Edit xref

Hi,

I need to change colour to a drawing with several viewports and xrefs. I suggested to my co-worker that I could fix this via plot manager, but he insists that I change all colours in the xref to one and the same, so everyone can plot it black and white and so we don't have to set up new plot styles on every computer. (we've got the drawing file from another company btw).

I've had a look and it seems like I have to do refedit to be able to edit any parts of the xref. Most of the drawing has got the same colour already, but it just say "by layer"... how do I find out what colour it is??

And is this the easiest and fastest way to do this?

Thanks for help,

Arty

How do you work in a drawing where everything is the same color? One of the main reasons for layers is so you can tell things apart by color.

It's easy to set up a plot table that prints everything in one color. We use one like that. You can copy the table to everyone's system or link to a common one on a network. You're right. Your co-worker is making things too difficult.

I'm doing a plot table, this is just crazy work...

Any tips on how you can find out the colour on a layer where it says Colour: By Layer ?

I figured it out... Layer properties - doh!

he insists that I change all colours in the xref to one and the same, so everyone can plot it black and white

This is the way to go. A lot of companies change their backgrounds to gray and may use a few more color for some things. Save a copy of the original file somewhere safe. Work on a copy and utilize the SETBYLAYER command to change all objects color to BYLAYER, including nested items, and use the layer manager to set the layers to appropriate colors for your plot style.

... utilize the SETBYLAYER command to change all objects color to BYLAYER, including nested items, ...

How did I not know about SETBYLAYER before??? Coolest. command. ever.

It is a relatively new command.

Right.... I sort of do it that way, I'm changing colours in Layer Manager, but I didn't know about SETBYLAYER command.

So if I have understood you right, you first set all layers to BYLAYER, then change the colour in Layer Manager, then do a Plot style table to suit the printing needs.

I have a lot of drawings on this project, with xrefs in it. Do I have to do edit xref to SETBYLAYER?

I assume you have to do this to every file, but that's ok.

Thanks guys, I'm giving this a go now!

So I have done as you suggested and it worked fine until two lines just won't change! In Layer manager it says White and plot Bylayer, so it should all be good, but in the plot they come out as red??

Also... I'm in layout view. On the drawings I have a layer called plot which hold objects, both text and lines in sort of a table, in different colours individually. Should I bunch these together or keep it as is?

I've tried to see if there was any difference if I working in model space but no, I can't figure out why 'layer colour white', turns out red? I have another object that is red but say green in layer manager...?

Let's first get clear on Plot Style(s). Having more than one for your in house drawings can lead to confusion. Keep it simple. There should be more than enough colors to accomplish what you need. Make sure white and all the other colors are set to plot to Black.

Yes, you will have to clean up every file you plan on using as an XREF.