My friend sent me a file, and it only has one layer

[Merlin820]

I'm making a lighting plot using my high school theatre, and my friend sent me a file he had already made of our theatre, to save me some time and effort. The problem is, this file only has one layer called "Design Layer-1". There aren't the usual "Lighting plot", "Theatre Floor Plan", etc. layers that I am used to seeing. His file already has a number of instruments in it, as well as a set (you can only see the set in 3D), and I want to delete these things and put in my own. Can I do this easily with just the one "Design Layer-1" layer, or do I need the others, and if it is the latter, how do I get the other layers back? Thanks.

[CipesDesign]

You do not need more than one design layer, but depending on your workflow of choice it might be good. You can "Cut" and "Paste in Place" from one to another, as long as they are in the same scale.

[JBenghiat]

There is no "right" or "wrong" way to draft a plot, but as you infer, doing a drawing without layers makes drafting more difficult, and is thus not considered good practice.

You can create as many layers as you like (and classes for that matter), and may want to do so in the organization dialog.

In addition to Peter's "Paste in Place" method above, you can change selected objects' layer in the Object Info Palette.

If the drawing you have is divided into classes, you may want to temporarily change the class options to "Active Only." Step through each class, making it active, select all, then send to your desired layer.

You friend's drawing may have started out as AutoCAD, which only has classes for organization. I have to separate out AC drawings I get all the time.

-Josh