Importing a new DWG layer

Hi All,

To what seems a simple question I can't find the answer...

I have a DWG file created in AutoCAD that I wish to import/copy into another DWG file as a new layer. Do ya reckon I can find out how

I'm using v2010.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Simon

Ah well yeah, sort of. When you open the Layer Manager (type LAYER) you find a button for a Creating a New Layer. Do that, name it to something suitable. Double-click on the Layer to make it active. Anything you do now will end up on that layer.

Now go to Insert Block, browse to your DWG and hit OK/Insert. Now the block will be on that layer.

Double-click on the Layer to make it active. Anything you do now will end up on that layer.

Hey, thanks for your help.

I've got the insert block working ok, but cannot get it to paste to the new layer. I've set the new layer as active (green tick), but it dumps it into the old active layer.

hmm.... are you exploding the block? If you do, the entities of the block will stay on their layers, as in, when you import the block, you import the layers that the block have as well. This is why most do blocks on layer 0.

The imported block is going to layer 0, but I want it to go to the new layer called something else. The imported drawing is layer 0 in the other doc.

I tried unchecking the "exploding" box but nothing seems to happen then.

If all you're doing is a copy/paste then objects from drawing #1 created on layer 0 will be pasted into drawing #2 on layer 0 even if the current layer is named something else.

...I tried unchecking the "exploding" box but nothing seems to happen then.

As in nothing happens, or as in nothing is different?

Is there a lot of geometry to copy? Could you use QSELECT to select what you need and change the layer in the drop down list?

Thanks guys, I finally got the job done by letting the block import dump the drawing in layer 0, then using the plain old copy & paste with base point to move layers. Took a bit of fiddling but I got there.

Glad that you got it sorted!

A sidenote for future reference; to move things from one layer to another, the easiest way that I find is to highlight everything (or QSELECT), bring out the Properties palette (type PR) and change the layer in the Layer-box.

Cheers - thanks for the tip.