I was using the wrong layer colors for years and it finally bit me

Had a contractor on a big commercial job in Phoenix ask for a revision, and I sent the wrong file because my 'revision' and 'as-built' layers were both shades of green. He called me out on it, said it wasted half a day. How do you guys organize your layers to avoid this kind of mix-up?

3 comments

3 Comments

eva_garcia562mo ago

My buddy had the same thing happen with his electrical drawings. He used red for both "existing" and "to be removed" circuits. Sent a demo crew the wrong set and they started cutting live wires. Total nightmare. Now he uses a totally different color for anything that's getting deleted, like a bright pink, so it can't be missed. He also adds "DEL" to the start of those layer names.

park.adam2mo ago

Wow, pink for deletion is genius (and way less shocking than a live wire).

the_sam2d ago

My uncle's been doing this kind of work for 25 years and he always told me the exact opposite. He uses bright red for anything that's coming out because it's the universal "danger" color in his head. Pink seems like it could get mistaken for a highlighter on a messy set of plans. If you mix up pink with some faded red or orange under a job site light, that's how mistakes happen. He always says to use a color that has zero chance of looking like anything else on the sheet, even in bad lighting.