The snow is falling again in DC, but sideways this time. Unfortunately, the wind doesn't keep the snow from hitting the ground...
The closest AutoCAD LT comes to snow is the "frozen layer" icon, so that'll be the subject of today's post.
More specifically, this will be about how to get a frozen layer icon -- with the Layer Freeze command.
(Hopefully this will be the last record-setting weather event this year...I'm not sure what commands I might find to relate to a hurricane!)
As I've covered before, freezing a layer in model space freezes it globally, while freezing a layer in a layout or in a viewport freezes it for that view only.
But if you pay attention to the command line, you'll see that you have options for controlling the freeze behavior. (It wouldn't be an LT command without options, would it?)
If you type S before selecting objects, you get options for Viewports and Block Selection settings.
For Viewports, you can choose between Freeze and Vpfreeze. The default is Vpfreeze, but you if you use Freeze instead, then Layer Freeze acts globally, even if you're in a viewport or layout.
For Block Selection, you can set the nesting level, or how many levels AutoCAD LT will look through before finding an object to freeze. Your choices are:
- Block: If a selected object is nested in a block, freezes the layer of that block. If a selected object is nested in an xref, freezes the layer of the object.
- Entity: Freezes the layers of selected objects even if they are nested in an xref or a block.
- None: If a block or an xref is selected, freezes the layer containing that block or xref.
For example, let's say you had an xref inserted on layer XREF, containing lines on layer GRID. If the nesting level is set to Block, selecting one of the lines freezes GRID. If the nesting level is set to None, selecting a line freezes XREF.
And let's say you have a block inserted on layer CHAIR, but containing lines on layer 0. If you set the nesting level to Block (or None), selecting the block freezes CHAIR. But if you set it to Entity, selecting the block freezes layer 0.
The default nesting level is Block, which I generally find to be the most flexible. Depending on your workflow, though, or even the particular drawing, xref or block, you may find one of the other two settings will give you the result you need.
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