topic Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation in Modeling

how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevations

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Aug 2004 04:11:27 GMT

Can anyone tell me how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevations ? ......... cant find the settings ...... but I assume it can be done

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

James Murray — Sun, 15 Aug 2004 10:37:48 GMT

It's the 'Transparency in Shading' option of the 3D Window Settings.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:16:22 GMT

I know that this was discussed previously but I haven’t found any posts later than 2004, so can somebody explain me this.
It seems to me that the 3D Window Settings are saved with Section Views. I am obviously concerned with ‘Transparency in Shading’ since this affects whether the glass surfaces are transparent in sections/elevations or not… but I cannot change these settings since the 3D Only options are dimmed for Section Views? ‘Get Current Window’s Settings’ doesn’t work neither. So the only way would be to save the Section Views again and replace the existing ones with new ones. Is there a better way of doing this?

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:37:58 GMT

Sections/Elevations use the 3D Window settings since they are a special kind of 3D.
If you save a Section View, the 3D Window settings (including Transparency) will be saved with the View.
You can activate a Section View, redefine 3D Window Settings and resave the View.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:05:51 GMT

Sorry Laszlo, I’m probably asking stupid questions but can you explain how do you resave the View? I can ‘Save Current View' as a new View, then go to Layout Book select the relevant section and ‘Link Drawing to…’ new View. Is that what you mean?

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:34:16 GMT

ArchiCAD does not allow me to overwrite an existing View as far as I know.
...or am I wrong?

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:39:36 GMT

In Archicad 9 you could not do it, but in Archicad 10 you can.
In Archicad 10:
1. Modify the 3D Window settings to your liking.
2. In the Navigator, switch to the View Map, select the saved View and click the Settings button.
3. In the Dialog click the Get Current Window's Settings button at the top.
4. Click OK to save the modifications.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:04:31 GMT

No... I tried this but it doesn't work with me for some reasons... Are you sure it should work with Sections/Elevations Views as well?

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:05:01 GMT

Hm, this is getting strange.
I looked into this a bit.
Here is what I found (see attached image):

The lower left portion of the image shows part of the Section View (No.3) in which one can see that that Window is transparent in Section because the mullions of the Window behind it can be seen.

No 2. in the image shows 2 Views saved from the same Section.
The upper one was automatically created when the Section Line was drawn.
In the settings of this View, transparency is set to ON in 3D.
I opened this Section View (by double-click).
Then I changed Transparency to OFF in 3D Window Settings.
Then I opened the settings of this Section View (E-03 South Elevation).
I clicked the Get Current Window's Settings (No. 1 on image).
In the 3D only panel of the Dialog, the Redefine Image Settings with Current checkbox becomes checked (although it is greyed). That it gets checked would cause me to think it will store the change. However, when I OK the Dialog and regenerate the View from the Model, nothing changes.
So maybe the greyed status of the whole panel means that for Section/Elevation Views that are created by the placement of the Section Line, these settings cannot be changed. I don't know why.

So it looks like you are right: it is not possible to change its 3D settings.

What I did to work around this is the following:
1. Double clicked the E-03 South Elevation to open its Section View.
2. Modify the transparency setting in the 3D Window Settings Dialog to OFF.
3. Save a new View with the name E-03 South Elevation-2.

Now, here comes another strange thing: this newly created View cannot be dragged under the Section/Elevation Views, so although it is a View of a Section, it cannor be categorized under the Section Views group (see lower No. 2 in the attached image).

Maybe this is because only those Views are placed in the Section/Elevation group in the View Map that are generated automatically by Archicad when you place a new Section/Elevation on the Floor Plan.

So this is not very clear for me why it works this way but it seems that is the way it works.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:12:46 GMT

Exactly! What you’ve described here is 100% identical to my experience. The inability to place the newly created Section View into the existing Sections/Elevations folder is, of course, a separate issue. I’ve noticed that even earlier. And not only that! If you try to delete one of those automatically generated Section/Elevation Views ArchiCAD will without any notice delete the whole folder! Try that out!

May well be dangerous if you’re not cautious while working on a project with large number of sections/elevations.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:41:36 GMT

Yes, something is definitely not 100% around here.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:55:31 GMT

I notice that you are working with a cloned folder. That is why you cannot add views and also why deleting one deletes the whole thing (i guess this is supposed to be a feature). This is one of the reasons I never use clones. I suspect it is also why you cannot change the settings of the individual view. Perhaps it is possible for the whole folder (but better yet, just don't use clones).

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Link — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 23:03:19 GMT

There is a bug where AC cannot update a view to change the transparency settings. At this time, the entire view must be recreated. This bug has been around for a while and it's hard to believe GS hasn't fixed it, after the amount of people who have experienced it here on ArchiCAD-Talk, and out in the real world.

The issue of cloned folders is an outstanding one. It's fundamentally quite useless to clone from the project map (as opposed to the view map and publisher set). Hopefully we can collectively change GS's approach to these.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 12:25:53 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
Sections/Elevations use the 3D Window settings....If you save a Section View, the 3D Window settings (including Transparency) will be saved with the View...

They do & they don't
See attached image

The vector hatching is controlled by the Section settings NOT by the 3D window settings

This is a bit of a muddle which needs sorting

I note there has been some discussion about how model effects should be saved in a section - see topic

Should transparency and other 3D model effects be saved with the Section?

Or should they be saved with the view, allowing one section to have multiple representations, like model views allow multiple representations of floorplans?

I'm unsure. But at the moment its just confusing!

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:41:55 GMT

I have finally discovered how to control the transparency of the Views placed in Layout Book. Transparency is in no way connected with View Settings! … nor with Section Settings. It depends on the current status of the ‘Transparency in Shading’. After you’ve placed a View on the layout adjust the ‘Transparency in Shading’ in ‘3D Window Settings’ to the desired value and then update the View. Far from ideal because You would probably need to adjust the Update Type to Manual if you wish to have different Views with different values for transparency but that’s the way it works.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:33:33 GMT

Of course.
I thought you knew that.
Just as the Transparency in Shading field of the 3D Windows Settings Dialog controls transparency in Section/Elevation Views, so it is the one taken into account when saving Views.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Link — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:39:29 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
Of course.
I thought you knew that.

Me too. Well, it is related to views, it's just that there's a bug which currently prevents their redefining to include transparency.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 10:22:37 GMT

Me too.
I knew that the transparency in sections is controlled with ‘Transparency in Shading’ field of 3D Window Settings. What I didn’t know is that it’s in no way saved with Section View as it turned out.

Just as the Transparency in Shading field of the 3D Windows Settings Dialog controls transparency in Section/Elevation Views, so it is the one taken into account when saving Views.

It’s not taken into account when saving Section Views.
You can turn on and off transparency for the Section View after you have placed it on the layout without even opening it. That’s what I was trying to say.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 13:56:32 GMT

Akos wrote:
Me too.
I knew that the transparency in sections is controlled with ‘Transparency in Shading’ field of 3D Window Settings. What I didn’t know is that it’s in no way saved with Section View as it turned out.
Just as the Transparency in Shading field of the 3D Windows Settings Dialog controls transparency in Section/Elevation Views, so it is the one taken into account when saving Views.
It’s not taken into account when saving Section Views.
You can turn on and off transparency for the Section View after you have placed it on the layout without even opening it. That’s what I was trying to say.

I looked at this thing again and it seems like that after you place a Drawing on a Layout the source of which is a Viewpoint or a View, you can change the Transparency in Shading to OFF, and the Drawing will correctly update, but then as soon as you did this, there is no way that you switch it to ON and the Drawing update correctly.
Definitely something not OK here.

Re: how to turn off glass transparency in sections/elevation

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:00:50 GMT

Laszlo, thanks a lot for all your time and effort...