Wow - this one is a can of worms … I need a degree in CADOLOGY here I think to explain it all - Thanks to Autodesk …
Customer stated that they have a CAD Drawing in which there are blocks. He goes through the process of relayering the CAD data onto their own layer system where colors are all set as they want them yet the block colors are still wrong. Why is that …?
Here is an attempt to explain the options
- the original CAD Block imported from the DWG is made up of lines lets say. The lines are all on a layer called Block Lines. The Block Lines Layer has a color Purple. The Block Color (defined in the Block Properties is Yellow. However when the lines were drawn to create the block the user has three options.
a) They can color the lines a specific color - e.g. Red in which case they would show up Red in the drawing
b) They can color the lines By Layer i.e. in this case they would show up Purple (the layer on which the lines are drawn - not the layer on which the block is placed).
c) They can color the lines By Block / Feature - in which case they would show up Yellow
- Depending on how the Block linework is defined and then how the block is defined will then dictate how the linework in the CAD drawing looks at the end of the process.
This actually works quite well despite it being a little tricky to understand, especially with someone else’s data, where you don’t know the logic used to create the drawings / blocks / linework - put your Sherlock Deerstalker on and start looking for clues …
If you decide you want to change it all - then if you find an instance of the block you want to change, and open it in the Block Editor (TBC v5.4 only) then you can select the lines of the Block and change them to a specific color, to By Layer (controlled by the layer on which the lines are drawn) or By Block / Feature (controlled by the color of the Block in Block Properties) which if set to By Layer will derive the color from the layer on which the Block is drawn. This will update all instances of the block in the project in the same way.
What made this file so much fun was that the Blocks for an Inlet where it has a clear center point were defined with an origin point a million miles away - so when you placed the block at one X,Y location, it was actually drawn in a different state - handy! If anyone can explain why people do that I would love to know the answer!