Class overrides fail: wall lines to dashes

[Keith W]

I'm editing a sheet layer viewport. I want to change the attributes of a class within it: specifically, line style to dash.

Now I'm realizing that the lines I want to change are a strip-footing-style wall. So how can I change the appearance of the wall to dashes in the viewport? It's a simple wireframe top/plan view. Or was/is there a better way to do this (view footings, in this case, in plan, as dashed lines: pretty standard stuff).

Keith

[CipesDesign]

In order for Viewport Class Overrides to work: a) The object(s) in question must have their attributes defined "by class", and b) the class definition must have the "use at creation" box checked.

For your purposes here, the simplest solution might be to change the wall's lines to dashed in the design layer. As long as you have no need to show them with other attributes (eg: in other VP's) then why not just set them that way??

HTH's

[Keith W]

Here's one very bad solution: create a footing wall style that is dashed, duplicate the footing layer, replace with dashed style, change layer visibility in viewport. That's a whole series of bad ideas... but it works.

And another thing: for some column footings, I just extruded some rectangles. Same problem: if I change/override the class to a dashed style in the viewport, it doesn't change the object line style since (I think) it's now an object with no separate/editable 2d representation... or (again) am I missing something?

K

[Keith W]

For your purposes here, the simplest solution might be to change the wall's lines to dashed in the design layer. As long as you have no need to show them with other attributes (eg: in other VP's) then why not just set them that way??

Alas, I do need to show them as lines elsewhere.

I see now that I had changed the wall style to ignore class. Thanks, don't know how I missed that.

Doesn't solve the problem of top view of extrusions: anything to do there?

k

[CipesDesign]

Extrudes are sort of odd. Once extruded their graphics are fixed, and they are always solid lines with no fill. Two ways to solve this. My favorite is to draw the 2d graphic you want directly in place (over the extrude), then select the extrude and the 2d object and go to Modify/Create Symbol. This will create a hybrid (2d/3d) symbol which displays exactly as desired in both 2d and 3d views.

Another method is to use a "Floor" object (which is really more or less the same thing, but the program does the 'hybridization' for you.

The reason I prefer the first method has to do with repetitive drawing elements (like these sorts of footings). If I create a symbol then if I need to change them I can change them all at once by editing the symbol. If I use a bunch of Floor objects I would need to change each one... which can get tedious...

[Keith W]

That's a great trick. I guess I'd sorta heard some allusion to it, but now it makes sense. Thanks!

k

[CipesDesign]

Glad you found joy ;-)

[Keith W]

Hmmm. Did I miss something?

I placed a rectangle on top of my extrude, and created a symbol. Twice, actually: in both cases, these are simple squares.

In both cases, when I change the class to dashed lines, only the top and left sides are dashed: the other two are still solid. I suppose I could "oversize" the 2d overlay, but I doubt that's the right approach. Any idea why that would happen? I snapped the 2d rectangles to the existing extrudes... They are solid-filled.

Keith

[Keith W]

Well, it has something to do with alignment or something. I just recreated the extrudes, and created the 2D overlay, and enlarged it by a bit, created the symbols, and replaced those that weren't working. All is fine now.

Maybe it could have been solved with a "send to front/back" before I'd made the symbol, also...

I guess, in retrospect, I could have edited the symbol components. I didn't see that until now.

K

[CipesDesign]

Glad you worked it out. Sometimes things can get mysterious ;-)