Depth/Far Clipping and various other plot related stuff

[keithscadservices]

The solution to all this might just be using different display modes (or basing my custom display modes off different display modes). Using custom linetypes. Or not using custom linetypes… or who knows. It takes a lot of trial and error.

But anyways… here’s my issues. #1 is far clipping. I’m using planes to represent grids and levels. If I can get this to work it’s going to be pretty awesome.

I’ve got things looking perfect in my layout before I print:

The red lines are actually vertical planes. They’re cut with my clipping planes representing level 2.

When I print I lose the desired look. Everything looks like it’s supposed to except for the grid lines. That line is just left over junk and I have some no plot layers showing:

If I print in Shaded mode the issue goes away. I’d obviously have to fix my line weight of course but the line otherwise looks as it should:

I haven’t figured this out yet but I might be able to take advantage of it. It’s just the plane representing the level (plus a little test plane):

The settings for that layer seem to be the same as my grid line (grid plane) layer’s. It might just not be updating and may require that I re-create the detail. Not a problem once the template is sorted but makes it a little more challenging to experiment.

There’s various other clipping issues Update - not using the clipping depth seems to alleviate this now. I had tried before but it didn’t work. I’m not sure why but it’s either a setting I had flipped or an updating issue - instead of the depth I’m just using two clipping planes now and it seems to work in vector mode just as intended

Taking the scaling out of the Section Style’s boundary line scaling fixes it but new problems appeared when I applied a custom line style to the layer. I can dodge that too though… trial and error.

One last issue, not a biggie:

These pavers aren’t adopting the viewport overrides.

But they print properly:

The reason for posting this now is because I just want to get advice on what to avoid. I’m basing my display modes (for printing) off the Technical display mode. I might avoid custom line types (or applying them in certain ways). It takes A LOT of experimenting even when everything works correctly.

It’s hard to be concise and really narrow down the problems. Each option has multiple possibilities (print display being on/off, display mode settings). There are infinite combinations. So finding the right combination is key.

The “Far” or “Depth” clipping seems a little bit broken. I’m having issues both with using clipping plane depth, and with using two clipping planes to achieve the same result. The later seems more reliable. I was hoping that I could use the second clipping plane’s custom section style properties to sort out the issues but it feels like it gets overridden or something (and likely depends on the display mode… maybe…). If I can get around this I can probably sort out everything else quite easily.

PrintDisplay is a tripping hazard. It’s a good tool but when it doesn’t work it’s a gut punch.

When I have more energy I’ll have another round at this.

[keithscadservices]

The biggest issue appears to be with far clipping going rogue. What I mean is that either the clipping plane’s depth, or if I use a second clipping plane, will not give me control of the appearance of the far clip. Depending on the display mode various fallout is occurring. This could be in the form of lines bleeding through, or losing control of the line thicknesses due to having to toss other settings around.

Print Display is also giving really inconsistent results.

I’ll try to make a simplified version of this and share it. There may have been a situation where re-creating a detail view “updated” some settings. So a simpler file might help me investigate more.

I think that if the far clipping issue can be sorted out I can work around everything else and just stick to whatever settings work.

[keithscadservices]

Somethings a little (just a little) off with these settings:

If I select “Use section styles” it disables these check boxes. But they still affect section styles.

Here’s what it looks like in my model Update - seems to be tied to clipping plane depth. I’m just using two clipping planes instead now and that seems to be working:

But here’s how it prints (if I use section styles with vector and sometimes raster printing):

“Level 1” appears if I increase the width of the linetype (in pixels) to 5 or greater:

Down to 4 and it looks okay except now the lines (around the letters) became narrow:

Also, this is broken again (I swear it was fixed). It will revert to pixels unless you hit okay before going to a different line style:

But hey, maybe it’s trying to tell me something. I’ve got the grid lines working after all lol.

I’m going to have a look at the known issues. I don’t remember things being this pooched. I had everything working really good. But I wasn’t using sections I guess.

[keithscadservices]

The line scaling is also pooched. Note the 1.000" dimension. At least I know what’s going on now.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that when I set the line width to ether 12" or 300mm it takes up the entire 1 inch in the layout:

Edit: those lines are derived from section styles and using a scaling factor of 3 I think. but the scale is still out of wack.

Maybe I’ll set my line weights to pixels until this is sorted out.

[keithscadservices]

Update:

The line is getting it’s thickness from the section style. Both the lines shown now have their thickness set to 0.18mm and use line styles. I’ve had to set the width scale in the section style to… yes… 50… to get it to the same thickness as the line that isn’t sectioned (it’s just a curve drawn in the layout).