How to track where layers are referenced?

[Steenix]

I am going through our Civil 3D template and purging all layers we do not use. However, there are four assembly layers AutoCAD won't let me delete, but I cannot find any style or object referencing them. If it matters, the layers are C-ROAD-ASSM, C-ROAD-ASSM-BLIN, C-ROAD-ASSM-OFFS, and C-ROAD-SCTN-DIAG. Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Austin

[Jay_B · Accepted solution]

Out of the box Civil 3d has no means to track where layers are being used within styles.
They can be deleted using LAYDEL command but a better option would be the LAYMERGE
command, this way they can be merged to another layer, preferably layer zero.

The third party SincPac3d by quux software has the ability to track layers in use within styles using the "CivilStyleProperties" command.

[DaveM]

I have Sinc Pac and did not know it had that capability. Thanks, that may be useful, until know I always did the layer merge.

[rkmcswain]

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@Anonymous wrote:
They can be deleted using LAYDEL command but a better option would be the LAYMERGE
command, this way they can be merged to another layer, preferably layer zero..

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Be careful when using LAYMRG in Civil 3D. Styles that reference a layer deleted by this method are left with no layer, because LAYMRG doesn't know to fix C3D style references.

An Audit is necessary to fix this.

[Jay_B]

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@rkmcswain wrote:

Be careful when using LAYMRG in Civil 3D. Styles that reference a layer deleted by this method are left with no layer, because LAYMRG doesn't know to fix C3D style references.

An Audit is necessary to fix this. 

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Normally I track down the layer within the C3d Styles before deleting it as opposed to deleting or merging layers and wasn't aware of this issue.

Thanks for the tip, it seems both LAYMRG and LAYDEL behave the same in that the LAYER s blank.

Running an Audit does populate the layer zero using each method here.

[rkmcswain]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the tip, it seems both LAYMRG and LAYDEL behave the same in that the LAYER s blank.

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I'm 99% sure these old "bonus tools" were never updated to be aware of the civil styles portion of the drawing db. 

[Steenix]

Thanks for all the tips everyone! I really appreciate it 🙂

[Colin.GaudetGBKQ4]

The CIM Manager Suite by CTC Software has a purpose built tool for this called Template Tracker. It has saved me days of time hunting for layers and setting up templates. 

https://ctcsoftware.com/product/cim-manager-suite-2019/