Blocks, entities, and layers

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wendi
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Blocks, entities, and layers

Post by wendi » Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:32 am

Win10Pro64, QCad 3.22.1.0. I've created a block which contains numerous entities on several layers. I understand that when I place the block, each entity will go on the layer that it was on when the block was created, regardless of which layer I place the block on. Is there a straightforward way to have the entities all end up on the layer that the block was placed on? I realize that I could "explode" the block, move all of the entities to the desired layer, and then re-create the block, but that seems unwieldy and awkward. Is there a better way?

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Husky
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Re: Blocks, entities, and layers

Post by Husky » Wed Jul 10, 2019 7:02 am

wendi wrote:
Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:32 am
Is there a straightforward way to have the entities all end up on the layer that the block was placed on? I realize that I could "explode" the block, move all of the entities to the desired layer, and then re-create the block, but that seems unwieldy and awkward. Is there a better way?
Yes, but the block needs to be prepared for that function what is ..... pretty plain.

There is a setting for layer compatibility below Application Preferences. If you set it to "Layer 0 behaves differently" ...

Husky-2019.07.09-01.png
Husky-2019.07.09-01.png (74.37 KiB) Viewed 4758 times

... then you can prepare your block to adopt the layer attributes. How? Every entity in the block which has to adopt the layer attributes from the target layer needs to be drawn on layer 0. Every entoty which isn't on layer 0 will keep the original layer relationship.
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andrew
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Re: Blocks, entities, and layers

Post by andrew » Wed Jul 10, 2019 8:44 am

Alternatively, you can use the "By Block" attribute value for the entities in the block.
See also:
https://qcad.org/en/tutorial-layers-blo ... attributes

wendi
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Re: Blocks, entities, and layers

Post by wendi » Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:59 am

Husky... Thank you. Your suggestion worked. I did need to explode the blocks, move the entities to layer 0, and then re-create the blocks, but that didn't take long. And I learned something.

Which prompts a follow-up question.... What other tricks is layer 0 good for? Up to now, I just left it turned off and ignored it.

Wendi

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