[HLC_Fiesta]

Using AutoCAD Mechanical 2012
I have three viewports created on the Defpoints layer. I hid the layer on the plotter tab so the lines do not print. I have done this for years. I have never had any problems.

Today, I turned the Defpoints layer back on to modify the viewport sizes in a particular drawing and it will not let me select the viewports. They appear but are not selectable.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[HLC_Fiesta]

OK, now they all of a sudden became selectable and problem is gone. I don't know what it was, I kept working on the actual drawing and happen to notice they were selectable again.

Thanks anyway.

[TLHarrell]

You had turned layer '0' off too. Don't bother turning off Defpoints. It won't plot. You can set it to a really dark color so it's not intrusive in your view.

[neilw20]

Who ever invented layer zero, also had zero brains.

[TLHarrell]

Actually, layer '0' is pretty cool if you use it correctly. For most of your drawing, you shouldn't be using it. When you draw objects which will become a part of a block entity, use layer '0'. When you place that block onto another layer, the objects which were on 0 will take on the attributes (layer color and linetype) of the layer the block is inserted on.

Where people have problems is when they start changing the color and linetype of layer 0, or set it to frozen. I made a little LISP routine called '0' that simply makes sure that layer is ON, THAWED, the correct default color (white), sets the current layer to '0' and the current color and linetype to "ByLayer". Pretty handy little routine. If you'd like a copy, shoot me an email at whitelightlaserengraving at gmail, and ask for the Layer 0 LISP Routine.

I usually draw (I work for a civil engineer) on layer '0', then shuffle lines off to the proper layers afterward. Easier to keep track of where I'm working. If I notice a part of a drawing that needs more work, or has an error, I'll mark it in layer '0' until it's been fixed. When my co-workers use the base drawings as an XRef, they cannot turn off the layer '0' markings. This works well as a quality control feature. It does have it's uses.