Autodesk Civil 3D provides easy-to-use features for temporarily isolating or hiding selected objects in your drawing.
Isolating or Hiding Objects in External References
When you are working with external references, you can hide and isolate objects.
- You can isolate an external reference within a host drawing as a whole by selecting it and isolating it.
- You can isolate individual objects within an external reference by opening the external reference, isolating objects as needed, saving the external reference drawing, and then reloading the external reference.
- You cannot isolate objects in an external reference while editing it with REFEDIT in the host drawing. You need to use XOPEN and save the desired Hide/Isolate settings within the external reference.
- You cannot display hidden objects in an external reference while editing it with REFEDIT in the host drawing. You need to use XOPEN and save the desired Hide/Isolate settings within the external reference.
Saving Drawings that Contain Isolated or Hidden Objects
When you save a drawing in which some objects are isolated for viewing while others are hidden, the drawing is displayed with the isolation and hide settings the next time you open the drawing.
For example, you could save a specific view setting to distribute the file to a contractor who needs to see only a specific part of the drawing. You could also save a specific view setting in a drawing that is used as an external reference within another drawing.
Note: If you want to distribute a drawing with isolated or hidden objects, make sure that you and the recipient of the drawing are working with the same version of Autodesk Civil 3D. A recipient who is working with an earlier version of Autodesk Civil 3D, AutoCAD, or the Autodesk Civil 3D Object Enabler may not be able to display the hidden objects. In this case, end the object isolation before saving and distributing the drawing.