Change all colours to by layer

[dsibbo]

I have an architects plan consisting of many different layers, I have exploded all the plan so that there are no blocks.

I have now created a layer called building. I have selected everything and and placed it on this layer. The layer colour is colour 8.

I now want everything to be by layer so that it is all colour 8. However when I select all (151038 items) and change it all to by layer nothing changes. All colours stay as they are.

But if I was to go and select a small area at a time it allows me to change them to by layer and the colours change to colour 8 as desired.

Does anyone know how to select all and select by layer and have all the colours change in one go rather than me going around the drawing selected sections at a time to make the colours change. I have to do this several times a week so a quicker way would be ideal.

Thank You

[Organic]

I've had a similar problem before when trying to change the properties of a large number of objects also (think it was 400K or so). In the end I had to select the objects in groups of 10000 to 15000 or so and change those properties, then select the next group and repeat etc...

[dsibbo]

Yes, its like you are only allowed a certain amount of items at a time. There has to be a quicker way to do this.

[Blackfish]

What about SETBYLAYER command?

[Dadgad]

So you're not to keen on having to change this on what, half a million of these a week?
There is certainly a good way, I wish I could tell you what it is.
I'm sure somebody will tell you how.

Are you trying to change these in PROPERTIES perhaps?
It might be because of the PROPOBJLIMIT system variable, as shown in the image.

Wait a minute, is that a workaround possibly in the RIBBON CONTEXTUAL SELECTION LIMIT setting?

[Dadgad]

What about SETBYLAYER command?

That sounds promising Blackfish!

[Dadgad]

It also looks like you might be able to do it with the CHANGE command, and the COLOR option,
or how about the MATCHPROP command that might be the way to go.

[Organic]

So you're not to keen on having to change this on what, half a million of these a week?
There is certainly a good way, I wish I could tell you what it is.
I'm sure somebody will tell you how.

Are you trying to change these in PROPERTIES perhaps?
It might be because of the PROPOBJLIMIT system variable, as shown in the image.

Wait a minute, is that a workaround possibly in the RIBBON CONTEXTUAL SELECTION LIMIT setting?

Interesting. I tried the ribbon one and it still had the same problem for me.

At least increasing it to 32000 would be quicker if I ever need to use it again.

[rkent]

SETBYLAYER was added in R2008, so use that or the good old CHANGE command.

[eldon]

Have you tried the command line version.

Type as below:-

Command: -ch
CHANGE
Select objects: all
450583 found
3 were not in current space.

Select objects:
Specify change point or [Properties]: p

Enter property to change [Color/Elev/LAyer/LType/ltScale/LWeight/Thickness]: c

Enter new color <varies>: bylayer

Enter property to change [Color/Elev/LAyer/LType/ltScale/LWeight/Thickness]:

As you can see, 450583 entities were changed to have colour Bylayer, and it took a second or two (I have a brand new computer!)