Know when unwanted layers creep into your drawing with layer notification

Layers are a big issue when it comes to maintaining drawing standards. Where you work, you may have lots of rules about which layers your drawings can have.

Xrefs can be a problem for drawing standards, because when you attach an xref, its layers come along for the ride. This is especially an issue when the xrefs come from an outside organization, such as a subcontractor.

You can have AutoCAD notify you when new layers are added to a drawing. This layer notification feature doesn’t work with a drawing standards file but is just based on the layers that exist in your drawing. For more information about drawing standards files, see my post, “Use a Standards file to bring an AutoCAD drawing into line.”

Set up layer notification

Here are the steps to set up layer notification:

1. Choose View tab, Palettes panel, Layer Properties (or type layer) to open the Layer Properties Manager.
2. Click the Settings button (it looks like a wrench) to open the Layer Settings dialog box. You’ll use the top half of this dialog box.
3. Check the New Layer Notification checkbox.
4. Check the Evaluate New Layers Added to Drawing check box.
5. Keep the default option, which is to evaluate only new xref layers, or choose Evaluate All New Layers if you want to be notified whenever a new layer is added. If your templates already have all the layers you need, this option can help prevent inexperienced users from adding layers. At least, they’ll see a notification!
6. To specify  when the notification appears, check the Notify When New Layers Are Present checkbox.
7. Use the other checkboxes it determine when the notification appears.
8. Click OK.

Note: If you don’t check the Notify When New Layers Are Present checkbox, you won’t see a notification bubble, but can still check for unwanted layers by right-clicking the Unreconciled New Layers alert icon on the right side of the status bar and choosing View Unreconciled New Layers. The Layer Properties Manager opens with a filter that displays only those layers.  You can then delete them or change their properties.

What to do when you get a notification

When you see a notification bubble or dialog box, click its link to open the Layer Properties Manager (with a filter that displays only unreconciled layers) where you can fix the problem.

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Ellen Finkelstein

Ellen Finkelstein is the author of the best-selling AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT Bible, which started with R14. Ellen has written extensively on AutoCAD, including articles for Autodesk’s website and features for AutoCAD’s Help system. Ellen’s first book was AutoCAD For Dummies Quick Reference.

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