About CAD layers

A CAD drawing consists of a number of entities (a CAD term for an object in a drawing) sorted in different layers. A help text will appear telling you which specific layer an entity belongs to when you hover the mouse pointer over the entity.

Right-clicking an imported dwg/dxf drawing and selecting CAD (dwg/dxf) layers will open the dialog box with the same name (see Figure 1). Here you will find a list of all the layers in the imported CAD drawing. From this dialog box you can also make further changes to the layers.

 

cad_dialog_layers.png

Figure 1

 

The dialog box CAD (dwg/dxf) dialog box has five different columns. Click the links to read more about each column:

 

At the top of the dialog box, two more options can be found allowing you to filter drawing information and to show/hide empty layers. Selecting the Hide empty layers check box means that you hide all the layers that lack entities.

 

 

Note:

  • It is possible to select several layers at a time using Shift or Ctrl. All changes made after will then affect all selected layers.

  • Entities within blocks should be set to layer 0 before being imported into CET Designer. An entity within a block will then use the block's layer settings. Otherwise it will use the layer set for that specific entity.

  • You can also work with layers directly when importing a CAD drawing. The same dialog box will the be displayed.

 

Layer Name

The Layer Name column shows a list of all layers in the imported drawing.

Show

It is possible to turn off or hide layers in the drawing area. In the Show column, you can choose whether the layer should be displayed or not by selecting or deselecting the check box.

Snap

In order for CET Designer objects (lines, dimensions, drawing aids etc.) not to snap to the CAD drawing's entities, it is necessary to deactivate the Snap feature for each layer by deselecting the relevant check boxes.

Color

Each specific layer has its own color, To change the color, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the color box shown next to the desired layer.

  2. A Color dialog box opens (see Figure 2).

  3. Select the desired color.

  4. Confirm by clicking OK.

 

cad_layer_color.png

Figure 2

 

 

Note:

The color you select is applied in both 2D and in 3D.

Force

The option Force will force a certain layer's color to all entities that are in that layer. This means that all entities that previously had their own specific colors will lose them and obtain the layer color instead.