Whether for engineering, architectural, construction, manufacturing or other types, layers were used to show different aspects on the drawing. These sheets were then overlaid one on top of another to produce final drawings. The layers were often drawn on separate transparent sheets of paper.

Traditional manual drafting used a similar approach. Layers help organize drawings by allowing users to place and manage related entities. One of LibreCAD’s key features is the ability to use layers. A maximum of eight user defined colors can be added. User defined colors can be modified by right-clicking on a user defined color and selecting a new hue and value. User defined colors are created by clicking the Add button and then selecting the hue and value from the color selection tool. Selecting ”Custom” will allow a selection from a palette of 36 colors and shades of grey or from a user defined colors. If the block’s color is subsequently changed all entities in the block will be assigned the block’s color. When editing a block, selecting ”By Block” will assign the color that was defined for the block to the added entity. If the layer’s selected color is subsequently changed all entities on the layer will be assigned the layer’s color. Selecting ”By Layer” will assign the color that was defined for the layer (see above) to the entity.

The drop-down menu allows the color to be selected ”By Layer”, ”By Block”, from the ”Custom” color selector, or chosen quickly from one of the 16 pre-defined colors: The color for an entity can be selected from the ”Color” selection drop-down menu.

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