Layer Tools (formerly known as Express)

Full AutoCAD ships with a set of commands called Express Tools, which are little routines that have been around forever but never managed to make their way into the core program.

Sometimes, though, a command (or set of commands) proves so popular that the team moves it over to become part of the base program. Then they show up in LT too, even though the rest of the Express Tools aren't available.

The most obvious examples of this are some of the Layer Tools. They're on the Layers II toolbar, or the Layers panel of the Home tab of the Ribbon. These commands let you control a layer's visibility and other properties by clicking on an object on that layer, instead of having to track it down in the Layer Properties Manager. Even better, the visibility commands work on objects in blocks and xrefs too.

Here are the Layer tools, introduced in 2007, that were formerly only part of Express Tools:

• Layer Off (LAYOFF)
• All Layers On (LAYON)
• Layer Freeze (LAYFRZ)
• All Layers Thaw (LAYTHW)
• Isolate Layer (LAYISO)
• Un-Isolate Layer (LAYUNISO)
• Lock Layer (LAYLCK)
• Unlock Layer (LAYULK)
• Merge Layers (LAYMRG)
• Delete Layers (LAYDEL)
• Copy Objects to New Layer (COPYTOLAYER)
• Layer Walk (LAYWALK)
• Layer Match (LAYMCH)
• Change to Current Layer (LAYCUR)
• Isolate to Current Viewport (LAYVPI)

Comments

[Matthew]

The Merge Layers function is fantastic, the company I work for used to use Powerdraft as well as AutoCAD LT (now we use primarily AutoCAD LT)and when you copy a drawing over from Powerdraft to LT you have a lot of layers that have the same characteristics but with a different name, Merge Layers takes care of that.

[NEIL CAMPBELL]

How do I assign the dynamic properties of a REGION [AREA} to MTEXT so that as a design evolves, and the region changes, the MTEXT is automatically recalculates and displays the correct new area?
Thanks