FreezeLayersInMS - Civil Engineering Tools

Short description

FLMS3 — Model Space layer control dialog: filter + multi-select + batch actions (Freeze/Off/Lock/Plot, etc.) with optional Xref scoping
Fixes: filters never show stray “T”; Xref layer names are displayed without the xref| prefix while operations still use full names internally
Persists filter/toggle/xref selections between runs via environment variables

Command:

• FLMS3

Description:

Opens a DCL dialog titled Freeze/Control Layers (Model Space) with a main layer filter, scope toggles (Current, Xref, Both), an Xref filter + Xref multi-select list, and a “Matching layers” multi-select list with status columns.
Builds the matching layer list by evaluating both name filter criteria and scope criteria (current layers vs xref layers, optionally limited to selected xrefs).
Displays each matching layer as a fixed-width column line showing source (C/X), name (Xref prefix removed for display), On/Freeze/Lock/Plot state, color, and linetype.
Applies batch operations (Freeze/Unfreeze, Off/On, Lock/Unlock, Plot/NoPlot) to the selected layers using VLA property setters on the true layer names.
Saves filter and toggle state (and selected xrefs) to environment variables on close, then deletes the temporary DCL file.

Helper function: (if any)

• flms-clean-filter — converts a legacy filter value of "T" into empty string to prevent stray T from appearing in the UI.
• flms-has-wc — detects if a filter contains wildcard characters so the routine can treat it as a raw pattern vs auto-wrapping with *text*.
• flms3-disp-name — strips the xref| prefix from a layer name for display only (operations still use the full name).
• flms-pad — pads/truncates strings to fixed widths for aligned columns in a fixed-width font list box.
• flms-aci->name — maps common ACI color indices to readable names; otherwise returns the number as a string.
• flms3-disp-line — builds the per-layer display row: source (C/X), stripped name, On/Frz/Lck/Plt, Color, Linetype in fixed-width columns.
• flms3-get-all-xrefs — collects and sorts xref block names from the Blocks collection using IsXRef.
• flms3-get-layers — collects and sorts all layer names from the Layers collection (includes full names, including xref prefixes).
• flms3-parse-indexes — parses DCL multi-select index strings (space-delimited) into integer lists.
• flms3-restore / flms3-snapshot — restore and persist UI state (filters, toggles, selected xrefs) using getenv / setenv.

Functionalities:

• State management — global variables track filter text, xref filter, scope toggles, selected xrefs, selected layer names, and both full/display lists for the layer list box.
• Filter normalization — UI filter values are read as strings; a legacy "T" value is normalized to empty, preventing unexpected filter behavior/appearance.
• Xref filter + selection — xref list is filtered by wildcard or contains-match, filled into lbXrefs, and prior selections are re-applied by index mapping.
• Scope toggles — Current_Layers / Xref_Layers / Both determine whether matches include only non-xref layers, only xref layers (optionally limited to selected xrefs), or all layers.
• Matching layer evaluation — a layer matches when it satisfies the name filter (wildcard or contains-match) and the scope rules (current/xref/both + selected xrefs).
• Display vs true names — the list shows a formatted row where the layer name is displayed without xref| prefix, but selection indexes map back to the full layer names for operations.
• Multi-select mapping — layer selections are tracked by index in lbLayers and translated back to flms3*listFull to populate flms3*selNames.
• Batch operations — action buttons call flms3-apply which sets VLA properties on each selected layer: Freeze, LayerOn, Lock, Plottable toggles.
• UI enable/disable — the Xref list box is enabled only when Xref_Layers or Both is selected; otherwise it is disabled via mode_tile.
• Dialog lifecycle — writes DCL to a temp path, loads/opens dialog, wires action tiles, runs, snapshots state, unloads dialog, deletes the DCL file.
• User feedback — after each action, prints a summary line such as Freeze applied to N layer(s).

Result:

Running FLMS3 presents a filterable, multi-select layer management dialog that can target current layers, xref layers, or both, with optional selection of specific xrefs to constrain xref-layer matching.
Selected layers can be batch-modified (Freeze/Unfreeze, Off/On, Lock/Unlock, Plot/NoPlot) and the routine reports how many layers were affected.
Xref layer names appear without the xref| prefix in the list for readability, but actions are applied to the true full layer names; filter/toggle selections persist between runs without showing a stray T.