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C3D 2013 - Surface transparency (elevation)

31 REPLIES 31
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Message 1 of 32
diegoal
12749 Views, 31 Replies

C3D 2013 - Surface transparency (elevation)

Hello all,

 

In the previous C3D 2012 version I was able to set surface transparency just setting it on a layer with defined transparency. Example: I set my "existing ground" surface to a created  "EG" layer (example name) and set transparency layer to 50% (example, again) and it WORKS! My surface become transparent...

 

But now, in the C3D 2013, I can't get the same results... my surface is not getting transparent. I already tried to turn off/on hardware acceleration and adaptive degradation and show/hide transparency.

 

More details: I can get transparency on points, triangles, contours etc... but not on elevation, and this is my priority.

 

Thanks very much and sorry for my bad english,

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diego Álvares
Civil Engineer @ Trento Engenharia Ltda.
www.trentoengenharia.com.br
Autocad Civil 3D 2010 to 2017 - Infrastructure Design Suite
Windows 7 64 i7 4770 @3.40GHz 8GB Ram GeForce GTX 760
Please use the Accept as Solution or Kudo buttons when appropriate
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31 REPLIES 31
Message 2 of 32
diegoal
in reply to: diegoal

I am already trying but still couldn't solve it...

Do you guys have any idea?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diego Álvares
Civil Engineer @ Trento Engenharia Ltda.
www.trentoengenharia.com.br
Autocad Civil 3D 2010 to 2017 - Infrastructure Design Suite
Windows 7 64 i7 4770 @3.40GHz 8GB Ram GeForce GTX 760
Please use the Accept as Solution or Kudo buttons when appropriate
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message 3 of 32
JonRusk
in reply to: diegoal

I am having the same problem. Exact drawing that worked in 2012 does not in 2013. Looks like they broke it.

Civil 3D 2013 - Windows 7 Pro 64 - Dell T3500 - Xeon 2.67 - 24gb - Quadro 600
Message 4 of 32
diegoal
in reply to: JonRusk

Hello Schlagel

 

Yes, apparently they broke it:

 

"Thank you for choosing Autodesk Support. I was able to confirm the issue you reported to us and to see how it worked on 2012 version. So, your case has been documented and sent to our development team for investigation. The development team will try to reproduce your case and make an initial assessment. We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve your inquiry. "

 

It was april/12 and I still don't have an answer... Lets push to see if they solve it.

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diego Álvares
Civil Engineer @ Trento Engenharia Ltda.
www.trentoengenharia.com.br
Autocad Civil 3D 2010 to 2017 - Infrastructure Design Suite
Windows 7 64 i7 4770 @3.40GHz 8GB Ram GeForce GTX 760
Please use the Accept as Solution or Kudo buttons when appropriate
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message 5 of 32
JonRusk
in reply to: diegoal

I sent a support request in.

 

If you explode it once into a block it will show transparency. Not ideal.

 

 

Civil 3D 2013 - Windows 7 Pro 64 - Dell T3500 - Xeon 2.67 - 24gb - Quadro 600
Message 6 of 32
0805110786
in reply to: JonRusk

Hi!

 

I am working in Civil 3D 2012 and I can not get my surface transparency..

I have done elevation analysis and I want to see some object under surface. Please can You explain it step by step how to get it?

 

Thank for any help 🙂

Message 7 of 32
JonRusk
in reply to: 0805110786

Bring up your properties (PR), click on surface, change the transparency.

Civil 3D 2013 - Windows 7 Pro 64 - Dell T3500 - Xeon 2.67 - 24gb - Quadro 600
Message 8 of 32
diegoal
in reply to: 0805110786

Try to set surface layer transparency (more then 0 of course)  in layer properties manager and check if:

 

- the "Show/Hide Transparency" is enabled

- hardware acceleration is on

 

Hope it works.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diego Álvares
Civil Engineer @ Trento Engenharia Ltda.
www.trentoengenharia.com.br
Autocad Civil 3D 2010 to 2017 - Infrastructure Design Suite
Windows 7 64 i7 4770 @3.40GHz 8GB Ram GeForce GTX 760
Please use the Accept as Solution or Kudo buttons when appropriate
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message 9 of 32
0805110786
in reply to: diegoal

I do not know why it is not working, and make new layer with transaprency and make it surface layer.

In some atricle I have read that I need in drawing settings for object layer choose some transparency layer an I did that too..but still nothnig is happening..

 

I am not very computer guy, so maybe one silly question..where I can see hardware acceleration and for what it is?

 

Thank You both for quick replay 🙂

Message 10 of 32
diegoal
in reply to: 0805110786

I show in the picure:

 

- Transparency control in the left red circle;

 

- Acceleration hardware in the right red circle.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diego Álvares
Civil Engineer @ Trento Engenharia Ltda.
www.trentoengenharia.com.br
Autocad Civil 3D 2010 to 2017 - Infrastructure Design Suite
Windows 7 64 i7 4770 @3.40GHz 8GB Ram GeForce GTX 760
Please use the Accept as Solution or Kudo buttons when appropriate
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message 11 of 32
0805110786
in reply to: diegoal

I do not know why but I can not turn it on...

 

You think that is problem of my drawing?

 

Message 12 of 32
diegoal
in reply to: 0805110786

What can't you turn on?

Transparency control, hardware acceleration or surface transparency?

 

I guess it can be hardware problem... what is your graphic card and PC configuration?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diego Álvares
Civil Engineer @ Trento Engenharia Ltda.
www.trentoengenharia.com.br
Autocad Civil 3D 2010 to 2017 - Infrastructure Design Suite
Windows 7 64 i7 4770 @3.40GHz 8GB Ram GeForce GTX 760
Please use the Accept as Solution or Kudo buttons when appropriate
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message 13 of 32
JonRusk
in reply to: 0805110786

Sorry, yeah, the transparency is in the layer not the suface. Too early to think clearly apparently.

 

Also, once you get it working, to plot, make sure "plot transparency" is checked in the plot dialog...

 

Civil 3D 2013 - Windows 7 Pro 64 - Dell T3500 - Xeon 2.67 - 24gb - Quadro 600
Message 14 of 32
0805110786
in reply to: JonRusk

My graphics card : Intel (R) Graphics Media Accelerator HD

Processor: Intel (R) Core (TM) i5 CPU 650@3.20 GHz 3.33 GHz

Message 15 of 32
JonRusk
in reply to: 0805110786

I think you might need to get a dedicated graphics card, especially when working with surfaces and such...

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/243783-49-autocad-integrated-graphics

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/320416-33-integrated-graphics-discrete-graphics-card

Civil 3D 2013 - Windows 7 Pro 64 - Dell T3500 - Xeon 2.67 - 24gb - Quadro 600
Message 16 of 32
neilyj666
in reply to: 0805110786

I've tried this in 2012 - Created an EG on Surface named C-SURFACES-EG and set Transparency to 50% - works as expected.

Tried Plot preview and turned on Transparency - Plot previews as expected

 

Tried in 2013 and no transparency is honoured although plain CAD hatches transparencies are honoured.

 

Lets see them rush out a fix for this......NOTSmiley FrustratedSmiley Frustrated How can this one have missed  the quality control prior to releasing 2013??

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
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AEC Collection 2024 UKIE (mainly Civil 3D UKIE and IW)
Win 11 Pro x64, 1Tb Primary SSD, 1Tb Secondary SSD
64Gb RAM Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-11855M CPU @ 3.2GHz
NVIDIA RTX A5000 16Gb, Dual 27" Monitor, Dell Inspiron 7760
Message 17 of 32
0805110786
in reply to: JonRusk

Thanks Diegoal an JonRusk for helping 🙂

 

I know I need better graphics card, but I did not think that is problem because it is not shows transparency, because does not seem to me "bigger" job for card then doing elevation analysis which I could do?

I will try it  tomorrow on better computer and I hope it will work 🙂

Message 18 of 32
Cadguru42
in reply to: 0805110786


@0805110786 wrote:

Thanks Diegoal an JonRusk for helping 🙂

 

I know I need better graphics card, but I did not think that is problem because it is not shows transparency, because does not seem to me "bigger" job for card then doing elevation analysis which I could do?

I will try it  tomorrow on better computer and I hope it will work 🙂


The problem is that you don't have a graphics card to begin with.  Integrated graphics chips are not very good and have to share the system's RAM.  It won't matter the job size, sometimes the integrated graphics chips just won't do things like hardware acceleration and display items correctly.  That's why you'll mostly get responses to get a dedicated video card.

C3D 2022-2024
Windows 10 Pro
32GB RAM
Message 19 of 32
neilyj666
in reply to: neilyj666


@neilyj666 wrote:

I've tried this in 2012 - Created an EG on Surface named C-SURFACES-EG and set Transparency to 50% - works as expected.

Tried Plot preview and turned on Transparency - Plot previews as expected

 

Tried in 2013 and no transparency is honoured although plain CAD hatches transparencies are honoured.

 

Lets see them rush out a fix for this......NOTSmiley FrustratedSmiley Frustrated How can this one have missed  the quality control prior to releasing 2013??


Further to my previous post, Autodesk have confirmed that they broke this in the 2013 release...

 

"Thanks for your reply and for supplying the drawing file. I confirm this is an issue with the 2013 release of Civil 3D.

 

I have documented the problem and submitted the file to the development team for them to look at the issue more closely.

 

One workaround that can be used for the time being is to switch to the "Wireframe" visual style, which will honor layer transparency settings. However this is only applicable to the viewport and the transparency will still not be honored when plotting.

 

For the plotting we don't have a workaround for the time being."

 

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
Did you find this post helpful? Feel free to Like this post.
Did your question get successfully answered? Then click on the ACCEPT SOLUTION button.

EESignature


AEC Collection 2024 UKIE (mainly Civil 3D UKIE and IW)
Win 11 Pro x64, 1Tb Primary SSD, 1Tb Secondary SSD
64Gb RAM Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-11855M CPU @ 3.2GHz
NVIDIA RTX A5000 16Gb, Dual 27" Monitor, Dell Inspiron 7760
Message 20 of 32
JonRusk
in reply to: diegoal

If you are effectively trying to fade the surface back, a possible workaround could be to draworder the surface to the back, put a hatch on top of it with a transparency and with a color that prints at 0% screening. It's not the same thing as a transparency but close.

 

Civil 3D 2013 - Windows 7 Pro 64 - Dell T3500 - Xeon 2.67 - 24gb - Quadro 600

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