Within each Parcel folder there are 3 separate folders with docs in them. Each one of the 3 separate folders need the 'Building' template applied to them. There are thousands of Parcel folders. 

I could export all of the entryIDs for these folders and automate the creation of an XML outside of LF and import it in to each users settings. 

What makes the subfolders inherit a parent folder column display? I am not sure what controls this. 

You are mentioning a couple different things like templates and columns.

For assigning templates to folder, Workflow is your friend, because it can search for all of the items and loop through them assigning the template.

Columns are a per-user setting as you already identified, so these are permissions set either for the individual user or groups, which then carry down to the user.

There are two options with columns - either everything is the same across the whole repository, or they can be set differently for separate folders. 

When columns are set differently by folder and you open a folder it first checks if there is a configuration for that folder, and will use it if there is.  If there is nothing set for that folder, it checks the parent folder, and then the grandparent, etc. until it finds a folder that has a configuration set-up.

If you started with a new user that had no column configurations, and set the columns up at the very top level of your repository, or at a very high folder level, it would apply to everything that was a child of that - at least until some child folder was given a different configuration itself.

Also - the attributes where you can import and export them via the Administration Console are for the Desktop Client.

If you are using the Web Client, then on the same screen where you are configuring the columns, you can save a profile and apply that profile to groups like the Everyone group.

I don't believe there is any way to set column configurations based on template.

There are thousands of Parcel folders. 

Are these Parcel folders all within the same folder or a limited number of folders?  Because you could apply the column configuration to the folder(s) above the Parcel folders and it would carry down into each Parcel folder and the 3 Building folders that are within each Parcel folder.  Unless those individual folders already have column configurations, it should carry down.  That should be much easier than setting a separate configuration for each of the individual folders.

Could you identify a list of the entry IDs for the thousands of folders, and create the XML for each of those thousands of entry IDs, and import that XML to specific user(s) or group(s) - yes, you can - but there is no going to be any special processes to automate it or streamline it - and I have no idea if the system will suffer any performance degredation for having thousands of different configuration.  If you can work out a way to set the configuration higher in the folder tree, so that it carries down, it's just going to be easier than doing it for each folder individually.

If you are certain you want to do it individually - then the steps might be something along these lines:

1. Creating a search of the records to generate your list the folders you want to apply the custom column structure to.  
2. Export that list making sure the entry ID is included in the export.
3. Create the configurations - perhaps with a new user as you initially mentioned.
4. Export those configuration attribute(s), so that you have an example of the XML structure with the configuration in place, and how the export combines multiple attributes in a single XML file.
5. Use third party software (nothing fancy, you could probably use Excel) to help generate the XML text for the records for all of the entries from your report.
   • Maybe test with a smaller group of a half-dozen or so first - rather than thousands.
6. Import the new XML file and review in the repository to make sure it worked as expected.
   • This is part of that test with a few first.