Duct Hidden Lines Not showing

[Anonymous]

I'm using Autocad 2012 MEP doing 3D duct layouts. My ducts are not properly displaying hidden lines when the are overlapped. There is no hidden line what so ever or a gap, see the picture below. I attached a picture of the ductwork that is not displaying correctly and my options menu where I assumed i properly set the hidden lines and gaps. The circular take offs are on the bottom and the display is the same in paper or model space.

I feel it should also be noted that the center line options in the screen shot shown below did not shut off center lines for me. I did that by going to Display Manager > Representations by Object > Ducts and shutting off the visability for centerlines. This change did not effect my hidden lines at all.

[Keith.Brown]

You need to make sure your in a display configuration that shows hidden lines. Out of the Box the Mep Design display configuration will work.

[Anonymous]

Out of box as in default? How can I restore this display configuration?

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to make the display settings respond to the changes I made in option window I posted, I don't understand why the change in options has had no effect on the drawing objects

[Keith.Brown]

What drawing display are you currently in?  In the lower right corner it should say MEP Design in the drop down for display configuration.  The MEP Design display configuration tells the ductwork to display in a plan representation when in a top down view.  If you haven't changed any of the display settings then you should get the desired look from the ductwork.

It should be noted that MEP Design is what your display configuration should be when printing your drawings.  You should always model in MEP Basic 2-Line.  This turns off the hidden duct/pipe feature and will eat up less computer power.

[Anonymous]

I am currently in the standard drawing configuration, I only have the option for that Standard and Medium Detail. Is this because I am using a drawing template I created in Autocad 2008? If so, which default template can I load to see MEP Design?

[Keith.Brown · Accepted solution]

That would be your problem.  When drawing in MEP you need to make sure that you start your drawing with a MEP Template.  The can be found in the C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\MEP 2012\enu\Template directory if you are using Windows 7.  The template that you want is named Aecb Model (US Imperial Ctb).dwt.  Those templates are setup with the styles and settings that you will need to draw ductwork in MEP correctly.

[Anonymous]

I cannot describe to you how much of a life saver you are for helping me through this issue.

[Keith.Brown]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I cannot describe to you how much of a life saver you are for helping me through this issue.

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If you wanted to go ahead and give it a shot, my ego would appreciate it.  🙂