Surface Transparency DOES NOT WORK in 2013

[neilyj666]

In case any one missed it (or cares), this thread confirms that Autodesk broke the surface transparency functionality in 2013. I imagine by the lack of response to the original thread that this is either a little used or not well publicised feature....

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/C3D-2013-Surface-transparency-elevation/td-p/3417033

[neilyj666]

No takers - if no one complains there's little chance of it getting fixed this side of the 2014 release......

[Jeff_M]

You must remember that there are many people who wait until SP1 is released before making the jump to the next version. There are also many others, myself included, who must stay with 2012 until others with whom we work also commit to the move to 2013.

Then there are others who have never even used Transparency.

[neilyj666]

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@Jeff_M wrote:

You must remember that there are many people who wait until SP1 is released before making the jump to the next version. There are also many others, myself included, who must stay with 2012 until others with whom we work also commit to the move to 2013.

Then there are others who have never even used Transparency.

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Granted - but sometimes SP1 causes more problems than it solves. Broken DRIVE command in 2012 is a case in point - still not fixed in 2012 suggesting to me that it a little used command (in same way as you are suggesting that Transparency is little used....).

The bugs are not so much of an issue as the time it takes to fix them...and this sort of sloppiness just isn't acceptable from a company like Autodesk and I've made my feelings known to them as well.....

[Mpendlebury]

The contors seems to be fading when i change the transparency ... but its broken even if i change the layer in the style for the elevations to a transparent layer it doesnt work, which is what i use it for the most.

Really sucks we use it alot, i cant even print old drawings that looked fine before, hopefully fixed in the service pack.

[neilyj666]

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@Mpendlebury wrote:

The contors seems to be fading when i change the transparency ... but its broken even if i change the layer in the style for the elevations to a transparent layer it doesnt work, which is what i use it for the most.

Really sucks we use it alot, i cant even print old drawings that looked fine before, hopefully fixed in the service pack.....

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I'd expect a hotfix soon rather than a service pack in 4 months time....but I'm not holding my breath....

[Jeff_M]

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@neilyj666 wrote:

Granted - but sometimes SP1 causes more problems than it solves. Broken DRIVE command in 2012 is a case in point - still not fixed in 2012 suggesting to me that it a little used command....

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Just an FYI, SP2 was just released for 2012 and the Drive command has been fixed. I know, not much help now that you've already moved to 2013. 

[sjg]

Are you sure you have plot transparency turned on in page setup.

[neilyj666]

Thanks for that Jeff, I'll install this when I get a chance.

[neilyj666]

@sjg it is a program fault that I have reported to autodesk

[Mpendlebury]

Bit frustrating not being able to print all my existing work as i could previously with transparency .... but i have found a work around for shading a surface with transparency if its only 1 colour.

You can now hatch a surface by using its boundary as the object and it will dynamicly update with the surface ... so if i wanted to shade a pond water surface blue and transparent i still can  and it  *seems* alot easier on the pc ... but hatches being the stable things they are i bet next week il be back in here saying that surfaces hatches are crashing my drawings. I know if you hatching between profiles  works  but your almsot guarnted constant fatal erros down the line.

[Anonymous]

Well I care !

I'm a new user, but surface transparency was one thing that was attractive to me with 2012. I've installed 2013 now and didn't think about this issue before updating. Thanks for keeping us up to date neilyj.

- Mick