Walk This Way, Talk This Way

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a while, but this particular subject is well overdue.

I'm sure you all know what it's like to get drawings that have objects in the wrong layer. So today I wanted to share with you an AutoCAD tool that might help you identify layering issues before you ever send the drawing to the client or start working with the drawing in your project.

The tool is called LayerWalk. The tool can be found in the AutoCAD LayersII toolbar. Or it can be accessed from the command line by typing laywalk and pressing enter.


After executing the command, a dialog box will appear that shows all the layers in the current drawing including xref layers.



By left clicking on any layer in the list, you can see what objects are on that layer. For us civil folks, it works great for checking the layers in a survey drawing before you start working with the file.




Unfortunately, it can work with Civil 3D objects if you set up your styles correctly. For example,create an alignment style with the alignment lines, arcs, and spirals on layer ALIGN. Now create an alignment object on layer WW-A-ALIGN. During execution of the layerwalk command, select only layer ALIGN, and you will see all the alignment linework in the drawing. If you select only layer WW-A-ALIGN, you don't see any alignment linework in the drawing.

On the other hand, create your alignment style with the alignment lines, arcs and spirals on layer 0. Now create an alignment object on layer WW-A-Align. During execution of the layerwalk command, select only layer ALIGN, then you don't see any linework. If you select only layer WW-A-ALIGN, then you see only the WW-A alignment linework.

Now don't forget to audit then purge your drawings (including regapps) and it just might brighten someone's day.