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Transparent Material for Clearance Areas

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    #1

    Transparent Material for Clearance Areas

    Hey everybody. So I have a VAV family which requires a clearance area to the side for access to the electrical panel, motor, etc. I want to use an extrusion to show this clearance area, so that it will be visible in section and 3D views as well as plan views. I've created a Subcategory called "Clearance Areas" and applied the desired Line Style to it, so it will appear dashed.

    My problem is that I want this clearance area to be transparent. I created a material with its transparency set to 100 and applied that to my clearance area extrusion. It looks transparent in the Family Editor (see picture), but when I load it into my model, it's Opaque. (second picture.) There's a controls box inside the clearance area that I want to be visible through the clearance area. Can someone clue me in? Did I miss a step somewhere? Thanks for reading!



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    #2
    Its only going to be transparent in views that show things in Shaded mode, or Realistic Mode. To do what you are after, you have a couple of options:

    1. Use a Shared/Nested Family for the clearance, that can be Filtered/Set to transparent in plans.
    2. Use a solid for 3d views and exporting to navisworks, and ALSO use Lines (model or symbolic) that show up in flat views.
    Aaron "selfish AND petulant" Maller |P A R A L L A X T E A M | Practice Technology Implementation
    @Web | @Twitter | @LinkedIn | @Email

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      #3
      In the example above from Necro99, is there a way to set the bottom of the clearance area to be at floor level to see what crosses above ceiling that could potentially hinder access, and furniture or equipment below ceiling that could make it tough to get a ladder in place?

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        #4
        Originally posted by Twiceroadsfool View Post
        2. Use a solid for 3d views and exporting to navisworks, and ALSO use Lines (model or symbolic) that show up in flat views.
        This is what I do. In the Family Editor, I set the clearance geometry to only show in 3D, while using 2D symbolic lines to represent Plan and Section Views in a dashed linetype.

        Originally posted by MSDCADMgr View Post
        In the example above from Necro99, is there a way to set the bottom of the clearance area to be at floor level to see what crosses above ceiling that could potentially hinder access, and furniture or equipment below ceiling that could make it tough to get a ladder in place?
        You could use an instance based parameter to set this. I don't know of an automatic way unless you were to use a custom offset method where the family itself is offsetted within the Family, rather than the Project based Offset.

        -TZ
        Tannar Z. Frampton ™
        Frampton & Associates, Inc.

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          #5
          Shared families are the way to go for MEP families, as they are unaffected by System overides for colour or material.
          "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Albert Camus - "The innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may ​do well under the new." Nicolo Machiavelli -"Things that are too complex are not useful, Things that are useful are simple." Mikhail Kalashnikov

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