Video: Depth Cueing

Create the effect of depth by having objects fade into the background color with increasing distance from the viewer.

This video demonstrates the following:

1. Understand why depth cueing is used.
2. Enable the Far Clipping parameter and specify a Far Clip Offset value.
3. Set the depth cueing parameters in the Graphic Display Options dialog, and adjust them to get the desired effect.
4. Hide grid lines to improve the visual display, and turn on shadows to add dimension to the view.
5. Export, print, or add the view to a sheet.

Note: This video was recorded using Revit 2017. When using a newer software release, you may notice differences in functionality and user interface.

Transcript

A graphic display option called Depth Cueing allows you to control how elements that are farther away from the viewer display in section and elevation views. The depth effect is created by having objects fade into the background color with increasing distance from the viewer.

Improve the effectiveness of depth cueing by controlling the depth of the model view. On the Properties palette for the view, enable the Far Clipping parameter, and specify a Far Clip Offset value.

On the View Control Bar, click Visual Style and Graphic Display Options. On the Graphic Display Options dialog, expand Depth Cueing, and select Show Depth. For the Fade Start and End location, move the double slider controls to specify the boundaries of the gradient effect. The Near slider controls the distance at which the blending starts, measured from the front view clip plane. The Far slider controls the distance beyond which elements will display at the Fade Limit percentage, measured from the back view clip plane.

Notice that because the Fade Limit is set to 0, some of the model elements are not visible. Typically, you want to set the Fade Limit greater than 0 to ensure that all building elements can be seen and printed.

Move the Fade Limit slider to specify the intensity of the view at the Far End location. Click Apply. The view starts at full intensity and fades to the percentage set for the Fade Limit. Adjust the Depth Cueing values to get the desired visual effect. Depth cueing settings do not affect annotation elements, such as the grid lines. Let's hide the grid lines to improve the visual display.

Depth cueing applies to other graphic display elements such as shadows and sketchy lines. For example, you can turn shadows on to add dimension to the view. Next, you can export the view, print it, or add it to a sheet. Revit uses raster processing when printing a view with depth cueing applied.