6.6 And Again, the Easy Way to Modify: Matchprop

Let's say you've drawn a chair but used the wrong layer by mistake. The chair consists of a rectangle and three lines. All you have to know is on what layer the chair should have been drawn. But you can't remember. You can do a Properties command on one of the other chairs just to read the layer setting, and then the Properties command on the chair you just drew man, that's a lot of work!

Try the Matchprop command instead.

Pick the Match Properties button (Figure 6.6a) on the Standard toolbar, type Matchprop at the command prompt, or select Match Properties in the Modify pull-down menu. AutoCAD prompts:

Figure 6.6a:

Command: matchprop (or ma )

Select source object: [select an object that was drawn on the correct layer]

Current active settings: Color Layer Ltype Ltscale Lineweight Thickness

PlotStyle Text Dim Hatch Polyline Viewport

Select destination object(s) or [Settings]: [select the object you want to change]

Select destination object(s) or [Settings]: [enter to complete the command]

Who could ask for anything more?

But wait! There is more! (Will the wonders never cease ?!)

Notice that Matchprop gives you a Settings option. The line above the Settings option tells you what the current settings are. These are the properties AutoCAD will match. Selecting the Settings option will produce the Property Settings dialog box (Figure 6.6b) in which you can tell AutoCAD the properties you do or don't want to match: Color , Layer , Linetype , Linetype Scale , and more!

Figure 6.6b:

Personally, I like to leave all the boxes checked. I rarely run into a situation where I might need some properties matched but not others. Still, it's nice to know that I have this option.