Draw Order in Generic Annotations

[tim102289]

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.

[CoreyDaun · Accepted solution]

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.

[tim102289]

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

[CoreyDaun]

Further proof that Revit is utterly mad.

[tim102289]

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.

[luke_martinaquatic]

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.

[jeremy]

you are the man! thank you!

[Jim_Melin]

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.

[max.blake4WEMD]

Brother,

Thank you....

M

[lispishly]

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

[lispishly]

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

[Ryan_GormanKT36T]

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