autolisp

I must admit, I've never had to deal with this before....

i would like to set up a toolbar button that will turn off a predefined set
of layers. We don't give our sales office fully dimensioned drawings, we
turn off all the dims, notes, atb, .....so all the end up with is walls,
windows & doors, and room names.... any help would be appreciated.

I've considered just make up some new tabs and turning of these layers in
the viewports, but that would involve alot of work....a button would be
soooo much easier.

Paul caruthers

 

Explore Layer States in help.

 

HOW ABOUT MAKING A BUTTON WITH THE MACRO

^C^C-LAYER OFF "LAYER NAME,LAYER NAME, ECT" ;

 

Paul -

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Thanks Matt, that's almost got it. I've got to hit the button twice, for
some reason, but it's a starting point.
this is what i've got working C^C^_-la;of;dim,not,beam,girder,cen,atb,hat

time for a little home work tonight.

Paul Caruthers

 

You should be close. Try to use 2 semicolons at the end to close the
command. BTW - simple layer/command macros can be pretty handy once you get
the hang of them, even if you are on full cad (I unfortunately use LT). I
have macros to turn groups of layers on/off , lock viewports, reload xrefs
plus all the handy ones that Chip Harper supplied on his site. Good luck.

Matt

 

Use Layer Manager, lman at the command, its under the Express pull down,
layers

 

under the Express pull down

Per previous discussions, LMAN has been obviated by the layer state
functionality added to the basic layer manager. It's always preferable to
use a "core" functionality if it's available, rather than an add-on.

In any case, the OP has already got an answer he seems happy with. I also
think that using layer states would have been a good solution, but he seemed
to want a "button" to do the work.

 

Thanks for suggestions. I have explored and played with the "layer states"
process. If I'm doing it correctly ( I have saved the 2 states that I would
like) it is a several stroke process to flip between an "all layers on mode"
to "what I want". The tool bar button/macro is faster. and far easier to
explain to the other user in the office that is...barely cad literate....but
a good guy anyway.

Paul

 

You can restore layer states from a macro as well. Use -LAYER as follows:
^c^c_-layer;a;r;layerstatename;;;

 

Duh, yeah I suppose you could....if I had thought of that...

Now, what would be the advantage to that. The end result is the same (at
least for this specific case), the unwanted layers are turned off. With the
toolbar it becomes a universal tool in any drawing. Doesn't the layer state
have to be imported to each drawing that it would be used? I have a library
of about 30 standard house plans (templates)and a half dozen condos, and
from these I produce about 120-150 set of plans in a given year. in
addition to the 4-5 new designs we create to introduce the next year. This
whole thing came about because, we supply the sales office with stripped
drawings of the standard plans (no notes, dims, any real info), and our
design center gets striped drawings for those houses that we actually
sell/build and are used to make notes on when the buyers come in to make
there interior selections....anyway, it was always a Pain in the Butt to go
in and turn off all those layers one at a time.

Paul Caruthers

 

By the way Paul.....you might like this.

C^C^_-la;a;s;statename;;;
then
C^C^_-la;s;r;statename;;;

The first will save your layer state ("statename") is whatever you want to
call it. Then make the changes to your layers and finally use the second
macro to restore your layer state. Obviously the statename needs to match
in both macros. You could even incorporate the first one into the layer you
used to turn off your selected layers.

Matt
(Proud new owner of an '04 Mach 1....this sucker is serious.)