forum.datacad.com

Is there anyway to control "layer" within symbols? That would be a sweet little feature for sure if it isn't possible. Not a big fan of exploding tons of symbols to get entities to be turned on or off.

Thanks.

Kent

Unfortunately you can't turn layers off, from outside the symbol but you can open the symbol in the symbol editor and delete the unwanted entities/layers, and then save and close the symbol. But remember that this will update all instances of that symbol throughout the drawing. Layer toggling and Symbol Views on a per symbol basis has been on our wish list for symbols for a bit.

I think that is called an xref. The control of layers seems to be the major difference between xrefs and symbols.

Xrefs are too slow and are to bulky and must rely on an external file.

You can control them to a point based on scales.
You can set for any layer in a symbol the min and max scales it will display at.

What I am trying to do is to have text that displays or not... which is associated to a symbol. I xref plans into a new drawing and then would like the ability to control the text on those symbols on those plans to display or not.

To display or not display that is the question?
What is the reason of when to display? Scale, or Other?

I have tables that have sizes shown with text. These tables (many of them and many different sizes) are shown on many different plans (mech, elec, plumb...) and on THOSE plans I would like the text to not appear.

I know the ins and outs but I am just trying to not have to re-invent the wheel everytime. Also trying to keep the entity count down on drawings, hence the use of symbols. It's also easier to have them in symbols to replace them if needed... as opposed to inserting new everytime the client changes their minds.

If you can not control it by utilizing scales, and maybe placing them on the drawing sheet using MSP layouts, maybe you could utilaze Attributes linked to a database, and one of the entries in the the database could be a "blank" place holder that then does not have any other entries for that one one setting, so you sizes would not show????

Yes and yes... but unfortunately it would be much quicker to just have the text not be part of the symbol.

Thanks!

Roger D wrote:If you can not control it by utilizing scales, and maybe placing them on the drawing sheet using MSP layouts, maybe you could utilaze Attributes linked to a database, and one of the entries in the the database could be a "blank" place holder that then does not have any other entries for that one one setting, so you sizes would not show????

We use a non-plotting color for those sorts of labels. Coupled with setting the display scale to something like 3/8", the text will show up when you need it, but not print or clutter the drawing when working at a larger scale.

James Goodman, AIA

James... That is a GREAT idea. Do it with plotting colors! Thanks for the idea!