Display and Change the Properties of Objects (Concept)

Create and Modify Objects > Control the Properties of Objects > Work with Object Properties >

Display and Change the Properties of Objects

Expand All

Expand all collapsed sections.

Collapse All

Collapse all expanded sections.

Concept

Procedure

Quick Reference

You can display and change the current properties for any object in your drawing.

You can display and change the current properties for any object in your drawing in the following ways:

Use the Quick Properties Palette

The Quick Properties palette lists the most commonly used properties for each object type or a set of objects. You can easily customize the quick properties for any object in the Customize User Interface (CUI) editor. See Quick Properties in the Customization Guide.

When one or more objects of the same type are selected, the Quick Properties palette displays the selected properties of that object type.
When two or more objects of different types are selected, the Quick Properties palette displays the common properties, if any for all objects in the selection set.

You can select any object to display the Quick Properties palette when the QPMODE system variable is set to 1. When the QPMODE system variable is set to 2, the Quick Properties palette displays only if the selected object is defined in the Customize User Interface (CUI) editor to display properties. You can use the QPLOCATION system variable to display the Quick Properties palette by using cursor or float mode. You can also control the display settings of the Quick Properties palette using the Drafting Settings Dialog Box.

Use the Properties Palette

The Properties palette lists the current settings for properties of the selected object or set of objects. You can modify any property that can be changed by specifying a new value.

When more than one object is selected, the Properties palette displays only those properties common to all objects in the selection set.
When no objects are selected, the Properties palette displays only the general properties of the current layer, the name of the plot style table attached to the layer, the view properties, and information about the UCS.

You can double-click most objects to open the Properties palette when the DBLCLKEDIT system variable is set to On (the default). The exceptions include blocks and attributes, hatches, gradient fills, text, multilines, and xrefs. If you double-click any of these objects, an object-specific dialog box is displayed instead of the Properties palette.

NoteThe DBLCLKEDIT system variable must be set to On and the PICKFIRST system variable must be set to 1(the default) for double-clicking to work.

Change Object Property or ByBlock Settings to ByLayer

Using the SETBYLAYER command, you can change specified properties to ByLayer for selected objects. Objects that have a ByBlock setting can also be changed to ByLayer. When an object’s properties are not set to ByLayer, those objects do not display the layer property overrides that were set by viewport.

In the SetByLayer Settings dialog box, you can specify which object property settings are changed to ByLayer.

The SETBYLAYERMODE system variable stores the property settings that are to be changed when the SETBYLAYER command is used.