Certain blocks won't change lineweight.

[akaufmanJR3FV]

Hello all,

Hoping someone can help me with this, as I'm kind of crunched for time:

I have a set of blocks, all on the same layer, with the layer having a 0.5 line weight. I had to go into the blocks manually (through either the properties panel or the block editor) and change their fields so that their line weight changes according to the layer's. But there are still several blocks that will not change weights no matter what I do, and they are either too thick or too thin. Everything I can see is set to "ByLayer", and I can't find any other options that would set the line's weight.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thank you,

Adam K

[civilman1957]

I typically create my blocks in layer 0, then they adapt whatever color and lineweight the layer in which they're imported has.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

If the object exists on a specific layer, and lineweight is set to bylayer, they will get the lineweight of that layer.

For example a block of a circle and a line.  

The circle is on layer block1. 

The line is on layer 0.

both have their lineweights set to bylayer.

The block is inserted on layer PlaceBlock.

PlaceBlock layer lineweight is set to 0.15

block1 layer lineweight is set to 0.01

The circle with have a lineweight of 0.01 (because the object inside the block lives on layer block1 and takes on it's attributes when set to bylayer)

The line will have lineweight of 0.15 (becase the line lives on layer 0 inside the block so it takes on the attributes of what ever layer the block is inserted on, when set to by layer.)

Hope this helps and isn't too confusing.

[akaufmanJR3FV]

That's how all of the blocks are currently set up.

Thank you for the response, but I think I just found the answer to my own question 🙂 It might be convoluted, but it worked for me:

I selected the block and went into the Block Editor. Then I selected the entire block and did the EXPLODE command. Then I re-selected all of the exploded lines and changed all of their properties to "ByLayer".

Apparently there were some lines set to different weights than others, and I couldn't change them specifically until I exploded the block.

Thank you,

Adam K

[akaufmanJR3FV]

No, that definitely helps! I'm new to AutoCAD and what you said helped me understand it a little better - it wasn't confusing at all 🙂

It actually helped me figure out a solution to my question. Different lines on the same block can be on different layers, but I just wasn't able to access those lines that were on the wrong layers until I exploded the block.

Thanks for your help!

Adam K

[Anonymous]

Civilman1957 has the correct solution. Blocks should be created on layer 0 at a 1:1 scale. then they will always work in multiple drawings or situations. Blocks crated on other layers cause nothing but trouble: difficult to purge, wrong scales or line weights, etc.

[Anonymous]

That's "created on layer 0".

[akaufmanJR3FV]

civilman's solution does work, yes. But that wasn't the issue I was having, as I had already set all blocks to Layer 0 and was getting the same result. The blocks were created by someone else, so I don't know what they did, but apparently they created them in a way that another solution was needed to resolve the problem.

cstringer's solution helped me fix the issue I was having, so I selected that one as the correct answer.

Thank you,

Adam K

[Anonymous]

I know this is an old/dead topic, but it is possible that there were nested blocks (blocks with other blocks within them). If you noticed that you had to explode your object two or more times in order to get all the lines to behave properly, this is most likely the case. I've definitely had this frustrating problem before.

If this is the case, the lines in the nested block would also need to be moved to Layer 0 to achieve the desired result. To do this, you would go to the block editor, select the nested block, and open that in another block editor window. You'd then move all lines in this block to Layer 0.

I've also noticed that sometimes after editing and saving a block, existing instances of that block don't update the edited properties, requiring deleting and re-inserting the block.

Hopefully this saves someone some frustration in the future.

[Anonymous]

omg, thanks