controlling visibility of 2D elements - front / back

[Brooke]

For instance a polyline fill or hatch obscures text: I want the text in front of or on top of the hatch so it will be visible (from above,in plan view). Normally I'd give an appropriate Z but I don't think I'm allowed to do that, or am I, somehow?

[Ray Libby]

Give the text a solid fill and bring forward (Ctrl+f). If this doesn't work is the text on a different layer? And no, you can't give text a Z height.

[Pat Stanford]

The equivalent of setting the Z of a 2D object is to change the stacking order. There are commands for Send to Front, Send Forward (moves one step), Send to Back, and Send Backward.

Objects are stacked on one on top of the other in the order drawn unless you manually change them. Each layer has its own stacking order. Layers are then stacked in the order they are in in the Organization Palette.

I find that Send to Front and Send to Back are the most useful. Often if you have many objects in a layer and want to swap two of them which were not draw at about the same time, Move Forward/Backward may take many, many steps to get them where you want to go.

Try a new file with about four filled objects of different colors/patterns that are partially overlapping. You will quickly see how the stacking order works.

Pat

[Brooke]

Thanks very much, Ray and Pat. Text on different layer, yes. I knew I had seen the stack options, but as seems typical I couldn't find the info when I needed it.

Interestingly, changing the stack of the text and hatch (of polyline) objects via ctrl-F and -B didn't work. The layer stack should already facilitate what I want ("notes..." is above "site..."). Complications: The note was copied from elsewhere and edited so it may still be considered older; the hatch is in a group with the polyline; text is actually a room name object. Creating new text works as predicted.

Edited February 12, 2008 by Brooke

[brudgers]

Within a layer, bring to front and send to back affect the display of objects within the layer.

Between layers, stacking order affects display.

For hybrid objects delta-z does not affect their 2-d display.

Edited February 12, 2008 by brudgers

[Brooke]

Thanks for that clarification, brudgers. So the hatch of a polyline is a hybrid object, as I guess is the room name text, so no delta-z in 2d but layer stacking should still affect 2d display frontedness....Stacking still not working for me on this.

(I prefer all 3d...plan view is 3d, no perspective with a cutting plane at a certain Z - then you can have consistent behavior? No doubt this has been thrashed about elswhere in the forums for ages...)