Controlling class visibility through Data Visualization - Is this possible?

[Dylan]

Good morning everyone,

 

Not sure if this is possible but I thought someone might have discovered a way to do it...

 

My workflow right now for setting up viewports (usually plans) is to control class appearances through a data visualization preset so it's consistent and easy to apply, and then turning on / off class visibilities in the "Classes" options under the Viewport OIP.

 

On every plan viewport, I turn off all the wall component classes so that the walls default to their class appearance. (ie, all new walls are drawn under the WALL-NEW class which is a white fill with a .35 black line). I learned this trick from, I think, a @Wes Gardner video. This is great for simplifying the drawing and making it easier to read but it's a pain for dimensioning when we are dimensioning from structure and not finished faces.

 

It would be wonderful if I could setup a data visualization that would alter both the appearance of the classes AND also the class visibility in the viewport. I like working on the annotations in full colour / detail and it would be grand if with one selection I could set all the visibilities / visual properties for viewport when I'm done or need to switch between the two.

 

I know I can accomplish this with the eyedropper tool but it makes it hard to keep things consistent throughout multiple projects and I have to remember to keep one viewport always set to the "final look" to pull from.

 

Does anyone know if this is possible?

 

Thanks folks!

[Pat Stanford]

No, you can't do this via a Visualization.

 

But you could create a Saved View that would set both the Class Visibilities and the Visualization that you want to have active.

 

Same effect, but maybe slight more difficult to set up.

[Dylan]

Thanks Pat, I'd kind of figured that would be the answer..

 

I'll give the Saved Views a shot. 

 

- Dylan

[Dylan]

Hi @Pat Stanford,

 

I found a solution for this that resides solely in Data Visualization with one exception.

 

First, each wall is in either WALL-NEW, WALL-EXST classes and there are two component class groups depending on whether the wall is NEW or EXST. For new walls the component group is COMP-XXXX and for existing walls it's COMPE-XXXX. The existing classes are simple, one for structure, one for inner finish and one for outer finish. Really, these classes don't need to be used if that level of detail isn't needed. The wall style can be blank and the entire wall is in the WALL-EXST class. Same goes for the roofs and slabs.

 

I have two DVs. One for simple plans/sections and one for detail plans/sections. Both DVs are "Objects using Function" > "Class". In the Simple DV, all NEW wall / slab / roof components classes have their fill and pen set to white and the EXST are all set to a % of grey. The outline of the walls then defaults to the WALL-NEW or -EXST class for pen colour and thickness displaying the plan without any components even though the component classes are visible in the VP properties.

 

For the Detail DV, the difference is that the pen override is set to "Retain Original" but I have the foreground set to black. Activating the Viewport-Detailed DV then shows all the details in the new walls but "hides" them in the existing walls. 

 

The Data Visualizations work both in plan and section VPs (which was fantastic) and they ignore any attributes imposed by materials assigned to the components (another win!).

 

The only time I can't get this to work is in our demolition plans. We note walls/doors/windows to be demo'd by a dashed line and because the wall components use the COMPE class, they turn grey in the Simple DV. If I override the WALL-DEMO class attributes in the DV, I see all the components as dashed lines which gets too cluttered so for Demo plans, I turn off all the component classes. Not a huge issue as there's far less dimensioning and annotating in those drawings.

 

This seems to be working well for me at the moment, I'm sure there will be issues later (there always are!)

 

Below is are the screenshots of what I've been describing.

 

What it looks like on a design layer without any Data Visualization.

 

 

The simple DV applied. All component classes turned on.

 

 

With the Detailed DV applied. Same Viewport, nothing else changed besides the DV selection.

 

 

The setting for the Simple DV

 

 

The settings for the Detailed DV.

 

Simple DV in section.

 

Hard to see at this scale but this is the Detailed DV in section. 

 

 

Last one. These are the Section VP settings. The only class override we have in the VP properties is the ELEV-04FINE, it's set to 50% grey. For some reason, if we change it in the DV, it doesn't work. The cut fill derived from the component class overrides and pen colour is sorted with ELEV-01CUT which, for some reason does work if overridden in the DV... Go figure.

 

I hope this makes sense, feel free to reach out with any questions. 

 

Have a great day folks,

-Dylan