layer states you don't want to load, then click OK.

Although exporting a layer state enables you to transfer the resulting .LAS to another system, if you have access to the drive containing the drawings of interest, use above procedure to load a layer state directly from a drawing.

Memo: For those of you who created layer states using the Express Tools Layer Manager (LMAN) - and I know there are quite a few of you - when using the above method to load a layer state, any layer state that is listed with the LMAN- prefix will not be loaded. To make it work, if you open the drawing containing the LMAN- states, restore each one, then save the drawing, those layer states are now fair game when using the above method of loading layer states.

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