Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published December 2012

Layer Fade with Transparency

While we're on the subject, you probably know that by default, layers that are Locked, fade.

You may also know that, by default, Xrefs fade, too. To minimize the confusion, however, I typically encourage my customers to set the layer fade percentage for Xrefs to <0>. [Options >Display tab]

There's actually an additional method by which your objects may be faded, and that's using the Transparency feature in the Layer Properties Manager.

In the following example, I set the transparency for the panel tags to 65%.

How to Set the Layer Transparency

1. Open the Layer Properties Manager, then select the layer for the transparency setting, just so you can line it up.

2. Scroll over to the column for Transparency, then click the current value (probably 0).

3. You can either enter a new value, or choose from the available values in the drop-down list. The change in the drawing will be immediate.

Two Major Insights:

1. The Show/Hide Transparency [TPY] button on the Status bar needs to be enabled to see the transparency result in the drawing.

   

2. In the Plot dialog box, under Plot Options, check the box to Plot Transparency to see the result in the plot.

   

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