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Turning off layers in one LEVEL and not on the others

Anonymous
Not applicable
I have a building with 3 levels.
i really want to have certain LAYERS turned on in 2 and turned off in the other.

It seems when i turn off a LAYER, it turns off in every layer and even my Perspective View.

any help would be super.
Thank you.
Ian
22 REPLIES 22
Anonymous
Not applicable
I made a little project trying to do what was in the video but I can't get it to show all floors with selective layers per floor in 3D.

I made two layers. Walls and Balls. There are three stories. A set of walls and a ball per floor. I cloned the stories in the View map, change 2nd floor's layer setting to only walls. In 2D if I go through the views it works. But in 3D, the layers are universal and either all the balls are visible or not.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong still?
Ernest Atanasiu
Advisor
Why do you need a 3D view?
Is it for documentation? Then you save a 3D Document, place it in the view map, assign it a layer combination and you're done.

Is it for a 3D view of the house? Then render it and you're done.

Do you just need to visualize the model?
arch. ernest atanasiu
AC 10-26 INT/GER/FR on Win 10/ Win 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
This all pertains to the OP who asked how to show his model in perspective 3D view with one layer shut off for the 2nd floor but not the 1st or 3rd floor.

As I have said, I still don't think this is possible. It seems the layers are universal and you can't selectively show different layers combos per floor in the model, while you're trying to model.

Maybe I'm just being really dense here.
Barry Kelly
Moderator
zeropointreference wrote:
This all pertains to the OP who asked how to show his model in perspective 3D view with one layer shut off for the 2nd floor but not the 1st or 3rd floor.

As I have said, I still don't think this is possible. It seems the layers are universal and you can't selectively show different layers combos per floor in the model, while you're trying to model.

Maybe I'm just being really dense here.
With one set of layers common on all floors then this can only show separate layer sets in each floor on the floor plans only.
In the 3D view the layers are universal so will be on or off for all floors.

The only way it can be done in 3D is to have separate sets of layers for each storey (which defeats the need for storeys in the first place but that is neither here nor there).
i.e "walls_1", "walls_2" & "walls_3".
Then in 3D "walls_1" & "walls_3" can be turned on and "walls_2" turned off.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
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Ernest Atanasiu
Advisor
zeropointreference wrote:
As I have said, I still don't think this is possible. It seems the layers are universal and you can't selectively show different layers combos per floor in the model, while you're trying to model.

Maybe I'm just being really dense here.

I really don't think you understood the purpose of the View Map, how layer combinations work and how you should structure your model in order to achieve different documentation sets from a model.


maybe this will help: the view map and the layers
arch. ernest atanasiu
AC 10-26 INT/GER/FR on Win 10/ Win 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
@uisanata

I was talking strictly in the model space. That's why views and the resultant advantages of them won't matter. In model space, 2D you can separate the stories and have different layers visible. In 3D model space, layers are universal and are either on or off.

I made a little project to test it because being able to selectively show layers per floor in 3D model space is advantageous to me. I would post it but I can only get the file down to 650k and the largest file you can post here is 256k. But its easy enough to do.

Delete all your layers and views. Make two layers, wall and slab (my original experiment was balls but for simplicity sake...). Create three layer combos, all, wall, and slab. Create three floors. On each floor, draw a wall and a slab and place them on their respective layers. Go to the view map and clone the story folder. Now open up the 2nd floor settings and set the layer combo to wall.

Now, if you go through the views, in 2D, this will work. But if you are in either the 1st or 3rd floor when you start 3D, all the layers will be on. If you start 3D from the 2nd floor, only the wall layer will be visible and the slab layer for all the stories will be shut off. Mind you I'm only talking about the area where you place objects and draw lines and cut stuff and model this and label that. I've never set up a 3D document before like that, but I'll trust you that it can be done there. But it seems in the model space AC can't and it really is a limitation of AC as the experiment is showing.

The first pic show 3D started from the 3rd floor by navigating there from the cloned folder in the view map. The second pic shows 3D started from the 2nd floor by navigating there from the cloned folder. See how it's all or nothing?

But I'm still willing to accept there is a way to do it and it's evading me.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Next
From 2nd.jpg
Anonymous
Not applicable
zeropointreference wrote:
...But I'm still willing to accept there is a way to do it and it's evading me.
There is a way but not in the 3D window which is a single viewpoint and thus only one layer combo at a time.

You can set up a camera (or isometric) view of the model and use this to create views for each floor in 3D (using the 3D filter). Each of these views can have a different layer combination assigned and they can then be superimposed on a layout. This can also be done with 3D documents if you want to annotate the drawings.

It is also a neat way to do a vertically exploded view of the stories.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Has the use of 'selection sets' with the 'Selections' palette been considered yet?

In combination with the Find & Select tool and the marquee, go through each of the 2d floorplans and select everything that you would like to appear in 3d. Save the elements selected on each storey as an individual selection set in the 'Selections' palette.

Turn on all the layers and go into the 3d window. In the 'Selections' palette double click on each of the saved selections in turn; this will cumulatively select all the elements previously selected in the floorplans.

With all the required elements selected, press F5 to view only these elements in the 3d window, and save it as a view.

Unfortunately, a selection set will reselect only the elements originally selected. Any new elements subsequently added afterwards will not appear automatically, so you will need to create a new selection set with the original and new elements added. This could be a bit of a maintenance issue perhaps, but better than nothing?

This also brings up the obvious question of why you can't modify or at least overwrite a selection set after it has been created! A new wish perhaps?
Ernest Atanasiu
Advisor
I clearly understood what you are trying to show me. And it's not possible in the Project Map. All views in the Project Map (including a 3D view) are single viewpoints with no layer combination whatsoever.

But I was asking you why do you need those combinations? Are you creating your documentation in the Project Map?

Here's how I think you should do the combination you requested (see pics)
I did it with 3D Views, if you want different viewpoints, use the camera instead.
combo1.jpg
arch. ernest atanasiu
AC 10-26 INT/GER/FR on Win 10/ Win 11