Pen Mode - Objects Disappearing when others are hidden...?

Having an issue with a bit of interior design I’m working on. I’ve drawn in my walls just as 2d polylines and hatches, and have them on a base building layer. I’ve imported some furniture blocks, created others, and now I’m trying to generate some quick screenshots/drawings for a quick review with our client. Generally I use Pen Mode to create “linework” drawings.

Problem is, in Pen Mode, somehow the display of my wall curves has become linked to the display of one specific furniture item. It’s only in Pen Mode, not in any other display mode, and it’s only linked to one set of specific items. Whether I hide them or turn the layer off, it’s the same effect. Also it doesn’t seem to matter which view orientation; as long as it’s in Pen Mode, it happens.

See below:

The room:

Select the stools (blocks, all geometry inside the block is on Layer 01):

Hit Ctrl-H to hide, and:

Poof! The wall sketch disappears!

Walls are on a completely separate layer and have no relation to the stools.

Anyone know a way to fix this?

Hi Scott, Can you post the model?

you might have a part of the chairs grouped with the floor in some weird way, i have seen such things happen when blocks are involved. without model we can only guess so far, but if exploding blocks and ungrouping is ok for you for that small model then i would try that as a starter, then maybe cut out the floor section put it on a new layer and see if that helps.

by the way i dont see any relation to pen mode so far, does that also happen in shaded or wire? then i would assume you encountered a bug of some sort

It doesn’t happen in any other mode other than Pen mode. In fact, if I hide the stools in Shaded mode, the wall curves remain visible, but then when I switch into Pen mode, they disappear.

For this small model, of course, I can explode and see what happens, but my overall goal is to understand why this is happening so that I can prevent it in the future, especially with larger models.

we might never find out if you dont post your model or at least a part which exhibits the issue. without it the last thing i can suggest is to use ResetPreferences after you have used ExportPreferences

EDIT: I had to clear out some client data, but that hasn’t changed what’s happening. I’ve uploaded the main model and the blocks I’ve used.

Main model: Pen Mode Blocks.3dm (17.7 MB)

Blocks:
IKEA Flisat Stool (IKEA 402.735.93).3dm (427.8 KB)
IKEA Flisat Table (IKEA 502.984.18).3dm (195.6 KB)
Ikea Flisat Wall Storage (IKEA 002.907.78).3dm (276.1 KB)
Ikea Trofast Bin (IKEA 700.914.12).3dm (1.3 MB)
Ikea Trofast Bin (IKEA 800.892.39).3dm (1.4 MB)
MALA_Easel.3dm (59.9 KB)

Hi Scott -

The reason this is happening is that the curves and hatches are below the elevation of all other geometry than the stools. The auto-elevation of the ground plane excludes curves, hatches, and annotations, and, when you hide all stools, the ground plane moves up to meet the legs of the table - rendering the curves and hatches invisible.

I’ve been lobbying for the ground plane to respect any objects but am not getting far. I’ve added this thread to RH-55069 so that it’ll get notified if and when this behavior is changed. Until then, make sure to have meshes, subd’s, or polysurfaces at the elevation of the curves and hatches.
-wim

2 Likes

Thanks Wim! Bit of a weird quirk, but it’s one I’ll definitely remember going forward.