What layer an XREF is on?

[jlubbert]

Is there a way to find out what layer an xref is on?
We are an architecture firm that does alot of site planning, it is not uncommon for us to have as many as 30 xrefs or more within a drawing. We have separate layers for each xref but sometimes things get accidentally moved to another layer and if that layer gets turned off, your xref goes away. You go to xref manager and you see the xref is listed as attached and loaded, so is there a way to see what layer an xref is currently on?

Thanks for your help

[amsterdamn]

It will be whatever the current layer was when you brought in the xref. You could turn on all layers and you should see your missing xref, which you can then select to see what layer it is on and change accordingly.

[tedg]

Is there a way to find out what layer an xref is on?
We are an architecture firm that does alot of site planning, it is not uncommon for us to have as many as 30 xrefs or more within a drawing. We have separate layers for each xref but sometimes things get accidentally moved to another layer and if that layer gets turned off, your xref goes away. You go to xref manager and you see the xref is listed as attached and loaded, so is there a way to see what layer an xref is currently on?

Thanks for your help

A couple of ways that I'm aware of.
If you have your layer properties showing in your tool bars, simply select your xref and the layer it's on should show up.

Another way is through the properties dialog, same thing: select the xref (simply pick a line that is in the xref) and the Properties dialog tells you what layer it's on.

The common NCS layer for xrefs would be G-ANNO-REFR.
But to separate them if you'd like, you could use different discipline designators:
A-ANNO-REFR
S-ANNO-REFR
E-ANNO-REFR
...etc, these are perfectly acceptable for NCS, but it depends on your specific company's cadd standards ..obviously.

[dzatto]

I think the OP is wanting to see if there is a way to see what layer the Xref is on in the Xref manager.

If it gets moved to another layer by mistake, and that layer is frozen, then there's no way to tell where that Xref is other than thawing all the layers, finding it, and putting it on the correct layer.

I think the easiest way would be to set up your PGP file for layon and laythw. While you're at it, I'd also set up layoff and layfrz. Now, you can thaw or turn all all your layers with a keystroke. Find your missing Xref, and put it on the correct layer. Now just use the _layerP button (or setup a shorcut for that as well) to return your frozen and off layers to their correct state.

I hope that makes sense.

[tedg]

I think the OP is wanting to see if there is a way to see what layer the Xref is on in the Xref manager.

If it gets moved to another layer by mistake, and that layer is frozen, then there's no way to tell where that Xref is other than thawing all the layers, finding it, and putting it on the correct layer.

I think the easiest way would be to set up your PGP file for layon and laythw. While you're at it, I'd also set up layoff and layfrz. Now, you can thaw or turn all all your layers with a keystroke. Find your missing Xref, and put it on the correct layer. Now just use the _layerP button (or setup a shorcut for that as well) to return your frozen and off layers to their correct state.

I hope that makes sense.

Ahhhh, yes.... after I read ALL of it, yes I think that is the question..
Yes I agree, in this case I have shortcuts for thawing and turning on all layers to find everything. I also have a lisp routine for selecting the xref and putting it on the xref layer.

[jlubbert]

I think the OP is wanting to see if there is a way to see what layer the Xref is on in the Xref manager.

If it gets moved to another layer by mistake, and that layer is frozen, then there's no way to tell where that Xref is other than thawing all the layers, finding it, and putting it on the correct layer.

I think the easiest way would be to set up your PGP file for layon and laythw. While you're at it, I'd also set up layoff and layfrz. Now, you can thaw or turn all all your layers with a keystroke. Find your missing Xref, and put it on the correct layer. Now just use the _layerP button (or setup a shorcut for that as well) to return your frozen and off layers to their correct state.

I hope that makes sense.

That is what I was asking, thanks for the reply. I was hoping for a toggle I could turn on within Xref manager that would have the resident layer of the Xref.
When you have a site plan with 15 Xrefs making up the site info and 20 buildings or so buildings within that site (with all their Xrefs), thawing all layers, querring and restoring the thousands of layers can be cumbersome.

[jpaulsen]

Turning on and thawing all the layers to find the xref then using LAYERP is a good suggestion. If you don't want to change the layer properties for some reason you can use QSELECT in Properties to select the xref by name.

[dzatto]

That is what I was asking, thanks for the reply. I was hoping for a toggle I could turn on within Xref manager that would have the resident layer of the Xref.
When you have a site plan with 15 Xrefs making up the site info and 20 buildings or so buildings within that site (with all their Xrefs), thawing all layers, querring and restoring the thousands of layers can be cumbersome.

That's what the -layerP command is for. It should take all of 10 seconds. Just thaw all layers, select the Xref (that is now thawed) and place it on the correct layer. Type -layerP and all the layers go back to the way they were.

[irneb]

That is what I was asking, thanks for the reply. I was hoping for a toggle I could turn on within Xref manager that would have the resident layer of the Xref.
When you have a site plan with 15 Xrefs making up the site info and 20 buildings or so buildings within that site (with all their Xrefs), thawing all layers, querring and restoring the thousands of layers can be cumbersome.

Unfortunately it's not available. One could create a dialog to show this (or maybe a separate palette using, something like OpenDCL) ... but then you've got something separate from the normal XRef Manager.

And then how would multiple insertions (or copies) of the xref work? Same as with the Properties Palette: if all references of the xref are on the same layer it should show that, otherwise it shows *Varies*.