Can't save layer status in drawing

I have a couple of assembly drawings, made from the same template as
the others, that refuse to save layer status.

Each time I open them I need to hide the layers in each view containing
the junk that shouldn't be seen. Then when I go to Layer->Save Status
the save status option is greyed out.

What am I missing? I'm using WF3 M030.

Dave

 

You probably can't save it because you didn't change it. The Save Status
option is only available when something has changed. So, for example, if
your status was for the layer to be blanked, but it opened unblanked, then
you blanked it again, you'd have made the status of the layer the same as
its stored value. Thus no change, thus no Save Status. The rest of the story
is why they'd open unblanked when their status was saved as blanked!?!

I think part of the problem with layers is that difficulties compound as you
go from part to component to assembly to drawing. You'd think that, at each
level, you'd be able to have distinct statuses for that level. In the
drawing, for example, I've seen some difference in how layer status is saved
when you go to 'Setting' and uncheck 'Propogate Status' (which, BTW, I can't
find in any Help files). Other confuguration settings seem to isolate
drawing layer status from assembly/part layer status. You can find these
also under 'Settings>Drawing Layer Status' and check the two boxes which
tell what config.pro setting corresponds. But, read the settings option
names and see, from the name, if you can figure out what they're supposed to
do. I'm pretty sure you'll guess the opposite of what they actually do.
Anyway, check them both, see if that helps. If it does, be happy, don't ask
me why. I think it has something to do with the Dungeons and Dragons
obscurantism of the Keepers of the Secrets. I think these are tests of
knighthood in their strange, occult world.

David Janes

 

I'm not really sure how to look at the question. Have you
had a handle on all this and are seeing something different
happen in WF3, or ...?

Because my grasp of layer management in drawings is so
tenuous I don't have anything to suggest but I'll go ahead
and toss a few questions and thoughts, maybe learn something
in the process ...

When Save Status is greyed out, is Reset Status also? I
think this, as DJ suggested, simply indicates a null change
state. I've had drawings where neither will ever go
inactive, though, and always give me a layer status not
saved warning when saving the drawing though status is
saved as indicated by flushing and reloading the drawing.
Buggy?

Model or drawing entities?

Are
ignore_model_layer_status YES
*(Toggling visibility of a layer in model
should not affect drawing. Downside; if a
view exists, you add comp to assy, you'll
have to turn off layers in drawing because
the drawing assumes all layers visible.)

draw_layer_overrides_model YES
*(IF the drawing contains a same name layer
you cannot control a component's layer
visibility in the drawing independently.
If no same name layer exists in the
drawing you can.

If a same name layer exists, it will
force layer visibility of added comps
in the drawing views to conform.)
dtl options in your drawings turned on or off?
(* I ~think~ the descriptions are correct ...
from some casual testing in WF2.)

Do you have same name layers in the drawing
(e.g. what shows in the layer tree if Layer
Settings, No Submodel Layers is ticked)?

Do you have independent view layer states?

Have you added comps to the assy, created new layers in any
of the comps, altered comp layer members? Some or all(?) of
those actions will make my drawing layer object visibilities
go bonkers.

You may have noticed that, after placing a new comp in assy,
view layer visibility goes screwy, if not immediately when
you next update sheet? Datums for unrelated comps switching
themselves on, etc. Layer Settings, Drawing Layer Status,
Ok will make Pro/E re-think and straighten things out.
Again, buggy? I'm sorta wondering if little subtleties like
active drawing model don't have some effect when a change is
made to a drawing referenced model.


On the subject of same name layers in drawings; I have
never used layer templates or duplicated my standard
(def_layer) model layers in drawings. I wonder if that's,
ultimately, a poor idea or completely inconsequential (with
the obvious exception of using the draw_layer_overrides
option)?


Enough rambling. Not intended to confuse or cloud your issue...

 

Thanks for the ideas. I was just changing one layer, and if I set it
to hide, save status and reset status were unavailable. Then I un-hid
it, and the options were still unavailable. Strange.

But today I tried setting all layers to hidden, then all layers to
unhidden. Now save/reset are available, and I made the rest of my
changes. I think a bug was itching me in this case.

Well I have always been foggy, and it's reassuring to know I'm not the
only one who chimpanzees my way thru it on a case-by-case basis. If
you and David don't have a one-liner answer, it must not have been a
stupid question.

Dave

 

Well, I did some more digging and found this in the help files; might be
relevant since you mentioned, earlier, view layers which seems from this do
be a slightly different case. Anyway, from the help files:
About Changing the Display Status of Individual Drawing View Layers
You can change the display status of layers in a drawing only after you have
set the drawing to ignore the layer status of its model by setting the
ignore_model_layer_status drawing setup file option to yes.

The status of layers of drawing views is always independent of the status of
the main drawing layer. Changes that you make to the view layer are not
reflected in the layer of the main drawing.

To make the status of a drawing view layer dependent on the status of the
drawing layer, select the required view from the Active Layer Object
Selection list above the Layer Tree, click View > Visibility > Drawing
Dependent, and click Yes in the confirmation dialog box that Pro/ENGINEER
displays.

When you make a view layer status dependent on the drawing layer, the
operation is temporary and the change is only seen in the graphics window.
For example, if you have a note in a drawing view on the view layer and if
you hide this layer, the layer is hidden at the view level and the note
disappears from the graphics window. The note reappears when you make the
view layer dependent on the main drawing layer using the Drawing Dependent
command.

When you use the Drawing Dependent command on a view layer, the selected
object in the Active Layer Object Selection list automatically moves back
from the selected view layer to the main drawing or model. You can switch
back to the independent view by selecting it from the Active Layer Object
Selection list above the Layer Tree.

You can make the view layer permanently dependent on the drawing layer by
clicking View > Visibility > Copy Status From > Drawing. However, once you
do this you cannot reset the status of the view layer.

-----------------------

There have been times, probably having something to do with the above, that
I couldn't hide datums or other features I knew were on layers just by
picking the layer. Would happen only for certain views and a general
unhide/hide wouldn't do it either. Seems the views were set per view. Which
I found out only by clicking the down arrow next to the layer tree title
[BIG_MODEL.DRW (Top Model)] and found a whole list of other layer trees
embedded below it ~ the assembly layers, the component layers and the view
names on the current sheet. All these could be set from the drawing and
somehow, set independently of each other. So, you could set some view layers
on while they were generally off in the model/assembly and the rest of the
drawing. The key was just getting that drop down list from the layer tree
title or clicking on the selection pointer and picking a model or view. And
each of these has a separate status that can be saved separately. But, if
you change the display of a view, you won't save its status at the general,
top model, drawing layer tree level, only at the view level at which it was
changed.

The last little tricky thing about the drop down list is that it doesn't
update automatically when you change sheets. You have to do something, like
click the selection pointer then select something for the list to update to
the current sheet and it's models/views.

David Janes

 

If your PLM system locks your files (we use Intralink) then you won't
be able to change layer status. That's annoying.

 

There's actually two ways files can be locked in Intralink. The admin can
lock the files in Common Space which prevents checking in any changes, but
it doesn't stop you from changing the file in Work Space. You can do
anything with it locally: bump it up a rev, set it to WIP, change geometry,
layers, parameters. You just can't check in the changes over the
locked/released vaulted files.

The other lock is a WS status of locked which you set with Change Status.
You can also, under Administration, change your profile to automatically do
this status change when files are checked out, as a precaution against
accidentally changing files (such as with 'Layers>Save Status'). However,
since this is a WS status, you can select the files you need to change, RMB
'Change Status' and "clear" the lock. And, if this is the thing that's
annoying you, you can go into your Administration profile and uncheck some
box that's making it to automatically lock files on checkout. I think it's
under the Checkout tab. I've done this, anyway, but maybe your profile is
more tightly controlled by the Ilink admin. I'm pretty sure, from the people
I've told about this kind of stuff, that most of it doesn't get changed
because people don't know they can do it. Or they assume it's controlled
when it's not.

David Janes