Many of the AutoCAD layer tools formerly known as bonus tools or express tools were added into core AutoCAD in the 2007 release. Two of these tools are Layer Delete and Layer Merge, both of which are great for getting rid of one or more layers without having to manually go find and erase all of the objects on that layer, then purge the layer.
However, use caution when using these tools in Civil 3D. As you may know, Civil 3D styles contain layer references, and LAYDEL/LAYMRG do not account for these layer references in the Civil 3D styles. The result is empty or missing layers in your styles. If you apply one of these styles to an object, strange things can happen.
In this example, we’ve used LAYDEL to delete the layer “C-TINN”. Notice that this style now has empty spaces where “C-TINN” used to be referenced.
We ran AUDIT next and this is the result.
"AUDIT" Fix any errors detected? [Yes/No] : y Auditing Header Auditing Tables Auditing Entities Pass 1 Pass 1 1600 objects audited AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard Pass 1 3100 objects audited AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard Pass 1 3700 objects audited AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard Pass 1 4400 objects audited AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard Pass 1 5100 objects audited AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard AECC_SURFACE_STYLE (LAYER) eWasErased Standard Pass 1 10100 objects audited Pass 1 10900 objects audited Auditing Entities Pass 2 Pass 2 10900 objects audited Auditing Blocks Total errors found 28 fixed 28
It seems fairly safe to use these tools in Civil 3D, as long as you run AUDIT afterwards and you are okay with those layers being replaced by layer “0” after you run AUDIT.
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