topic Re: Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected in Documentation

Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected

Scott Bulmer — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:35:56 GMT

In earlier versions of Archicad transparency worked when selected in the Interior Elevation Tool Dialog Box. It is selected as shown in the attached screen captures however is not displaying correctly in the projected window. Ceramic tiles should be showing through the glass shower door.

Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon 15.7.4

Re: Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected

Ricardo Lopez — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:53:45 GMT

Hi @Scott Bulmer

Unfortunately, the surface fills of background elements aren't visible when the transparency option is enabled, so you can draw that fill by hand and reorder it so that it's in the background. It's a bit tedious, but you can do it if you need to.

Re: Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected

Lingwisyer — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:53:12 GMT

As a consolation, it does make it easy to identify what the glass is infront of...

It is a bit odd that your shower is not showing it's contours...

Re: Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected

Patrick M — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 21:59:32 GMT

I just had this question come up from a client... it is unfortunate that the transparent surface fill does not screen the background elements; even worse that it eliminates cover fills through transparency.
but that may be a matter of adjusting how we do elevations. in your example, I'd typically do an elevation of both sides; tile layout and glass layout; then just keep transparency off

Re: Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected

AllanP — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:01:29 GMT

and this is why you should have gone to Hogwats to study magic...

the proper incantation is

if GLOB_CONTEXT = 4 then

model WIRE

else

model SOLID

endif

....draw my glass panel here

model SOLID

....draw my frame here

this makes the glass panel invisible in all elevations/section, but solid with transparency in all other 3D views.

or if you just want it to be invisible in just the internal elevation views:

if GLOB_CONTEXT = 4 and ElevationWireframeSettings = "Hide glass in internal elevations" then

model WIRE

else

model SOLID

endif

....draw my glass panel here

model SOLID

....draw my frame here

the "ElevationWireframeSettings" set by a library global, and make a separate model view option that changes that to "Hide glass in internal elevations" just for internal elevation view sets.

once set it up, it saves a hours of messing around drawing tile fills.

you will need to add a company specific library global scrip for that.

go study magic...

Re: Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected

Patrick M — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:07:02 GMT

I'm all for GDL solutions... but you could model the same thing with any number of tools and put it on a layer set to wire frame for your int elev views...
its a bit extra to script a shower wall from scratch... impressive and awesome... but not something the average person needs to tackle when they just have a small bathroom remodel to throw together.

Re: Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected

Lingwisyer — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 01:14:57 GMT

Maybe an simple option to suggest to GS to make.

Re: Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected

Marcus Scott — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 23:29:25 GMT

Hi all,

Would setting the glass transmittance value to 100 be a suitable solution?

Before:

Set the associated glass surface to a transmittance value of 100:

After:

Go to the View Menu > Refresh > Rebuild & Regenerate and you'll be able to see through the glass surfaces:

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Marcus

Re: Archicad 29 interior elevation tool will not display glass as transparent when projected

Barry Kelly — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 02:49:00 GMT

It shouldn't need to be 100% transparent material.

Anything 51% or over should be transparent in elevation so long as transparency is turned on in the elevation settings.

If you do adjust the material transparency, you do need to 'rebuild & regenerate' the elevation to see the change.

Even closing and re-opening the elevation is not sufficient.

Turning transparency of and then back on again in the elevation settings also works.

Barry.