Override block colour without using Layer0

[scott.d.oliver]

I am trying to do a simple renovation drawing, where I have the existing floor plan within a block, and the proposed renovation outside the block. 

I want to make my "existing floor plan" block plot a lighter gray colour, but still maintain the line weight and line types respective to the assinged layers the geometry is on. I know it would work if I put all of the geometry on Layer0, but then I lose all of my unique line types and weights within the block. 

It's worth mentioning I'm set up so that each line weight corresponds to a layer colour, and my .ctb file plots accordingly.

I've tried playing around with transparency, but gave up on that because of the plots becoming rasterized which is problematic for file size. 

I've also tried importing the existing floor plan as an xref, but still was unable to figure out how to override the colour only for the drawing.

Thanks in advance!

[pendean · Accepted solution]

We all use XREFs, not "blocks", as do the majority of AutoCAD drafters: it's the better approach overall and you can control fading either just as a display or as a layer/plot style setting.

Blocks is the wrong concept for this task. XREF color overrides are a built in key feature of AutoCAD 2016, and in lower versions this is done by controlling the XREFs layers colors.