Importing Object Layers

You know that Object, Table, and Label styles can be imported using the Import Styles tool, but what about the object layers?

At this time, Civil 3D does not have a built-in tool to do that, so if you are provided with a drawing that does not have any object layers defined or doesn’t have your company’s object layers, you have two options: Define or redefine the object layers for the drawing or use the workflow presented previously in this section. But what happens if you want to keep the current file as is and just define its object layers without too much hassle? Fortunately, there is a workflow that will take care of that. Follow these steps:

1. Open 0105_Blank_Object_Layers.dwg or (0105_Blank_Object_Layers_METRIC.dwg).
2. Open 0105_Defined_Object_Layers.dwg or (0105_Defined_Object_Layers_METRIC.dwg).
3. Examine the object layers of the first drawing and notice that they are all set to 0, while the object layers for the second drawing are defined. You will transfer the object layers from the second drawing to the first.
4. Set your Toolspace to the Settings tab. Make sure that the view is set to Master View since you will want to have both drawings visible.
5. Make sure that the active drawing is set to 0105_Blank_Object_Layers. You will know it is the active one if it is at the top of the list and its name is bold. If it is not active, switch to the Prospector tab, right-click its name, and use the Switch To option to make it active or select it using the file tabs.
6. With drawing 0105_Blank_Object_Layers active in the Toolspace, right-click 0105_Defined_Object_Layers and select Edit Drawing Settings from the list. See the following figure for the layout:
7. In the dialog, do not change any settings and click OK. If you check now, you will notice that the object layers of your source drawing (0105_Defined_Object_Layers) have been transferred to the desired drawing. If you want to check the result of the transfer, you can download the finished file, named 0105_Blank_Object_Layers_FINISHED.dwg or (0105_Blank_Object_Layers_METRIC_FINISHED.dwg).

Note that while this will populate the layer list, the actual layers will not be created until their objects are created. The layers will be created, their color set to white, and their linetype set to continuous. To import the layers with the desired properties, use the Design Center to bring in the layers, then perform the above procedure.