Layers are the backbone of any serious CAD drawing. They let you separate different kinds of content — walls, furniture, dimensions, text — so you can control visibility, color, and line style for whole groups at once.

Opening the Layer Manager

Click Manage → Layer Manager, or type LAYER (alias LA) at the command line. The dialog lists every layer in the current drawing with its:

• Name
• On/Off — hidden layers are invisible but still part of the drawing
• Freeze/Thaw — frozen layers are hidden and skipped for performance
• Lock/Unlock — locked layers can’t be edited (but stay visible)
• Color
• Linetype
• Lineweight

Creating a layer

1. Open the Layer Manager.
2. Click New (or type a name in the new-layer field).
3. Give it a meaningful name: WALLS, DOORS, DIMENSIONS, TEXT…
4. Set its color and linetype (see below).
5. Close the dialog and make it current.

Everything you draw from now on lands on the current layer (shown in the ribbon/status area). To switch layers, select one in the manager and make it current — or use the layer dropdown on the ribbon.

Colors

Each layer has a color that all its objects inherit. Click the color swatch in the Layer Manager to pick one — the classic CAD palette (red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, white…) is available, plus custom colors.

Objects can also have their own color override (via the Properties panel). The BYLAYER setting (default) means “use my layer’s color” — keep it that way for sane drawings. The SETBYLAYER command resets selected objects’ overrides back to following their layer.

Linetypes

Linetypes define dashed, dotted, and other repeating patterns:

• Continuous — solid line (default)
• Dashed, Hidden, Center, Phantom, Dotted, and more

Set a layer’s linetype from the Layer Manager. Individual objects can override it through Properties. If a dashed line looks solid, it’s usually because the pattern is too small for your drawing scale — check the Linetype Scale (global scale factor, or per-object via Properties).

Layer states

Complex drawings accumulate many layers. Layer states (Manage → Layer State Manager, or LAYERSTATE / LMAN) save a snapshot of which layers are on/off, frozen, locked, and current — so you can switch between “all layers”, “dimensions only”, “plotting setup” with one click instead of toggling twenty layers by hand.

Create a state, tweak your layers, create another state, and flip between them freely. Each drawing tab keeps its own layer states.

Practical workflow

A clean, professional layer setup for a floor plan might look like:

What’s next?

• Dimensions — annotate sizes
• Blocks & attributes — reuse geometry

Next: Continue reading →

← All documentation · Open Cadelo