Depending on the nature of the layers in the External Reference .dwg file (xref), there are a couple of ways you can change the colours/lineweight of different layers/features in AutoCAD 200x.
Method 1)
-Insert the xref into the document
-open the layers property manager
-click select all... layers or press Ctrl+a (or select as many layers whos colours you want to change)
-select a colour
Keep in mind that Method 1 is the easy way, it will not work unless the layers in the xref have colour "by layer" selected. There is no way to change the colour in an xref in this situation without altering the original external reference file.
Method 2) Breaks all the rules
-open the xref as a seperate document
-select everything in the model space
-in the color selection drop down menu choose "by layer"
- now you should be able to xref into your document and use Method 1 to change the colours of the layers
Method 3) Colours STILL won't change
- the only time colors still will not change in the xref is when they are locked into a custom
block in the xreference
- the ONLY way to fix this is to edit the blocks individually in the xref document, i'm afraid.
You can repeat these same methods for altering lineweight, line type and any other property features posses in AutoCAD.
I have heard rumor that sopmeone has written some code that can do these tasks/bypass them. If anyone has heard anything, please, please let me know.
With this guide, I have hopefully helped you to override xref colors. Overriding xrefs can be very annoying!
