wish: hide objects in viewports / layer transparency in viewports

[Tobias Kern]

hi,

i think we need more fine controll over the visual content in

viewports:

sometimes is could be usefull to hide some specific objects/groups/whatever in viewports.

hide by class or layer is very usefull, but we need

more fine controll.

so we need tools for:

- hide object

- bring back all hidden objects.

2nd. wish:

layers should be defineable to show in color or black/white

AND the transparency (0-100%) of each layer in the viewport

options should be definable too ...

cheers.

[zoomer]

so we need tools for:

- hide object

- bring back all hidden objects.

^

+1

Like :

- hide selected

- hide unselected

+ unhide all

+ a Lock Feature to save whole Classes/Layers from accidentally editing their elements.

[Art V]

Though the idea sounds nice, I have some hesitation about hiding objects in viewports without using classes.

It could work if for each viewport with hidden objects it would be possible to generate an overview to see which objects are hidden and then to unhide them individually.

Without that I can see confusion arising when people get a Vectorworks document that has e.g. two viewports in which an object is hidden in one and visible in the other.

- How would this hidden object show on the design layer, visible or hidden? Because currently editing an object through a viewport basically means editing it on the design layer.

- How would people know this object is hidden individually in a viewport? If it would be hidden by class visibility override it would be possible to track this back, but without the option to get a list of hidden objects in a viewport it will not be clear whether it is a bug, error or intention that an object is not visible.

- How about compatibility with older Vectorworks versions? (though this issue may solve itself in a few years after introduction)

- It may require giving each and every object in Vectorworks an object ID (not sure if that already happens, but maybe Jim can answer this) to keep track of objects to be hidden in one viewport but not the other. This may generate additional overhead in Vectorworks which we may not want.

Though I do like Zoomer's suggestion for an option to lock feature to lock classes/layers from accidental editing without having to set the class settings to show/snap to others and not be able to edit all classes but the active one. (I usually do not have layers set to show/snap to other/edit but it may be conventient for layers too at times)