Shadows in distant area of elevations

[Anonymous]

I'd like to know why solid shadows on distant areas obscure material fill assigned to wall material. On the example below the distant area is in the centre. This is on a fully linked elevation, using solid fill for shadows (different shades of grey in foreground and distant area settings of Section/Elevation tool) and materials have a fill also. Anyone know a way around this? Also, why does the shadow fill sit on top of lines making them only half width? If you want elements to stand out in foreground this stuffs it up.
Any help appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Hi s2art,

I've struggled with the same problem with shadowing in elevations. As far as I can tell, there is no way to control the display order of shadows calculated by AC. I love the look of shadows, but I have stopped using them for this reason. AC reall needs a "send to back" setting when selecting sun shadows in elevations.

[Djordje]

Set the shadow fll background color to transparent, and the pen color lighter than the element pen color in the distant area

[Anonymous]

Hi ,

I tired that - but a light colored fill pen used in the shadows will still write over a much darker pen. The problem is not just related to distance - an object in the foreground, outlined with the heaviest weight pen will sometimes have all its outlines show through a shadow, and sometimes lines will be covered. There is no consistency to how AC handles this.

A solution is to use a hatch pattern (such as the brick pen default), but I really dislike the effect of shadows created with hatch patterns. I wish there were a way to use solid fills (25%, 50%, 75%. 100%) for shadows that would let ALL lines show through. After much experimentation, the firm I work for has made it a policy not to use shadows in elevations..