Block wont change colour

I have a survey of some trees which has been carried out and put onto an .DWG for me. Ive been working on it a while, but have recently needed to change the colour of some of the trees. Now they have come from the survey programme as a block and I really need them to stay as a block as it makes the work im doing a lot easier to work with. However, I need to change the colour of some of them, and put them on a different layer. Having made this new layer with a new layer colour (red) i added the trees I needed to to the new layer, but they wont change colour!?

Is there any way I can get them to change colour WITHOUT exploding them?

(I've attached an example; I want to change the green tree, the text and the brown trunk symbol ALL to red and to be on the layer "deleted trees plan" - if anyone can figure this out please let me know how.)

Thanks everyone!

Using AutoCAD 2009 LT by the way!

Tree 1.dwg

basically the colour was set within the block. Changing layers wouldn't have had any affect. I have set the green colour to "ByBlock" here so see if that helps..

DEC2PB.dwg

Yea but it's been exploded to do it! I need to keep them as a block im afraid! My computer is struggling to use the file as it is with as many trees as i have and other drawings i need in it, exploding them really doesnt help it! And I need them to change colour to stand out from the others whilst keeping the text and the trunk that goes with them on the same layer so I can easily qselect them all!

Is there no way to change the Blocks properties?

reply revised.......

did you INSERT my drawing or do something else?

if you don't want to INSERT my drawing you can open your block in BEDIT, change the colour there to ByLayer or ByBlock and exit the block editor. All your blocks will then redefine.

ah I see what you mean! If i use this though i have to go round and scale it up or down to match each of the trees! I dont think this is going to be easy in any way!

Thanks for the help Dave! Least I have 1 now that's no green!

Well, you have problems here, because you are not creating entities that are coloured BYLAYER.

The Tree block was created on layer 0, but was coloured Green instead of Bylayer. If it was coloured Bylayer, then it would take on the colour of the layer in which it was inserted without being exploded.

Your text and trunk are also coloured specifically instead of Bylayer.

You may have to re-define your Tree block with the colour Bylayer, then you can have differently coloured blocks, all depending on which layer they are inserted.

I am too slow typing, but the message is clear - colour BYLAYER

Thanks for the reply Eldon! by your editing reason i guess I asked at a bad time!

Your answer is perfect! exactly what i needed!!! My work has just been halved!

Thanks again!!!

ah I see what you mean! If i use this though i have to go round and scale it up or down to match each of the trees! I dont think this is going to be easy in any way!

 

Thanks for the help Dave! Least I have 1 now that's no green!

I know eldon has given you the answer you require but you should not have to change the scale of any block already inserted.

but if i need to make it bigger and smaller for different trees I have to scale it up and down? or is there a better way to do that? They were made automatically the correct size out of the surveying equipement at first but if i were to insert a block to replace each tree i would surly have to scale that block to match each tree?

If you have already inserted them at various scales, redefining the block won't affect the existing insertions. In this instance it is ONLY the colour of each block that should change, nothing else.

ah my apologies! i must have followed your directions incorrectly! sorry dbroada!