topic Re: Zone colours and object/slab fills in Documentation

Zone colours and object/slab fills

Sculptdesign — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:18:32 GMT

Hi all,
I like using zones to illustrate different areas and it works really well. However, when preparing layouts with furniture all of the object fills sit on top of the zone (as image attached).

So I set an override to make all cover fills transparent, but this also applies to slabs which I need to have fills to cover elements below, such as lower parts of stairs. If I rearrange the zone to be above the slab the zone fill covers it.

What I'm looking for is for the zone to somehow be on top of all other objects, allowing the lines through but not the fills. Like the multiply blend mode in Photoshop.

How does everyone else deal with this? I've resorted to keeping the zone fills transparent so they can still be scheduled but the colour coding was very helpful to indicate different types of rooms etc.

Thanks!

Re: Zone colours and object/slab fills

Lingwisyer — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 01:27:44 GMT

Sculptdesign wrote:
So I set an override to make all cover fills transparent, but this also applies to slabs

Duplicate your Override and just add an extra criteria for Is not Slab?

Re: Zone colours and object/slab fills

Barry Kelly — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 01:56:27 GMT

Lingwisyer wrote:

Sculptdesign wrote:
So I set an override to make all cover fills transparent, but this also applies to slabs
Duplicate your Override and just add an extra criteria for Is not Slab?

Or set a criteria for 'Element type is zone'.
Then it won't affect any other elements.

Barry.

Re: Zone colours and object/slab fills

Sculptdesign — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 13:49:00 GMT

Thanks for these, the issue is that the slab will then still cover the zone fill - as per the top right of the screen shot.

I can't bring the zone to the top because it will cover the stair, the stair can't be transparent because it's hiding elements below. The slab can't have a fill if the zone is below. It just seems like a catch 22.

I'm interested how others use zone colours, do people ignore that the objects are white over the zone, do they not use the colour? Am I over thinking this?

Re: Zone colours and object/slab fills

Erwin Edel — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 14:13:42 GMT

We ignore the 'white bits'. Stairs, furniture etc

But we also only use the coloured views for schematic 1:200 layouts for fire ratings, etc so these typically do not show a lot of furniture to stay legible.

Re: Zone colours and object/slab fills

Lingwisyer — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 01:50:10 GMT

The stair is covering elements below? Could you reduce your Relative Floor Plan Range so that they are not drawn? This can be View specific.

Ling.

Re: Zone colours and object/slab fills

Sculptdesign — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 06:25:11 GMT

Lingwisyer wrote:
Could you reduce your Relative Floor Plan Range so that they are not drawn? This can be View specific.

Thanks I will try that. Stairs are an issue when they overlap, I use the fill of the current stair to hide part of the one below. We work a lot on existing buildings so the treads rarely sit directly on top of one another. When the fills are transparent it shows all the treads and doesn't make any sense! I will try the range as you suggest and see if that helps. Thanks!

Re: Zone colours and object/slab fills

Lingwisyer — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 07:42:25 GMT

Regarding stairs overlapping, use a manual cut height for the break line with the invisible above / below setting?

Ling.

Re: Zone colours and object/slab fills

Sculptdesign — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 12:21:19 GMT

Thanks Ling, I think I've tried most of the options with the stair views but the zone fill never shows how I want it to. I think it's best to change how I do my drawings to be honest and only use the zone fills for smaller scale schematic drawings. If I come across another example again I'll come back though.