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Working with Layers

You can open the Layers Window by choosing Window > Layers. The Layers Window appears as follows:

Each layer occupies its own row in this window.

Each document can have one or more layers. You can change the name of any layer by double-clicking its name in the Layer Name column, and typing anything up to 31 characters.

Target: The target layer is the layer into which newly-created objects will be put, except possibly when importing a DXF file, as described below.

Editable: When a layer is editable, its contents can be selected.

Visible: When a layer is visible, its contents may be seen, depending upon other factors. When a layer is invisible, its contents definitely cannot be seen.

If you make an invisible layer editable, then it will also become visible. If you make an editable layer invisible, then it will become uneditable. The checkboxes will reflect this.

When importing a DXF file, if a layer name is specified for an entity in that file, a new layer is created with that name (if it doesn't already exist), and the entity is placed in that layer. If no layer name is specified for an entity, then the entity is placed in the target layer.

Each document has exactly one target layer at any one time. You can set any layer to be the target layer by clicking in the Target checkbox in that layer's row. The target layer cannot be set to either invisible or uneditable. If you set a layer to be the target layer, it will automatically be set to being both visible and editable.

You can select a layer by clicking anywhere in its row. You can select a range of layers by clicking on one at one end of the range, and Shift-clicking on the one at the other end of the range. You can select and deselect a layer by holding down the Command key (Mac) or Control key (Windows) while clicking on the layer; this allows your selection to be discontiguous.

When one or more layers are selected, you can apply an action to all of them with one of the buttons at the bottom. If your action is not applicable or allowable for a particular layer, nothing happens to that layer.

Delete Layers: Each of the selected layers will be deleted if and only if it contains no objects and is not the target layer.

Select Contents: All contents of each of the selected layers will be selected if and only if the layer is editable.

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