Help with View Ports on Sheets and changing class attributes

[mmiles]

setup: VW 2008 (architect; although we always only draft)

File 1: Floor plan in one file; referenced into design layer of File 2.

File 2: Interior elevations drafted old-school style with floor plan in middle and all elevations drawn on all four sides of plan. (it's messy....).

Sheets set up in File 2 with viewports created on the sheet layers.

Example with problems: One sheet has a viewport with the referenced Floor Plan (file 1) displaying in it. I select the VP and in the OIP I select the "classes" button to make some changes to attributes in one or more of the classes.

Problem One: some classes from the referenced file do not appear on the classes list. however, if I go into the design layer to edit classes, the missing classes do appear in the list. What's up with that?

Problem Two: (still working in classes for the VP on the sheet layer) edits to class attributes have no effect whatsoever. The dialogue shows the changes, but the Referenced file does not change in display. However, if I make the changes in the design layer, the file display does change, though it appears to do so globally, and is therefore not specific to a sheet viewport.

I feel like the problems lay with how we set up the files. But, I am not sure what the proper way to do this really is, and I am nervous about making one change for my own sake and messing up all other sheets somehow. I believe that I have already done this in the past while attempting to experiment with how various incarnations of VPS work when I changed a setting that inadvertently ended up turning off several classes on all Sheets.

Any pointers, or tips? Thanks.

[Dieter @ DWorks]

You can't control the classes in sheet layer viewports from referenced design layer viewport. That's just not possible in VW.

What you need to do is create a design layer viewport for each kind of presentation of the reference. Than set the attributes and visibility of the reference in those design layer viewports. You can end up with multiple viewports for viewing the plan in different ways, but you can't do it otherwise.

[mmiles]

woo hoo! More limitations, yeah!

Thanks for the input, I appreciate the tip.