Layer Colors, hate them but they have a purpose

[MattG]

I typically do drawings on 1 layer and lots of classes to allow easy 3d navigation and a single light source. Now some projects I have been working on we are working with a number of different vendors. I have had people ask if I can color code which vendor is supplying different elements. Now I have all the different things made as symbols that go to reports and there are numbers of instances where a symbol or item is being provided by two vendors because of availability.

Now what I have been doing is just using, use layer colors and put each vendors stuff on a layer real quickly because it is already sorted in my classes. Then I make each layer a color and turn them on in the respective drawings with the visibilities I like.

The issue I am having is people are still wanting to maintain some of the graphic attributes of the symbols to make it clear what type of a thing that symbol is representing. So say I have thing A they want it to show up with a red fill and the lines to match the layer color and then thing B to be blue fill and lined with layer color based on what layer it is on. Now I am wanting to tear my hair out because it just my of made a ton of work for myself.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Matt

[brudgers]

Now I am wanting to tear my hair out because it just my of made a ton of work for myself.

Anyone have any thoughts?

That's job security.

[Pat Stanford]

The best solution I can think of would be a script that you could run before you print. It would convert all symbols to groups and then go through each layer and change the line color of each object to match the layer color.

You would then need to revert back to a saved version so you don't lose the symbols.

Are you printing all of the layers at the same time? If not you could use Class overrides in sheet layers to accomplish something similar.

[Miguel Barrera]

What kind of graphic are these things? As I understand the problem, each distinct object will have the same fill color but the lines will match the vendor assigned color.

This can be done with plugin objects with two fields; one for the object type; the other for the vendor name.

Can you attach a sample pic of the objects?

[RubenH]

Why you don't use viewports?

Maybe you can use class overrides.

[MattG]

It is hard to give a real good example because I cannot really give out full document. Here is a quick example.

I work in the entertainment industry, we use truss and motors to pick stuff up. We want to know what company is providing said things. My boss likes to see it colorcoded because that is the way he rolls.

I have 3 layers with layer colors turned on. Now the motor points the little circle things I typically have different colors on based on what type they are. I have a whole library I already made based on this. So when I turn on layer colors I lose that. Does that make sense? What are my options. The truss is defaulted to blue because it is 10' sections but I typically color code by length as well.

I guess it is job security as someone said.

Matt