Stop using the default layer colors on every drawing

I swear, half the drawings I get from other drafters still have everything on layer 0 or whatever default color they had in their template. It drives me crazy when I have to trace back through a huge set of plans and every single wall, door, and pipe is the same dang color. I spent 2 hours last week fixing a MEP set from a guy in Phoenix because I couldn't tell what was ductwork and what was plumbing. It takes like 10 minutes to set up a good layer standard, and it saves everyone hours of headaches. Why do so many people just skip that step?

2 comments

2 Comments

loganhart3mo ago

You said "it takes like 10 minutes to set up a good layer standard" and that part really hits home for me. That ten minutes of setup upfront honestly saves hours of tedious cleanup later, but I think a lot of people just never got trained properly on layers in school. They start drafting and just use whatever default colors they see, because nobody ever showed them how to make a simple legend or template. So here's my question for you: do you think it's more of a training issue or are people just being lazy about it?

carr.willow3mo ago

Respectfully, I gotta say I lean more toward lazy than untrained. Plenty of folks come out of school not knowing how to set up a layer standard, but they figure out torque specs and diagnostic codes on their own real fast when they have to. Somehow layers are the one thing they never bother to learn because the mess doesn't bite them immediately. It only takes one job where you're digging through 50 random color lines at 2am to realize a template would've saved your butt, yet I still see drafts that look like a rainbow threw up on them. Bottom line is if you can learn to use a new software plug-in in ten minutes, you can learn to set up a layer standard too.