Create and use filters for layer properties

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There are two types of layer filters available

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to you from within the layer property manager.

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One is a property filter and the other is a group filter.

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Let's begin by looking at the property filter

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of the three icons above the filters panel, new property filter is on the left

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click on it to display the layer filters, properties dialog.

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You may need to resize it to roughly match what I'm showing.

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The first thing you'll want to do is give it a name

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as the filter name field is already in edit mode.

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Make it something descriptive. Let's call it arch floor

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notice there are two other parts to the dialogue

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below. The name is where you define your filter definitions.

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And below that, the filter preview,

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which at this point looks just like the all filter in the layer palette

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as we add or remove filter definitions. This panel will update to show the results.

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Let's build a few filters to show you how it works.

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In our case, we want to filter out based on the name

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you can filter based on any layer property.

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Click on the cell below name in the filter definition panel.

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You'll see that just like the search box. It pre populates with an asterisk wild card

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type in a

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Flor

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to the left of the asterisk.

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You should notice that as you type the preview list below it updates in real time

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and don't worry about the upper or lower case of the letters autocad ignores that

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you should be left with a list of only the layers that start with a

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floor

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click. OK? To save the filter,

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you should now see your new filter in the

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list active with only the matching layers display.

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This is a very common workflow especially in companies

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that use the national C ad standard layering convention.

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Typically layers are filtered per discipline based

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on the discipline designator such as a

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for architectural

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S dash

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for structural and so on.

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Often these filters are built into their templates,

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right?

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Click on the new filter name to display a pop up menu with many options from here.

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You can control the entire filter's visibility status lock status or isolation

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in the middle.

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You can start a new properties filter or convert a property filter to a group filter

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near the bottom.

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You can rename your filter, delete it or reaccess its properties to edit

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we're going to build on our new filter.

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So click on properties to bring the dialog back up.

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A filter row can have more than one filter criterion.

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In our example,

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you might want all layers that start with a

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floor.

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But also you want only those that are red

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on the same row as the name filter. Click on the color cell.

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A small GLYPH will display on the right side.

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Click it to bring up the select color dialogue,

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select the red swatch and click. OK?

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You'll see that your filter list. Now only shows a

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floor layers that are red.

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One more quick scenario with building your property filters.

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So far, we've made a boolean and query. That is a name and a color.

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What if you want all the a

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floor layers that were red or Cyan,

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which is a boolean or query.

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Let's see how that's done,

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right? Click on the row that has your filter definitions,

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then click on duplicate row.

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Also make note this is how you delete a row as well. Should you ever need to,

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all of your filter definitions will be copied to the second row?

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Click on the color cell in the duplicated row

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and click the glyph within it this time. Change it to scan,

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click. OK?

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Now your filter preview will show only the a

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floor layers that are either red or scan

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click. OK? To dismiss the property's dialogue.

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Your new properties filter is an active query.

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If a layer that is displayed, changes one of its properties, your list will change

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here. I'll change a color to green. It will no longer be in the list.

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I'll undo that to make it red again.