Layer Translator

Good afternoon! Have you ever had layer names change on you in the middle of a project? Would you like to be able to get your old layer names "translated" across to the new names? Here's a little "how to" I've worked up on utilizing the Layer Translator in ABS 2007. Enjoy!

Layer Translation:
Open the drawing you want to change the layer names/properties of.

NOTE: this will permanently remove all past layers, you may want to save a back-up copy of your drawing before doing any layer translation!

CAUTION: if you exit out of layer translator before saving, all of your mapping is lost.

Type in "laytrans" (you can also go to this by clicking on the icon, or going to CAD standards drop down and then picking layer translator)
A new window will pop up.
The left-hand side is a column called "translate from" and it should show all the layers that are in the drawing you have open and current.
The right hand side is a column called "translate to" and it should be blank.
You need to load the layers you want to translate to, OR you can load a past saved mapping (a ".dws" file)
When you hit the load button you will get a browser.
At the bottom of that browser you can change what types of files you are looking for.
If you want to translate layers to match another drawing make sure this is set to look for a ".dwg"
If you want to load a past mapping make sure this is set to look for a ".dws"
Once you have that set select your file (.dwg or .dws) and hit Open (or double click on the file name).

If you chose to load a drawing (.dwg file):
Now all the layers that are currently contained in the drawing that you selected will be loaded in the right hand column.
Select one (or multiple layers at once) layer to map to ONE layer in the right hand column.
You can map several layers in the "translate from" column to ONE layer in the "translate to" column.
After you have at least one layer in the left column and one layer in the right column selected hit the "Map" button that is in between the two columns.
You will notice that the layer from the left-hand column has now disappeared from the left-hand column.
It now appears under "layer translation mappings" and shows what layer you have mapped it to.
NOTE: you can map several layers from the left column to one layer in the right hand column.
After you have mapped all the layers you need to hit the "SAVE" button at the bottom of this window.
(If you forget to hit save it will prompt and ask if you want to save)
After you save your mapping, hit the "translate" button at the bottom.
You should now be looking at your newly mapped layers.

If you chose to load a past mapping (.dws file):
NOTE: you can load more than one .dws file at a time.
All the layers that file already had mapped out are now shown under "layer translation mappings".
If you have layers that were not mapped in the file they will still be shown in the "translate from" left-hand Column at the top of the window.

To finish mapping the remaining layers:
Select one (or multiple layers at once) layer to map to ONE layer in the right hand column.
You can map several layers in the "translate from" column to ONE layer in the "translate to" layer.
After you have at least one layer in the left column and one layer in the right column selected hit the "Map" button that is in between the two columns.
You will notice that the layer from the left-hand column has now disappeared from the left-hand column.
It now appears under "layer translation mappings" and shows what layer you have mapped it to.
NOTE: you can map several layers from the left column to one layer in the right hand column.
After you have mapped all the layers you need to hit the "SAVE" button at the bottom of this window.
(If you forget to hit save it will prompt afnd ask if you want to save)
NOTE: it will only save the couple of layers that you had to map by hand, it will NOT combine the .dws file that you used to map the first time with it. Also if you load more than one .dws file it will not save them together.
NOTE: if you opened a saved .dws file and changed something like the layer color for it to map to, it will allow you to resave the .dws file.
After you save your mapping, hit the "translate" button at the bottom.
You should now be looking at your newly mapped layers.