Objects Are Not Visible

Use this checklist to troubleshoot why objects are not visible in a view.

Typically, when you cannot see an object as expected in a view, the issue is an incorrect visibility setting. Try to recreate the error in a new empty project. This process can help to isolate many crossover visibility issues that arise in phasing and family creation.

Start with the following strategies.

• On the View Control Bar, try the following:
  • Reset temporary hide/isolate mode. See Temporarily Hide or Isolate Elements or Element Categories.
  • Reveal hidden elements in the view. See Reveal and Unhide Hidden Elements.
  • Change the visual style to wireframe to show elements behind other elements in the view. See Specify a Visual Style.
  • Change the detail level of the view. Some geometry does not display at certain detail levels. See Specify the Detail Level for a View.

If you are still unable to locate the missing object, proceed through the following checklist to determine the source of the issue.

Check settings for the element or its category

• Verify the detail level for the category of the element. Model categories can have detail level set independent of the view's detail level. See Override Graphic Display of Element Categories.
• In the Visibility/Graphic Overrides dialog, try the following:
  • Verify that the visibility of the object's category and subcategory are enabled. See About the Visibility and Graphic Display 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, click the Worksets tab and turn off any applied filters. See Change the Visibility of a Workset in a View.
• Groups may contain elements that have been excluded (not visible). Check to see if the element is part of a group but has been excluded. See Exclude Elements from a Group Instance.

Check view properties and related settings

• In a plan view, verify that the View Range settings are appropriate. See View Range.
• In a section or elevation view, verify the clip plane depth. See Change the Clip Plane in an Elevation View and About Section View Width and Depth.
• If the element is part of a design option, check the visibility settings of design options in the view. See Check the Design Option Settings for a View.
• If the project is workshared, confirm that the workset of the element is visible in all views. See About Workset Visibility.
• If your project uses phases, in the view properties, for Phase Filter, select None. 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.
• In the view properties, check the Discipline parameter. It may cause some elements not to display as expected. See About the View Discipline.
• The element may be outside of the crop region of the view. Turn on the visibility of the crop region and confirm that the element is within the extents of the crop region. In the case of an annotation element, the entire element must be within the annotation crop region to be visible. See Show or Hide Crop Regions.
• The visibility of masses can be controlled by the Show Mass setting of the view. See Control Visibility of Mass Instances.

Check additional conditions

• Confirm that the edges of the element were not overridden using the Linework tool. See Override Individual Lines in an Element.
• Verify that the element is not hidden by a masking region or a filled region. See Masking Regions and Filled Regions.
• If the element is part of a linked file, do the following:
  • Ensure the link is loaded. See Unload and Reload Linked Models.
  • Ensure the link is visible in the view. See Visibility of Linked Models.
• The visibility of levels and grids can be affected by the datum extents ( About Datum Visibility in Project Views ) or controlled with scope boxes ( Control Visibility of Datums Using Scope Boxes).
• The element's family geometry is set to not be visible in the view or is being controlled with a visibility parameter. See Set Family Geometry Visibility.
• The visibility of view markers (Elevations, Sections, and Callouts) can be controlled with the "Hide at Scales Coarser Than" parameter. See About Section Tag Visibility.