Make background masking behave like a filter, not as a hatch object

[JVas]

When I create surface contours, I need to label them.  And, I use background masking, so that the text is legible.  However when I use that file as an xref background, I will often use transparency on the xref layers to make them view and plot in a much easier distinguished manner.  But, background masks that have transparency are plotted at greyscale for the whitespace.  This creates grey/black rectangles all over my drawings.

If the whitespace could always plot as whatever color it is set to, while the covered objects bleeding through would plot as though screened, this would make managing my various xref layers a breeze.  At the very least, I would settle for a layer or variable specifically for note object/text object background masks that I could manually set the transparency to '0'.

[michael.perryDM5CX]

Yes, this is a problem that is most annoying. Here is the manual fix:

create contours labels as normal with the background mask shape (Rectangle or Rounded Edge).

Explode them. That will make them a block and explode that which creates Mtext with masking.

Select them all and go to properties. Find background mask and go to right side and 

select the icon. 

then you will see this:

Put this color combo in as shown and it will look like this:

But it will plot like this:

This at least gives you an alternative that can be done in a select-all mode. 

Of course this was just one hatch color, the plot color is what is important and is

why the mask was 200,200,200  Adjust this to match your hatching. 

I hope this helps.

MJP in Raleigh, NC

[JVas]

Thanks for idea, Michael.  I have done things like that in the past.  But, only when I am very rushed.

I actually find it better workflow to just avoid using transparencies now.  Any time I have to manually re-process something that was supposed to add convenience to my workflow, it goes into the trash bin.  After all, the whole idea of the tools is to offload the tedious work.  Not to add another one-off task that I will forget about when review comments finally roll in.

My latest job has me working with older CAD operators who manage things very differently.  Everything "existing" is moved to color 9, and the screening is adjusted via the .ctb file.  Sooo much more frustrating!  But, I'm trying to play nice.  And, just exploding other people's work isn't nice.

[michael.perryDM5CX]

I Totally agree, if they would just fix the existing mask contour line label algorithm then all would work with all cores of the processor and the Cuda cores like Maya it would be seamless. We use an .stb and have never looked back, and won’t work for a firm that doesn’t. I can be picky at this stage in my career.

[TimYarris]

Thanks @JVas for the idea (and to @michael.perryDM5CX for the workaround). The development team will review this idea while other customers add feedback and vote on it.