Transparent Material - Vector View

[robdyck]

Is there still no material that will allow transparency in Vector View? I use a lot of glass for deck railings and its completely insane what needs to be done to make an exterior elevation drawing look decent. Currently, I need to build my railings without any glass, then build the glass manually, place on a separate layer so I can have it on in renderings, but off in elevation views (vector). Then, in elevation view, I need (choose) to manually draw p-lines with transparent fill to show the glass without blocking visibility of the structure beyond.

I don't like fighting Chief's defaults and auto features, but I also want my drawings to have a certain appearance. Anyone have any thoughts or tips for transparent glass (not windows) in vector views?

[Chopsaw]

No Sorry but we keep asking.  There is a special use material that would be quite useful if you have read any of my postings.

 

It is available at the top of the Plan Materials listing above Use Default for the Cantilever Underside of Decks called "No Material".

 

I would love to use it for stairs and many other automatic features where things can't be deleted.

 

 

[robdyck]

10 minutes ago, Chopsaw said:

No Sorry but we keep asking.  There is a special use material that would be quite useful if you have read any of my postings.

 

It is available at the top of the Plan Materials listing above Use Default for the Cantilever Underside of Decks called "No Material".

 

I would love to use it for stairs and many other automatic features where things can't be deleted.

 

 

Thanks for the reply. That's what I thought. Shouldn't there be a 'vector display' option in a material's dbx? This should be available for all materials. Here's another example:

I do almost all of my plans in color, and black aluminum trim or other dark materials display way too dark in vector view. The 'apply shading contrast' is an on-off choice, but it would be great if it was a sliding contrast selector. I currently lighten my dark material colors, then decrease the 'diffuse' slider so they'll appear correctly in the renderings.

[Chopsaw]

7 minutes ago, robdyck said:

Shouldn't there be a 'vector display' option in a material's dbx? This should be available for all materials.

 

There is a toggle above the display window for vector, standard , PBR, and Ray Trace.

 

Still no way to make it transparent though. 

 

10 minutes ago, robdyck said:

I do almost all of my plans in color, and black aluminum trim or other dark materials display way too dark in vector view. The 'apply shading contrast' is an on-off choice, but it would be great if it was a sliding contrast selector. I currently lighten my dark material colors, then decrease the 'diffuse' slider so they'll appear correctly in the renderings.

 

I have the same problem but have not approached it that way.  Try the Pattern  Material Color and just raise the slider on the right of the Select Color DBX.  Let me know if that work for you as I am not quite sure of your approach.

[robdyck]

Just now, Chopsaw said:

 

There is a toggle above the display window for vector, standard , PBR, and Ray Trace.

 

Still no way to make it transparent though. 

 

 

I have the same problem but have not approached it that way.  Try the Pattern  Material Color and just raise the slider on the right of the Select Color DBX.  Let me know if that work for you as I am not quite sure of your approach.

For 'vector display' option I'm referring to display choices, not much different than fill for CAD objects and p-lines. Essentially it would require some additional options in the Define Material DBX:

-PATTERN TAB: a separate material color choice, with a transparency option.

-TEXTURE TAB: unlink the material color choice for textures that blend with colors

 

[robdyck]

9 minutes ago, Chopsaw said:

I have the same problem but have not approached it that way.  Try the Pattern  Material Color and just raise the slider on the right of the Select Color DBX.  Let me know if that work for you as I am not quite sure of your approach.

I have quite a few materials that are blended with their color, so changing the color affects the display on all views. Here's an example of my black aluminum:

[robdyck]

A couple other examples:

From layout. I've lightened everything for better visibility, both on screen and on paper.

 

Camera View (not a render, just for my own purposes). With the diffuse decreased, the materials still appear as dark as intended.

[Chopsaw]

13 minutes ago, robdyck said:

Essentially it would require some additional options in the Define Material DBX:

-PATTERN TAB: a separate material color choice, with a transparency option.

-TEXTURE TAB: unlink the material color choice for textures that blend with colors

 

Yes I think I remember that issue on one of my previous projects being quite a hassle .  You might want to bump this over to the suggestion forum as a reminder to chief that a lot of the new features can not be used effectively without a robust core program.

[StephenGreene]

3.5" solid aluminum walls dragged down with windows.