Can't get into layer properties

[davehaigh]

I was adding some rules to layer pipe extends and pipe connects.
After extending the rules I can no longer get into layer properties so that I can add some additional pipe features.

In Creo 2.0-m070

Any ideas?

David Haigh
Phone: 925-424-3931
Fax: 925-423-7496
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
7000 East Ave, L-362
Livermore, CA 94550

[davehaigh]

I just confirmed this behavior. As soon as I extend the rules, the layer properties pick is grayed out. What's with that?

Is this normal behavior?

David Haigh

[DonSenchuk]

I've got to be missing something but... pick the OK button in the rules editor? That will let you get back and pick the properties tab.

In Reply to David Haigh:

I just confirmed this behavior. As soon as I extend the rules, the layer properties pick is grayed out. What's with that?

Is this normal behavior?

David Haigh

[davehaigh]

I can't get to the rule editor, The Layer Properties menu is grayed out.

[cid:image001.png@01CECF05.E3075DE0]

David Haigh

[davehaigh]

[cid:image002.png@01CECF0B.AF917B20]
When you extend the rules, it creates the layers in every single component in your assembly. Not really what I wanted to do.

What that means is, you can't just pick on the layer name and get to layer properties because the menu is grayed out.
I'm sure this is pretty basic to a lot of you. But honestly, I'm pretty new to the rule based layers, so I didn't know this.

This is what is looks like after deleting the layer from all the components that didn't have pipe features in them.
[cid:image003.png@01CECF0B.AF917B20]
You have to pick on a specific assembly to get to the layer properties for it.

I don't really like the way extending the rules works. I wish I could pick the sub-assy's and components to which I want to extend the rules for that specific layer.
Unless everything is unreleased and checked out you're going to modify a bunch of files you don't have rights to check back into Windchill.

There is one thing I'm not clear on..., is it extending just the rules for the layer I have selected, or all the rules for all the layers?

David Haigh

[dgschaefer]

I believe that extending only applies to the layer selected. It'd be pretty easy to test.

If you look at your image below, there are two icons shown. The first indicated a 'bundle' of layers, the second indicates an individual layer, and one controlled by rules.

A layer 'bundle' isn't really an entity and therefore has no properties, which is why you cannot access the properties dialog.

If you want to change the properties of all the layers in the bundle, right click on the bundle and pick 'select layers'. This selects all the layers in the bundle (although it doesn't necessarily show that). Right click again and you can access the properties dialog and modify the properties of all the layers in the bundle at once.

Prompted by a presentation by Glenn Beer at PTCUser 2007, I spent a lot of time learning about layers. From that, I wrote a blog post on layers last year, including a PPT with more detail. You can find it here (although I see that access to the PPT is broken):