topic Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations in Revit MEP Forum

Draw Order in Generic Annotations

tim102289 — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 19:25:23 GMT

I was attempting to create a north arrow generic annotation based off of the one we use in AutoCAD. I managed to get one that looks fairly close, but discovered when I loaded it into a project, the draw order was different than in the family editor, and so light lines were showing on top of darker lines that were supposed to be hiding the ends of the lines. Is there anyway to control the draw order? Also, some of the filled regions cover up lines while some do not. I figured this is also a matter of draw order.

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

CoreyDaun — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 18:23:01 GMT

The draw order is not easily controlled in the Family Editor. Try selecting the element that you want to send to the background and then use Cut and then Paste: Aligned to Same Place. That worked in a quick test I performed with two crossing Symbolic Lines.

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

tim102289 — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 18:31:31 GMT

That worked thanks! Strangely, when doing that the lines appear in front in the family but in the back in the project.

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

CoreyDaun — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 18:37:26 GMT

Further proof that Revit is utterly mad.

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

tim102289 — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 18:43:57 GMT

Yes. I'm not really sure why they didn't simply include draw order options in the family editor. I started another thread about this North Arrow by the way, as I figured it was about a separate issue and shouldn't be tied to this post.

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

luke_martinaquatic — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 14:28:56 GMT

The easiest solution we have found is to create a generic annotation family that only contains your masking region. Insert this into your parent family and place linework that you would like to appear on region. Once inserted into a project. the mask should stay behind with all other linework remaining visible.

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

jeremy — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 02:06:54 GMT

you are the man! thank you!

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

Jim_Melin — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 08:46:28 GMT

Alternative workaround?

Instead of using Opaque on the label-type poroperties:
Drawing a white filled region automatically places itself under tha label.
By default filled region gets an outline, but choose Invisible Lines when drawing the shape and they will disappear.

But the filled region unfortunately can't be constrained to fit the possible variations in the size of the label contents. This only works well if fixed in size.

Or with some difficulty if ruled by formula that can be expressed to fit the label contents.

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

max.blake4WEMD — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 08:52:57 GMT

Brother,

Thank you....

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

lispishly — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 23:05:08 GMT

cannot delete this post, lol... duh, duh-duh...

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

lispishly — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 23:03:42 GMT

this worked for me... took way too long. Please add draw order to the symbol family editor.

Re: Draw Order in Generic Annotations

Ryan_GormanKT36T — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 20:29:24 GMT

Is this still the best solution/workaround 9 years later?