144 Part II: Let There Be Lines
5.In the content pane, select the items you want to copy. Right-click and choose Add [Symbol] (or Insert Block if you’re copying block definitions) or simply drag and drop them into the drawing area.
Use Shift or Ctrl to select multiple named objects.
Copying layers between drawings
The preceding set of steps outlines the general procedure for copying named objects from one drawing to another by using DesignCenter. The following steps show a specific example: copying layers from one drawing to another. You can use the same technique to copy dimension styles, layouts, linetypes, table styles, text styles, or any of the named objects shown in the tree view pane in Figure 6-11.
1.Open the drawing that contains the layers you want to copy (the source drawing).
2.Open the drawing to which you want to copy the layers (the destination drawing).
If you already had both drawings open, make sure that you can see the destination drawing. If you can’t, click Switch Windows in the View tab’s User Interface panel and choose the destination drawing in order to bring it to the foreground, or tile the windows, shown in Figure 6-12, by clicking Tile Vertically in the same Windows panel.
3.Click the DesignCenter button on the Palettes panel of the Ribbon’s View tab or press Ctrl+2.
Figure 6-12: Copying a layer from one drawing to another.
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Chapter 6: Manage Your Properties 145
4. In the DesignCenter palette, click the Open Drawings tab.
The DesignCenter tree view pane on the left side of the palette displays a list of drawings that you currently have open in AutoCAD.
You can also use the Folders tab, the Load button, or the Search button to load a drawing into DesignCenter without opening it in AutoCAD.
5.In the tree view pane of the DesignCenter palette, click the plus sign
(+) next to the name of the source drawing that you opened in Step 1.
A list of symbol categories that you can copy, including layers, appears in the tree view pane.
6.Click Layers in the list in the tree view pane.
The display in the content pane at the right changes to show the individual layers that are stored in the source drawing.
7.Click and drag the desired layer or layers from the content pane of the DesignCenter palette into the window containing the destination drawing that you opened in Step 2; refer to Figure 6-12.
If the current drawing contains a layer whose name matches the name of one of the layers you’re copying, AutoCAD doesn’t change the current drawing’s layer definition. For example, if you add a layer named Doors whose color is red into a drawing that already includes a Doors layer whose color is green, the destination drawing’s Doors layer remains green. Named objects from DesignCenter never overwrite objects with the same name in the destination drawing. AutoCAD always displays the message Duplicate definitions will be ignored even if there aren’t any duplicates.
If you’re repeatedly copying named objects from the same drawings or folders, add them to your DesignCenter favorites list. On the Folders tab, rightclick the drawing or folder, and choose Add to Favorites from the menu. This procedure adds another shortcut to your list of favorites.
To see your favorites: Click the DesignCenter toolbar’s Favorites button.
To return to a favorite: Double-click its shortcut in the content pane.
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146 Part II: Let There Be Lines
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