Opacity of Layers with Gray Visibility

[willofmaine]

Is it possible to set a design layer's Visibility to Gray and NOT have the fills of everything on that layer become transparent?

[Hippocode]

Is it possible to set a design layer's Visibility to Gray and NOT have the fills of everything on that layer become transparent?

Not.

They should make it a class option, I'd like that.

[Joe-SA]

With the 'Use Layer Color' toggle you can combine grey layers and black and white layers pretty well. No layer gets a 'grey' setting but you override the existing colors with a 'grey' color. You can choose how heavy a grey you wish to use in the color palette.

We have also stacked layers or viewports underneath large polygons that we then dial in a desired level of Opacity. This allows for a high degree of control over how light and dark the 'grey' items look on screen or print.

[Andy Broomell]

When you click on the 'Layers' button in the Viewport's Object Info Palette, instead of greying out the Design Layer, select it and click 'Edit'. Then in the pop-up box use the Opacity slider to reduce the opacity of that Design Layer. With this method I've had success making some layers visually recede while still maintaining their fills.

[willofmaine]

It actually looks as though VW 2013 can do this very nicely. Layer colors (such as a gray pen and white fill to create a "gray" layer with no transparency) can be set for each (or all) of the layers in a viewport, and then those layer colors (which are overrides) can be toggled on or off in the "Viewport Layer Properties" dialogue box.

Unfortunately, the project I'm working on that generated this question is in Vectorworks 12 (12.5, not 2012...) which doesn't appear to have this capability (layer colors are set for the entire document, including for viewports, and are either all on or all off...).

Thanks for the responses! (And now that I re-read your post, Joseph, I see that I've mostly repeated what you'd already explained... But, your "large polygon" idea might actually be useful in VW 12). Okay, thanks!

Will

[Melian]

Hi everyone. I have a problem. 

I need to put some solids as shadow. But I can't find the option. I have a Vector 12.0.1 

Can someone tell me if in that version exist the option?

Because in my other version I can do it and is relatively easily.

Thanks 

[sle7en7]

Following up on this thread, is it possible to adjust the opacity of "gray" layers from the interactive display settings under preferences? Curious.