Transparent Lines

[robdyck]

At one time, wasn't there an option to add transparency to a line? Is there any way to do this now without drawing a polyline? A heavy line with transparency essentially acts like a highlighter and is a great way to identify 'zero' thickness layers in wall assemblies, like vapor barrier, for instance.

[Chopsaw]

You can assign transparent fills for your wall layers or use a No Room Definition Room Divider wall as a Text Highlighter. 

 

Text Highlighter Wall.calibz

[robdyck]

13 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

You can assign transparent fills for your wall layers or use a No Room Definition Room Divider wall as a Text Highlighter. 

 

That's an interesting idea, for sure, but just curious, why wouldn't you just use the text fill style for something like that? At any rate, I wasn't specific enough in my OP. I was referring to section details, and the idea of adding a transparent line, as opposed to a dashed line, to 'highlight' a thin layer without needing to explode the layers to create the drawing space to identify membranes, films, etc. like in the example below. This would also require the ability to truncate an individual line separate from the default settings

 

[Chopsaw]

40 minutes ago, robdyck said:

That's an interesting idea, for sure, but just curious, why wouldn't you just use the text fill style for something like that?

 

Yes, my idea was that it could be used for portions of text or a few key words here and there which may not have been obvious from my posted example as you could have done that with the text fill style feature. A simple polyline could also be use but I thought that a wall might be easier to control and give a consistent height right out of the box or library in this case. It could also be put onto an editing tool bar as a Library Object or multiple Library object toolbars for each text scale you use.

[Chopsaw]

36 minutes ago, robdyck said:

At any rate, I wasn't specific enough in my OP. I was referring to section details, and the idea of adding a transparent line, as opposed to a dashed line, to 'highlight' a thin layer without needing to explode the layers to create the drawing space to identify membranes, films, etc. like in the example below. This would also require the ability to truncate an individual line separate from the default settings

 

I see now why walls would not be appropriate.  Very nicely drawn, but very obviously tricky to do with chiefs existing tool set.

 

Reminds me a bit of trying to do a detailed plumbing schematic with some degree of accuracy.

 

Your posted example would make a great feature request.

[robdyck]

42 minutes ago, Chopsaw said:

 

Yes, my idea was that it could be used for portions of text or a few key words here and there which may not have been obvious from my posted example as you could have done that with the text fill style feature. A simple polyline could also be use but I thought that a wall might be easier to control and give a consistent height right out of the box or library in this case. It could also be put onto an editing tool bar as a Library Object or multiple Library object toolbars for each text scale you use.

Portions of text; that makes sense. I've alway just used polylines, but I've never 'highlighted' any text in plan view. I typically do this when identifying a particular portion from a table or schedule.

[robdyck]

39 minutes ago, Chopsaw said:

 

I see now why walls would not be appropriate.  Very nicely drawn, but very obviously tricky to do with chiefs existing tool set.

 

Reminds me a bit of trying to do a detailed plumbing schematic with some degree of accuracy.

 

Your posted example would make a great feature request.

I've made plenty of feature requests that deal with the actual "drafting" of plans. I don't like to complain, but there's a lot of functionality missing on the drafting end, but there's around 50 cabinet libraries?? And not being REVIT compatible is becoming a bit of a problem. I'm worried that while at one point I was ahead of the curve (compared to others in my market), I'm going to be left behind where my 3D software is too dumb to play nicely with others who have true BIM capabilities.

[glennw]

You may be able to get close to the effect that you want by changing the Draw Order of the various lines.

[jorgearaya]

Just wanted to follow up on the comment about Building Information Modeling

Quote

On 6/4/2019 at 8:26 AM, robdyck said:

true BIM capabilities.

 

 

While everyone in the business of selling software claims BIM, it doesn't necessarily mean "True BIM" and I don't think that statement even exists today.

The most misused and misunderstood word in the market today is BIM, and unless the users are taking the time to catalog and document every piece part and component that goes into the building, it will always be misused.

Interoperability is a "work in progress" for everyone, that is why Industry Foundation Classes came to exist, and openBIM is carving the way into the future.

BIM is another word for "Database", if the latter does not exist, then the first one is an empty word. Having or not the ability to shade or highlight a line has nothing to do with BIM.

Revit users struggle with Residential drafting more than any other users out there. The only two major players in the Residential design market are Softplan and Chief Architect, whether or not they can handle interoperability with Revit.

Database is the key for BIM, if your model has all the instructions and can produce an accurate database of all the components of the building then you have "True BIM", the caveat is likely the user needs to input all the parameters into the software for it to work. 

BIM Software must be capable of representing both the physical and intrinsic properties of a building as an object-oriented model tied to a database .