SINGLE OR MULTIPLE VIEWPORTS

[Rosebud Studios]

I've drawn my site plan using only one viewport with three layers choosen (Site civil, landscape and architect).

I don't seem to have any control over which layer is on top. I would like the architect layer to coverup the topo lines on the civil layer for example.

Would I be better off having a viewport for each layer? Will I be able to align the viewports and put the architect viewport on top?

Ed Rose

Rosebud Studios

[CipesDesign]

Ed, if you go into the menu item ORGANIZE>LAYERS you will get a list (graph-like) of all the layers in your document. By selecting an individual layer in this list and then clicking on "UP" or "DOWN" (or TOP or BOTTOM) you can change the stacking order of the layers.

I personally would not recommend using more than one viewport as overlays as you may encounter placement/registration problems.

Hope that helps!

[Andrew Bell@NV]

To clarify, VectorWorks has a document-wide stacking order for layers. Viewports do not have their own ordering. If you want to stack layers in a viewport in a different order than the document-wide order, you'll have to do the multiple viewport technique you suggest. If you create one viewport, then copy and paste in place twice, you can then just edit the visible layers for each viewport and they should stay aligned.

[Rosebud Studios]

Peter, There are no filled layers beneath the top layer only the roofs in the top layer are filled but topo lines from bottom layer still show through the roof. I only rendered the image to see if it would obsure the detail below. Still puzzled.

I've produced a duplicate file and used multiple viewports as Andrew suggested and it worked. Only concern is viewports get misaligned accidently. It's a bit tricky to lock the viewports and arrange the proper stacking order when you have to update each viewport.

Thanks for the support.

Ed Rose

[Kevin]

Rosebud:

Are you sure this is not a class issue? The viewport OIP has a class button. Click on it and be sure that the appropriate classes are visible or invisible.

I have also found that sometimes the program does not recalculate automatically. I may have an object that shows as solid fill in the attributes palette but in fact is not solid. I just go to the attributes palette and reselect solid fill and the object then responds.

[Rosebud Studios]

Peter, my document layers are arranged in the stacking order that should allow the landscape layer to obscure the civil layer and the architect layer to obscure the two lower layers.

Could it be the way I am rendering the viewport (final shading) that's allowing the two bottom layers to show through the top layer?

Andrew, if I create multiple viewports will the top viewport block the lower viewports completely?

Ed

[CipesDesign]

Ed, If you have "FILLED" (or rendered solid) objects in a layer that is beneath another layer with "UNFILLED" objects, yes the filled objects will show through. I use a similar method, but generally do not use rendered images for final con. docs, only 2d (and 3d items converted to 2d poly's for roofs, etc).

Are you saying that you get a different result in the viewport created from the design layers than with the design layers active themselves? Interesting. I'll have to mess around with that a bit...