@Darwin33
I see what you are getting at. But AutoCAD has some great tools for making things look different in different viewports. Please, look into Annotative objects and all the special layer controls that @neaton is talking about. Chances are, you might find that you like this approach a lot better.
Although, It is a different way of thinking about it. I get stuck in my old ways and ways of thinking, so I understand. But seriously take a look at the layer controls for individual viewports, there is no learning curve for that. The layer controls is so cool. As @neaton stated, you can change the Color, Linetype, Linewieght of any layer for individual viewports and it's all in your layer dialog window.
There is a bit of a learning curve with annotative objects, but it's not that hard to learn. Annotative just means that the block or text will change size automatically depending on the scale of the viewport. I don't' know why Autodesk calls that annotative but I don't work there. If you set one scale for that object or text, then it will only display in viewports that are set to that scale.
I hope you don't think I was talking down to you, it's hard to know what someone knows or doesn't know, but if you haven't heard of these before then I think it will change your world. After all of this, I can still see situations that you would need to create a separate layer. For Example: You have two viewports at the same scale but want a dimension to show on one but not the other. So not knowing what exactly your situation is it's hard to say if this other way of thinking would work for you. But to draw line work over again would definitely not be necessary with all the special View Port layer controls.