topic Re: XREF FADING in AutoCAD Forum

XREF FADING

jsiegel-vanderweil — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 14:59:37 GMT

I'm using ACAD 2014.

I noticed when I attach an XREF, it automatically gets faded, as if it's already on a locked layer and LAYLOCKFADECTL is being used.

Is there a separate command to automatically fade an XREF?

Thanks...

Re: XREF FADING

kennyj — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 15:04:34 GMT

Hi jsiegelZLM2V!

Did you try:

XDWGFADECTL

yet? This should let you change the variable on how the xref is displayed.

Hope this helps,

-Kenny

Re: XREF FADING

pendean — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 15:04:35 GMT

OPTIONS command, Display tab, lower-right corner are the fade controls for Xrefs. help yourself.

Re: XREF FADING

Patchy — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 15:05:36 GMT

layer lock fade is different than XDWGFADECTL

Re: XREF FADING

qnologi — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 15:05:51 GMT

XDWGFADECTL = 0

LAYLOCKFADECTL = 0

VSCURRENT = 2

Re: XREF FADING

john.vellek — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 15:06:16 GMT

Hi @jsiegel-vanderweil,

Welcome to the Autodesk Community!

Are you looking for the XDWGFADECTRL command?

If not, let me know and I can dig in deeper.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: XREF FADING

Kent1Cooper — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 15:07:23 GMT

[Wow! Three Replies within the same minute, and within 5 minutes of the question! Here is Help (from Acad2017, but nevertheless...) about that System Variable.]

Re: XREF FADING

jsiegel-vanderweil — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:02:08 GMT

that's it!
for some reason, the default was set at 50...
thanks keenyj

Re: XREF FADING

jsiegel-vanderweil — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:05:17 GMT

thanks everybody!

i like to set LAYLOCKFADECTL, as it tells me if an XREF is on a locked layer (preferable so i don't accidentally do something to it!).

i was getting confused in 2014 bcos a newly attached XREF was already faded, but NOT yet assigned to a locked layer...

Re: XREF FADING

douglas.shortCM2W5 — Mon, 29 May 2017 01:35:44 GMT

Here's something I discovered.

TO FADE A pdf XREF.

In model space, click on the boundary line that surrounds the xref.

When you do that a heretofore unseen tab magically appear--it's called PDF underlay at the end of your ribbon. It's very helpful--which is why the AutoCAD folks don't talk about it or make it known.

Anyway, a new set of options will appear with that PDF UNDERLAY tab--they appear below the ribbon: ADJUST, CLIPPING, OPTIONS, PDF LAYERS, TOUCH

I have no idea what they hell they all mean, but for the purposes of fading the pdf xref, click the ADJUST button. This will bring up a new window with a very sensible Contrast slide bar and a FADE slide bar. You can slide the bar and instantly the image will fade as you move it. Why this magical window doesn't appear when you type Xdwgfadectl is a mystery only AutoCAD can explain.

Re: XREF FADING

Alfred.NESWADBA — Tue, 30 May 2017 07:49:52 GMT

Hi,

>> Why this magical window doesn't appear when you type

>> Xdwgfadectl is a mystery only AutoCAD can explain.

Simply because an attached PDF is different to an attached DWG(XRef).

And so the display entities within the different files have to be handled differently. For the attached XRef you do have the layers within the XRef's to control (each can be set to a different color, lineweight, linetype, ...) which can not be done for objects within a PDF, therefor you have a different control for how it's displayed.

- alfred -

Re: XREF FADING

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 20:17:15 GMT

This worked perfectly, set the value to 1.

Re: XREF FADING

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 21:00:34 GMT

Thank you. You deserve a medal.

Re: XREF FADING

cadpro78 — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 13:36:41 GMT

Here is a video showing how to fade xref in layer manager

Re: XREF FADING

tjohns — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 16:52:48 GMT

Thank you for the step-by-step.

Re: XREF FADING

aeci801 — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 17:56:34 GMT

Thank you ! You made it simple.