Opaque Balloons in IDW

[ClintWestwood]

Is it possible to make balloons opaque in the IDW environment? I have several instances where the best location for a ballon is over hatched regions or part edges, and the extra lines make the balloon numbers hard to read.

[mcgyvr]

tools..document settings..drawing tab and turn on "cross hatch clipping" 

[ClintWestwood]

Thanks for the tip. However... it didn't seem to do the trick.

My hatches are contained in a 2D sketch which is linked to the view, with the outlines being projected. My balloons are the default style, with overriden numbers. 

Anything else I can try?

[-niels-]

Well, this involves a lot of manual labor, but you could make a sketched symbol and use that as the user defined shape for a balloon...

You'd have to make a sketched symbol containing a circle with a fill color of the size you need.
Then you need to right-click an existing balloon, select edit balloon and override it's shape.
(pick "user defined symbol" and select the sketched symbol from the dropdown.)

If you need more explanation, let me know and i'll try to add some screenshots.

[ClintWestwood]

I created a sketched symbol with a white fill, and used it to override balloon #9 (from my previous post). Still no luck.

[-niels-]

Hmm... guess it has something to do with the 2d sketch then...
Is it just a sketch on the view in which you project geometry and then apply a hatch to?

[ClintWestwood]

You are correct. I created a sketch on the view, projected the lines I needed, then manually added lines and arcs to close the profiles. It was a very time-consuming process-not sure if there is a better way? You can see one of my sketch lines (closing a profile) in the bottom left of the image where the two components meet. 

[mcgyvr]

I guess "cross hatch clipping" doesn't apply to hatched sketches.. only section view hatching,etc...

another half finished autodesk function. 

[-niels-]

I'm going to agree with you mcgyvr, i've tried to see if there was a way to change the layer order but there's no luck there either.
I'd say it's a shortcoming of the "cross hatch clipping" functionality, but not sure what the best way to proceed is...

Either add it to the ideastation or get in contact with autodesk to report it as a bug...

Clint, if you add this to the ideastation then add a link here and we'll vote on it.

[ClintWestwood · Accepted solution]

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Inventor-IdeaStation/Increased-cross-hatch-clipping-functionality/idi-...