Are layer states available from xref?

Hi, new to this forum and it looks like a good one.

Does anyone know how to access/translate original layer states from an xref'd drawing? By original I mean I want to have the same layer control in the new drawing that existed in a now xref'd drawing.

I imported layer states from original plan to new plan along with layouts and xref'd the original but original layer names are now prefixed with the xref plan name so my (original) saved layer states no longer work (because the layer names are now different).

Goal is to have newbie work on new plan that xref's my working drawing, detach xref and only send back his work for plan check before it is bound to the working drawing. For him to work effectively he needs my layer control of the 200+ layers.

Alternate is to have him work on a copy of the original, isolate his layers, paste to a new plan and send me that for plan check.

Is the former method a shortcoming of xrefing or is there different or better way to collaborate?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Ray

Did you Bind the xref into your drawing? It sounds like you used the 'bind' option instead of the 'insert' option. If you choose the 'insert' option when Binding, the xref layer names will not have that prefix attached.

Example:

Bind option

Layers from Xrefs will have prefix attached: XrefName$0$Layer1

Insert option

Layers from Xrefs will have no prefix attached: Layer1

Cad64

Thank you for the response. I'd given up at getting any replies. Odd, seeing how active this site is.

I neither bound or inserted.

Binding or inserting an Xref makes it a part of the plan. My hope was to keep it as a separate Xref. The project is in development and the background (Xref in my working drawing) is being continually updated.

The only options given in my "insert Xref" window are "attach" and "overlay". Both options brings in the Xref layers "XrefName\Layer1".

The "Bind" dialog box gives options to "bind" or "insert" but then I loose the desired effect of updating the background to the current issue.

For now, having newbie work on a plan copy then sending me only his "new" layers is working but I keep thinking there must be a better way.

Export the layer states and use a LISP routine to prefix all the layer names with the xref'd in this drawing prefix. If you then restore the states it should only affect the XREF layers.

Is that even close?

there is a 'tickbox' with 'don't list layer states in xref' written next to it. try unticking it & it will show you the layer states & you can restore them also. only drawback could be that when you apply that layer state all new layers in this drawing will switch off as well.

there is a 'tickbox' with 'don't list layer states in xref' written next to it. try unticking it & it will show you the layer states & you can restore them also. only drawback could be that when you apply that layer state all new layers in this drawing will switch off as well.

1. Where is this option. IS it available on 07?

2. You could group filter all the non-xref layers in a drawing without the xref prefix and turn them back on globally once the x-ref layer state has been applied. You could then save the new state!

I like wannabe's first solution. Thanks for the suggestion.

A similar LISP routine would be especially useful as the team's file naming protocol is to name their current plan "PlanName_Date". Date naming plans is very helpful when viewing a vast quantity of same named plans archived at the project ftp site AND the plan date shows the currency of Xref layers in the layer manager. This dating protocol however continually causes extra work when updating xrefs since the xref layer name changes with each update and so previously saved layer states need to be revised at as well.

Alas, I do not have lisp routine writing skills. Is anyone here willing to write this routine for me?

MY layer names would need to stay intact since they do not carry the Xref name.

Several plans are xref'd in my plan and they are updated individually so routine would need allow the choice of a specific layer prefix to be changed but not the other prefixed layers

Example:

Original saved layer state in my plan GWsurvey_021009

rwSurvPt Road

Civil Road_021809\Driveway

Civil Road_021809\Path

Civil Grade_021809\Major

Civil Grade_021809\Minor

On 3-3-09 Civil updates his Road background

My plan GWsurvey_021009 is saved-as GWsurvey_030309

Obsolete Road Xref is detached and new road plan is Xref'd

Run lisp to change layer state layers named Civil Road_021809\* to Civil Road_030309\*

New saved layer state in plan GWsurvey_030309

rwSurvPt Road

Civil Road_030309\Driveway

Civil Road_030309\Path

Civil Grade_021809\Major

Civil Grade_021809\Minor

Back to the original issue of working with my newbie. I guess a separate routine would be needed to remove the Xref prefix from layer names so (Xref'd layer) GWsurvey_030309\Civil Road_030309\CL would revert back to Civil Road_030309\CL. Then the original saved layer states would work. Or, as wannabe suggests, all saved layer state layers could be changed to have the GWsurvey_030309 Xref prefix added. I don't know yet which method would be more effective.

Diapli,

I can't find the "tickbox" either so I can't experiment with your suggestion. If it is available on '07 and I can find it I'd love to test your solution.

Thanks, Ray

Lisp routines as described in my last post would be easier/quicker but without the skills to write the routine I may have found a partial work-around.

For the first scenario, to update a layer state that had some but not all Xrefs updated:

The layer state can be edited in WordPad with find/replace.

Open the * .las file (original named and saved layer state) with WordPad. Using menu > edit > replace will let you "find and replace all". eg Replace All "Civil Road_021809" with "Civil_Road_030309". In layer state manager delete original layer state and import edited state.

I need to experiment with this but I think it will work.

For scenario two I'd need to add the Xref prefix to all layers in the layer state since I discovered you cannot re-name Xref dependent layers. I tried opening the .las file in Excel which would allow me to add a preceding column with the Xref name but this did not work. Adding the Xref name to each layer with WordPad is too tedious because each layer line would need to have the Xref name pasted in front of the original and this is too tedious with hundreds of layers.

Ray

posting a screen shot of layer state manager & highlighting the tickbox I was refering to earlier.

Thanks dipali. Seems like your tick box is an added feature for 08. My 07 does not have it .

07 Layer States.pdf