Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published June 2007

Freezing Individual Layers in a Single Viewport

Over the last several years ( ! ) I've covered various Express Tool features, but the one I keep having to show folks is the Layer Freeze option regarding blocks. When a layer is frozen, you cannot see the objects on that layer. When it comes to blocks, there's another element to consider.

Setup: As you may recall, a block can be created on one or more layers, for example A, B, and C. However, there is a very real possibility that the block could be inserted on a totally different layer.

For example, the geometry for a particular line of panel symbols in the CAP Designer software (available from www.2020technologies.com), is created on A-FURN-P-PNLS, and the attribute tag is created on A-FURN-P-PNLS-T, a logical approach to creating contract furniture symbols that works very well. However, when placing the panels and components into the drawing, by default they are inserted on A-FURN.

Consider this: If you freeze one of the layers on which a block was created, only the geometry on that layer is frozen and cannot be seen. If, however, you freeze the layer on which a block was inserted, all blocks (and other objects, for that matter) that are on that layer, are frozen.

Dilemma: When using the Layer Freeze command from the Layers II toolbar in A2007 & A2008… formerly the Express: Layer Tools toolbar in previous versions… how does AutoCAD know which layer to freeze? More importantly, how do you specify which layers are to be frozen, the "created" layer or the "inserted" layer?

Solution: For a majority of circumstances, make sure the Block Nesting Level is set to "Entity". When you launch the Layer Freeze command from the Layers II toolbar, you will see the current settings displayed on the command line. If the current setting reads Block Level Nesting = Block, do the following.

1. After launching the Layer Freeze command, enter S for the Setting options.
2. In the options for the settings, you want B for the Block settings.
3. Enter E for the Entity option. At this point, you can click on the objects in the viewport to freeze and only the geometry on the layer on which the blocks were created will be frozen.

Note: You may encounter some drawings in which the opposite may be true; rare, but possible. Bottom line, you want to set that Block Level Nesting to the one that works. The good news is, there's only two to choose from. If, however, the block was created and inserted on the same layer… this whole issue is moot. Sorry.

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