Object properties and Match Properties

Every object shares a set of general properties: Layer, Color, Linetype, Linetype scale, Lineweight, Transparency and Plot style. Then it has geometry properties specific to its type — a line's start and end points and length, a circle's centre and radius, text height and contents. You can change any of them in the Properties palette (Ctrl+1).

Select many objects and the palette shows the values they share; different values show as \VARIES\*. Change a value and it applies to all of them. The drop-down at the top lets you filter the selection by object type — select a whole plan, choose Text*, and set every text height in one go.

A hidden (dashed) line that appears solid usually means the linetype scale is wrong for the drawing's units. The global scale is LTSCALE; each object also has its own Linetype scale property. In a millimetre drawing, try LTSCALE 1 with MSLTSCALE and PSLTSCALE set to 1 so linetypes scale with the annotation scale and viewport scale — or set a global value such as 100 for a 1:100 drawing.

Always load linetypes through the Layer Properties Manager and assign them to layers rather than to individual objects.

Type S for Settings to choose which properties are copied — for example, copy only the layer, or text style, or hatch pattern.

QSELECT selects objects by type and property — every circle with radius 150, every text on layer A-ANNO-TEXT. Right-click an object › Select Similar selects all objects of the same type on the same layer. Both are huge time savers for tidying drawings.