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How do I do this... hide lines behind railings


Guest EnvisionMan

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Guest EnvisionMan

This is kinda hard to explain (which is probably why I can't find a solution anywhere), so I'll just give you the specific situation, and perhaps that will make sense.

 

I am using AutoCAD 2008... just 2-D design, nothing fancy.

 

When I draw porches with railings, I often spend many minutes trimming out the objects behind the railing. So if my metal top rail is 1" thick (running horiz) and my vertical rails are 1" wide, 5" on center, I have to trim out all the lines inside those 1" rails.

 

I received an Autocad file from another designer not too long ago that had some sort of clear fill inside his rails, so the rails hid what was behind it (but it was not colored fill, black or white, or whatever... it matched the background color). If I erased the rail, the window behind it was there in it's entirety.

 

How did the other designer/architect do that? I tried to 'erase' the fill, but it does not seem to be there. I am not sure what they did.

 

I am so tired of spending 20-30 minutes per house just trimming out the doors and windows behind. Any suggestions? Thanks!

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They may have been HIDDEN (hide objects) from the ISOLATE drop down menu in the right click shortcut menu.

I just noticed that you are using Autocad 2008, and I am guessing that was not an option then, I believe it was just added to the shortcut menu in 2012.

The bad news is, that even if you find it you still need to specify all the bits you want to hide, which is just like selecting them to erase them.

In order to erase them you would need to END OBJECT ISOLATION in the ISOLATE dropdown menu first, as they are basically frozen and turned off.

 

You should look at the similar threads listed after your post.

Edited by Dadgad
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Guest EnvisionMan

I don't think that is the case... I don't think I am explaining it right... hmmm... you see, most of the window is still visible. The only parts that are hidden are the parts behind the rails. So wherever the designer (he is using AutoCAD 2004) added his rails, it hid the line only where the rail was placed. The way I do it, is to trim that little part off. They way he did it was to place his rail, and it automatically hid the window behind it. When I deleted his rail, the window was intact behind it... he had not trimmed it.

 

Sorry if I am not making it clear... I guess a simpler way to ask this question is, "What is a quick way to place a railing in front of of a window, and clean up the image so it is obvious that the window is behind the rail". Ultimately, that is what I am trying to accomplish.

 

Thanks!

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The way I described leaves everything which was not picked as visible. Do you have the HIDEOBJECTS command in 2008?

Select one of his masking railings in a drawing and then open the PROPERTIES to see what it is. Might it be a polyline with width adjusted to obscure the background?

Are you able to post an example of this, if just a small portion of a drawing, it should be pretty easy to figure out with access to the DWG.

Edited by Dadgad
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Guest EnvisionMan

Yes, but how do you make only parts of a window be visible, and other parts still visible? When you look through the railing, you can still see some of the window, and the rails hide the rest. If the window is made up of 4 lines (a simple window) and the bottom line is horizontal, that lower line will be broken into about 10 pieces where the rails are in front of it. I want to 'hide' the part of the window where the rails are, but still see the line where the rails are not.

 

So if I select the lower line, and tell it to hide, the whole thing hides. This is not what I want to accomplish.

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Sorry about that. I lost track of that little detail, right you are. It will hide the entire object, of course! :oops:

Can you click on one and ascertain its properties? What is it?

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Guest EnvisionMan

:shock:Hey!!!! That's the ticket!!! How have I been designing for 16 years and never knew about the WIPEOUT command? Nestly, you have made my day!!!!

 

Thank you!:D

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Guest EnvisionMan

Is there a website that lists all the best commands (favorites) and/or shortcuts for building design? Plus perhaps some killer scripts or macros? Since I am a 1-man show, I learn nothing new from year to year. Commands like Wipeout are awesome, and I wonder how many other commands like it are out there that I don't know about. I have been designing since 1996, and am largely self-taught (lots of books and youtube videos) but I wonder what else is out there. Any suggestions? This might be too general of a question, but I can't help but ask.

 

Thanks again.

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Be very careful with Wipeouts. They can be damaging to file size, drawing performance, and weird plotting issues. There are other ways of "masking" than Wipeouts.

 

Just my $0.02 is all. ;)

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Is there a website that lists all the best commands (favorites) and/or shortcuts for building design? Plus perhaps some killer scripts or macros? Since I am a 1-man show, I learn nothing new from year to year. Commands like Wipeout are awesome, and I wonder how many other commands like it are out there that I don't know about. I have been designing since 1996, and am largely self-taught (lots of books and youtube videos) but I wonder what else is out there. Any suggestions? This might be too general of a question, but I can't help but ask.

 

Thanks again.

 

It is always a good idea to pay attention to any EXPRESS TOOLS, as they tend to run ahead of the pack, and typically the best ones will eventually be incorporated into AUTOCAD, though it might be a few years down the line. If you use your f1 to access the Autocad Help section, take a look at the COMMANDS. Broken down alphabetically, it doesn't take too long to just browse through them and see if there is anything there of conspicuous interest. A good starting point in scouting out unknown commands. The WIPEOUT command info is shown in the attachment. Including some available options you might want to look at.

an easy command reference.jpg

wipeout command.jpg

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Be very careful with Wipeouts. They can be damaging to file size, drawing performance, and weird plotting issues. There are other ways of "masking" than Wipeouts.

 

What other ways were you thinking of?

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I use an apropriate color of solid fill, and "Bring To Front" in draw order hides the bits in back. Select the railing parts outlines as the boundary so the fill will ignore the window and siding lines. In draw order your railing outlines need to be in "Front" of the fill and your fill needs to be in "Front" of everything else but the outlines of the railing. Filling is almost as tedious as trimming the window and siding lines out, because you want the top & bottom rail and picket outlines to be distinct where they meet. You can speed this up a bit by making your pickets a block.

 

Also, I copy some lines from my porch or stair off to the side someplace, build my railing there, and then move it to where it needs to be.

 

Does not wipout have to be a color too?

 

Some of you 3D people have not had to deal with this in a while since 3D does not have this issue. The railing is not on the same plane as the wall like it is in 2D.

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I also use solid hatches (color 255,255,255) as masks rather than wipeouts, I can't remember the exact reason, but I think it had something will difficulty selecting/editing them after they were created. It's also probably a good idea to put your masks, whether they be wipeouts or solid hatches, on their own layer. so you can quickly turn them ON or OFF.

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Wipeouts match the background color.

 

Most have plot problems but that is easily remedied with proper settings.

 

Note: Because a wipeout object is similar to a raster image, it has the same requirements for plotting. You need a raster-capable plotter with either an ADI 4.3 raster-capable driver or the system printer driver.
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Be very careful with Wipeouts. They can be damaging to file size, drawing performance, and weird plotting issues. There are other ways of "masking" than Wipeouts.

 

Just my $0.02 is all. ;)

 

Isn't there a limit to the number of wipeouts you can use as well?? For some reason I'm thinking there is... :unsure:

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  • 4 years later...

I will up the bid to $0.03. Another method just to add on is pface will do hides as well. Even with wipeouts and hatches etc sometime they just do and dont work and it can be quite frustrating using send in front is a good idea, a similar answer is set your Z value of the entity to be above zero this can help stack the objects from looking down at it vertically. The only other problem I have with wipeouts is it does not like curves and I have a task that has curves so will try the hatch 255,255,255 next time will save me some steps.

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