Now is a good time to look at what it means for a layer to be current. Notice the green check mark above the Layer List box in the Layer Properties Manager shown earlier in Figure 6.7. The same green check mark appears in the Status column in the layer 0 row. The name of the current layer, in this case, 0, appears in the upper-left corner of the dialog box.
At any time, one, and only one, layer is set as the current layer. When a layer is current, all objects you draw will be on that layer and will take on the properties assigned to that layer unless directed otherwise. Because layer 0 is current—and has been current so far in this book—all objects that you have drawn so far are on layer 0 and have the linetype and color that are specified by default for layer 0:
Continuous and White (or Black), respectively. If you make the A-WALL layer current, any new lines you draw will be Continuous and Cyan. If the A-ROOF layer is current, any new lines will be Dashed and Blue. Here’s how to make the A-WALL layer the current layer:
1. If it’s not open already, open I06-02-AssigningLinetypes.dwg (M06-
02-AssigningLinetypes.dwg) by clicking the Open button on the
Quick Access toolbar.
2. Click the A-WALL layer in the Layer List box to highlight it, and then
click the Set Current green check mark above the Layer List box.
Alternatively, you can double-click the A-WALL layer, or highlight
it and press Alt+C. The A-WALL layer replaces layer 0 as the current
layer, and the name appears in the text field at the top of the dialog
box. The green check mark also appears next to the A-WALL layer in
the Layer List box.
3. Click the Auto-Hide button near the top-left corner of the Layer
Properties Manager.
Auto-Hide causes the palette to collapse down to the title bar. You
can expand it by doing one of the following:
▶▶ To expand the dialog box temporarily, pause the cursor over the
title bar.
▶▶ To expand it permanently, click Auto-Hide again.
4. Look at the Layer drop-down list on the Ribbon’s Layers panel. Most
of the symbols you saw in the Layer List box, in the Layer Properties
Manager, are on this drop-down list. The A-WALL layer is the visible
entry on the list and has a cyan square (the color you assigned to the
A-WALL layer earlier). The layer is visible in this list when it’s collapsed
and no objects are selected in the current layer.
5. Now look at your drawing. Nothing has changed because the objects
in the drawing are still on layer 0.
You need to move the objects in the drawing onto their proper layers. To do
this, you’ll use the Layer drop-down list on the Layers panel to assign each
object to one of the new layers.
