It appears that when plants are placed in a drawing, Land F/X creates more layers than what it displayed in Preferences > General > Layers. Is there a way to customize these layers - just like one might do using the Edit button - rather than using Block Layers or BatchMan?
Neal,
Every project has a preference set assignment. So when you open a drawing that has a project assigned to it, then the corresponding preference set will be used. If you are in a blank drawing, or one that has not been assigned a project yet, the system will use the alphabetically first preference set. So depending on what tools you are using and your workflow, it may be best to either assign a project to get a preferred preference set, or to make your default preference set alphabetically first. Also, if you don't want the "Imperial" preference set, you are more than welcome to remove it.
--J
Neal,
Those are layers within blocks.
What is it you would like to customize about them?
--J
Jeremiah,
I would like to customize the colors and line thicknesses of the LK-****-0**M and LK-****-TRNK layers to conform with my multidisciplinary firm's .ctb. Right now, Land F/X's defaults are plotting in a way that is difficult to read, based on how the .ctb was configured several years ago by a non-landscape-architect in the office.
Is there a way to do this? Thanks in advance.
Neal :)
Neal,
That is done in the Block Layers tool.
So for instance LK-TREE-050M, which defaults to Green - you would change green to a more appropriate color to print at 0.50mm. Then the layer will get changed to that color when you insert a tree for the first time in a drawing.
--J
Jeremiah,
Thank you for the lead. However, lineweights in my firm's .ctb are not based on colors but on lineweight assigned to that layer in the Layer Manager toolbar. Layer colors are used in my firm's .ctb to determine what color or shade of gray the line will plot. All colors plot as "Use object lineweight" (that is, a value assigned elsewhere in the layer properties, not to the color) by default, meaning that either a lineweight is assigned to that layer or a global width is assigned to the individual line in the Properties toolbar.
If I understand Block Layers correctly, I can only use it to change layer colors, not layer lineweights as I am able to in the Edit tool. Is this correct?
The attached screenshots show how layers are set up in our company standards. It is unfortunate that this method does not jive well with Land F/X, but that is what works best for the engineers in my office so that is what I am working with.
What are your thoughts?
Neal :)
Neal,
You absolutely can assign a lineweight to a block layer color. You can also assign a named STB plot style.
As for my thoughts.... Yes, this is unfortunate. In that, your company has taken the very simple and effective method of having layer colors correlate with a plotted line thickness, and added a completely unnecessary additional complexity. Further, by having lineweights assigned to layers, it makes it very challenging to make global changes, for instance to use slimmer lineweights for a reduction or other purposes. What should be easily accomplished by just choosing a different CTB file, instead would require manually sorting through the list of all layers. But, to each their own!
--J
Jeremiah,
How do I assign a lineweight to a block layer universally throughout my firm's Land F/X configuration?
Neal :)
Neal,
In the Block Layers dialog, edit each layer color and select a lineweight:
https://www.landfx.com/docs/admin/office-standards-general/land-f-x-layers/item/148-line.html#block
--J
Jeremiah,
Got it. That makes sense.
I then receive this error though. Any thoughts?
Neal :)
Neal,
Ah, that would be a bug! Sorry, we just changed something with how the colors are stored, and seem to have missed that one.
It is corrected, and will be part of the update posting on Friday.
--J
Jeremiah,
Thanks for following up on this last month! It appears that the bug is fixed.
I was able to edit the colors within the Block Layers menu and created a new Preference Set to save my settings. However, the colors I edited in the Block Layers menu did not convert within the drawing the when I loaded the Preference Set (see attached image). My goal is to get all of the shrub trunks to change to "Red" to avoid conflicts with my firm's .ctb. I was able to get the colors to convert by opening the Block Layers menu, clicking OK, then selecting Yes to apply changes. However, I would prefer not to have to do this every time I open a file, especially for files where plants have already been placed.
This leads to several questions:
Neal :)
Neal,
The Block Layer setting applies only to blocks, so as such it does not convert a drawing upon opening. Instead, it is when you insert a block - if a layer needs to be converted, it will be converted upon that layer first being created in a drawing.
For an existing drawing, as you have found, you can simply open the Block Layers tool and click OK, and then Yes to apply to the current drawing.
If you have multiple drawings you need to convert, you can use BatchMan, and specifically its ability to change layer colors with the Setup.GCL file that the Block Layers tool created in your Landfx folder.
--J
Jeremiah,
It appears that the Change All Layer Colors function is what I will need for all drawings I have created in the past. I will look into this when I need it. Thank you!
In terms of your first paragraph, I noticed an idiosyncrasy. In a new drawing (blank with no Land F/X layers), if I open my custom Preference Set first and then open a Project Template second, the Preference Set resets to Imperial. However, if in a new drawing I open the custom Preference Set first and then open an existing Project second, the Preference Set says as my custom set and my Block Layers convert when I insert a block from that project.
Is Land F/X supposed to change my Preference Set when I open a Project Template?
Neal :)
Jeremiah,
Thank you so much! I was able to get it figured out.
Neal :)