copying antire layer?

i'm trying to draw my entire house in autocad r14 (a safe/easy project to get to grips with CAD), but i'm not too sure how to manage the layers i need....

i've started to draw the plan with lines (as opposed to polylines), and now want to extrude them to make walls. so now i realise that i can use pedit to make them polylines, then exrude. but by doing this i lose my original lines (ie my plan drawing). is there a way to copy an entire layer, after which i'll pedit and then extrude?

also is there a way where i can change some lines (length, position etc) on my original plan, and the relative extruded walls will change (thickness etc) accordingly?

many thanks!

i'm trying to draw my entire house in autocad r14 (a safe/easy project to get to grips with CAD), but i'm not too sure how to manage the layers i need....

 

i've started to draw the plan with lines (as opposed to polylines), and now want to extrude them to make walls. so now i realise that i can use pedit to make them polylines, then exrude. but by doing this i lose my original lines (ie my plan drawing). is there a way to copy an entire layer, after which i'll pedit and then extrude?

Maybe lock all of the layers except a new polyline layer

and simply trace over you existing lines and then extrude the new plines. This will give you a quick exercise in tracing lines with polylines.

also is there a way where i can change some lines (length, position etc) on my original plan, and the relative extruded walls will change (thickness etc) accordingly?

 

many thanks!

Not that I know of, sorry ???

F7

To copy an entire layer, turn off all layers except the one you want. Create a new layer where you will put the copied objects. Use the copy command to copy all objects on your layer (make a window selection) and use a single base point so that one set of objects is exactly over the other. Now use the Change Propertoes command. When asked to select objects, enter P for the previous selection set. All the objects you copied will be selected and you can move them to your new layer. The result is two different layers with the same set of objects.

There's no way to have one object change with respect to another so you'll have to get the plan right first so that the extruded objects fit. Actually, if you do a lot of this sort of work, you should be using Architectural Desktop which helps to automate such tasks.

To copy an entire layer to a new layer:

In AutoCAD Map3D 2008, and probably most others of the family:

Make the layer you want to copy visible, thawed, unlocked.

Enter QSELECT.

Then, in the dialog box, "Entire drawing", "Multiple", "Layer", "Equals".

In the "Value" dropdown, find & select the layer you want to copy.

Ensure the radio button "Include in new selection set" is filled.

Ensure the box "Append to current selection set" is not checked.

Click "OK".

You now have selected everything on that layer.

Enter -COPYTOLAYER (NOTE the preceding dash "-", this is not quite the same as the normal COPYTOLAYER command).

The dialog will say "Specify the destination layer name or..."

[This is where you have several options to specify existing layers to which you could copy the selected things, but in this case you just want to create a brand new layer.]

Just type the name of the NEW layer that you want, and press Enter.

The dialog box will now say

"The layer [your layer name] does not exist. Do you want to create it? Y/N"

Enter Y.

NOTE that the copied data appears onscreen this point, but will disappear again if Esc is pressed. You will not have completed the process until the next click.

The dialog box will now say

"Specify base point or..."

Assuming you want to keep everything in exactly the same place on the new layer, just press Enter OR right click.

[if you want to move the copied stuff a bit, this is where you can define your start point and end point of the move.]

Ta-daa!

You have named & created a new layer containing everything on the old layer, in exactly the same place.

If you've done it all wrong, you might want to consider the LAYDEL command, but that's quite severe. Look it up first.

Hope this is useful to someone, I realise this thread hasn't been updated for seven years, but I wish I'd seen this rather than struggle through COPYTOLAYER vs -COPYTOLAYER...

but by doing this i lose my original lines

read about the "DELOBJ" system variable in your help menu. This allows you to keep or automatically delete original linework when creating 3D objects.

Also can be accessed through Tools > Options - 3D Modelling Tab; in '3D Objects' see options for 'Deletion Control while creating 3D Objects'

Screenshot from 2008 below.

is there a way where i can change some lines (length, position etc) on my original plan, and the relative extruded walls will change (thickness etc) accordingly?

Not sure about R14 but in later versions you can edit certain solids using grips, again this can be read about in the help menu if you search on "grip editing solids". FYI autocad refers to it's basic 3D solid objects as solid primitives eg box, sphere, torus, wedge etc. A solid made up by performing Boolean operations (UNION, SUBTRACT, INTERFERE - see help file) on two or more primitives is called a composite solid.

I realise this thread hasn't been updated for seven years,

TALLGUY! you suckered me!

LoL

How did you even stumble across this?