vw2008-Layer Color and Opacity problems

[brian-rwc]

We are having problems with layer colors and changing the opacity of design layers that I don't think we ever had with vw12. When selecting 'Use Layer Colors' it works in the design layers but not in the Viewports on the sheet layers. I checked the viewport settings (advanced options) and saw no override options. The viewports just show everything based on Class colors even though 'Use Layer Colors' is selected in the document preferences. The only fix has been to export to vw12 when we need viewports to display layers using layer colors. I don't think that's a good sign when you have to downgrade the software you are using to make something work correctly.

The other problems is that when we change the opacity of a design layer that is being workgroup referenced, it never retains the setting when re-opening the file. It always reverts back to 100%. At first I thought it was related to whether we selected 'Save referenced cache to disk' when editing the Workgroup Reference settings. At first it seemed to make a difference but then it didn't anymore. This is an extreme nuisance. We used to select the 'grayed out' option instead but stopped using that when text objects from plug-in objects started to disappear when printing.

Anyone else have these problems? Otherwise can anyone tell us what we might be doing wrong? Thank you.

[Pat Stanford]

I don't know about the opacity problem, but in Viewports you can turn on Layer colors on a layer by layer basis.

Click the Layers button in the OIP and then click in the unlabeled column just to the right of the layer name. You will get a funky icon shown layers of color. To turn it back off, just click in the column again.

Pat

[brian-rwc]

Thanks Pat.

That worked. I never knew about that button. At least that part of the problem is solved.

In addition to the opacity problem, I also noticed that layer colors revert back to their defaults (black & white) whenever a referenced layer is modified or updated. The only time they retain their colors is if there were no changes or forced updates to the reference.

Anyone else know if there is a hidden button that controls that somewhere? I toggled the 'Update class definitions' option on and off and it made no difference. The "manual update" option is not an option I want to risk taking since I could forget I set it to "manual" and then have big coordination problems down the line.

Thanks,

Brian

[Pat Stanford]

If you are using "Old Style" (Pre-VW2008) Layer references, when you do an Update, the referenced layers are thrown away and deleted. No way around it.

Create a Layer Link from the referenced layer to a new design layer and make your changes on the layer with the layer link. Then all your changes will survive and update.

There should not be a problem if you are using Design Layer Viewports in VW2008, only if you are using the old style references.

[brian-rwc]

I'll try using that layer link method instead.

We just have Fundamentals so unfortunately we don't have the option of using design layer viewports.

Thank you,

Brian