Common Issues with Visibility and Graphic Display

Identify and resolve commonly encountered visibility and graphic display issues.

Typically, when an object cannot be seen or does not display as expected in a view, the issue is an incorrect visibility setting. It is best to try to recreate the error in a new empty project. This process helps isolate the many crossover visibility issues that arise in phasing and family creation.

An Object Seems To Be Misdrawn

To update and refresh the current display, cut the object from the view, and then paste it aligned to the same place. This action forces a refresh on single-instance geometry drawing issues.

See Paste Aligned Elements.

Elevation and Section Marks Do Not Display Correctly

Try the following actions to resolve elevation and section mark display issues.

• Reduce the view scale of your drawing. See Assign a View Scale.
• In the instance parameter of the elevation or section, change the parameter value for Hide at scales coarser than. See About Section Tag Visibility and Hide Elevation Tags.
• Check the view discipline of the current view and of the views whose marks do not display. See About the View Discipline.

Gridlines or Reference Planes Are Not Visible

Try the following actions to resolve gridline and reference plane display issues.

• Gridlines and reference planes must be perpendicular to the view in which they are displayed. Switch to an appropriate elevation or plan view to see them. See Project Browser.
• Gridlines and reference planes must be below the cut plane of a view in which they are to display. Verify that the cut plane is not set at too low a depth in the view range. See Modify the View Range.

Objects Are Not Visible

Try the following actions to resolve object display issues.

• On the View Control Bar, reveal hidden elements in the view. See Reveal and Unhide Hidden Elements.
• On the View Control Bar, change the detail level of the view. Some geometry does not display at certain detail levels. See Specify the Detail Level for a View.
• Verify that the View Range settings are accurate. See View Range.
• In the Visibility/Graphic Overrides dialog, verify that the visibility of the objects is enabled. See About the Visibility and Graphic Display Dialog.
• In the Visibility/Graphic Overrides dialog, click the Filter tab and turn off any applied filters. See Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters.
• If the project is workshared, in the Visibility/Graphic Overrides dialog, click the Worksets tab and turn off any applied filters. See Change the Visibility of a Workset in a View.
• If you see an entire category of halftoned objects that are not set to display as halftoned (see About the Visibility and Graphic Display Dialog), try changing the view discipline. The Discipline setting determines how different object categories display in discipline-specific views. Also, select Coordination to show all object lines as solid without halftones. See View Properties.
• If your project uses phases, select None for the Phase Filter parameter. Phases and Phase Filters both impact the displays of objects within views. See Apply a Phase Filter.
  Note: Verify that instances of demolished elements are Phase states and not individual Phases. See About Demolishing Elements.
• Check the view discipline to see if it is causing some elements not to display as expected. See About the View Discipline.

Graphics Card Settings

In some cases the graphics of the view may be affected by the graphics card or the graphics drivers. Check the Graphics Tab of the Options Dialog for information on the graphics card and the current graphics driver.

You can also change the “Use Hardware Acceleration” and/or the “Smooth lines with anti-aliasing” settings in the Options Dialog and see if this resolves the graphics issues. Changing either of these settings will require the file to be closed and re-opened for the new settings to take effect.

See Options Dialog Graphics Tab.