Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Masking Regions and Filled Regions - Which Is In Front?

hank

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Joined: Mon, Oct 3, 2005
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I've worked through troubles with Masking Regions before - forgetting to check the "Draw in Foreground" box, drawing the Masking Region on the wrong work plane, or viewing in wireframe mode rather than hidden line... but this has me stumped:  I have a drinking fountain family that, rather than model completely, has a masking region on a work plane 1 inch from the hosting wall.  In the model, it ought to mask out a grey filled region covering the wall in elevation, no?  The filled region seems to trump all masking regions despite "send to back".  Any thoughts?

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TKennedy

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Joined: Wed, Oct 7, 2009
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Is the masking region in the family and the filled region in the project? Anything in the project is going to be drawn on top of a family.

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hank

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Correct.  Wow, I never realized this.  Using the Filled Region to designate the wall pattern is a bit of a hack.  I could do a split region with a different material i suppose.  Then the wall and filled region will play nice.

Thanks TK!

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itsmyalterego

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Joined: Thu, May 28, 2009
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this might not be the best way to model a drinking fountain. 

typically, it would be better to edit the family, select the model elements, hit the "visibility settings" button, and TURN OFF visibility of all model geometries in elevation/section/plan views.  (or turn off all but the basic forms to clean it up)  Or whatever you desire. 

Now, with drafting lines, draw whatever representational shape you prefer, for these views.  Leave the lines' visibility uncontroled, and they will be the only thing that displays.   "masking" the model elements sounds like a painful work-around.  I've never heard of it, and judging by your post it causes some issues.

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TKennedy

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I'm guessing that's basically what was done in the family. One reason to use a masking region in the family is if you only use symbolic lines, it's always transparent (or wireframe, however you want to look at it). If you draft in a masking region, the family hides the stuff behind it but you can get away with not modeling to a high level of detail.

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hank

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itsmy,

Some revit content is not available but CAD content is almost universal.  Rather than model objects in revit with excruciating detail like a water fountain spout, I drop in 2D CAD content and use masking regions and detail lines to create front plan and side representations. I can even use the "Pick Objects" line tool to create boundaries and lines so its very quick.  For views where the graphics need to flex with the model, like where a wall changes thickness, I put things in groups and lock them to the host. We rarely use the 3D capabilities of Revit to render water fountains or toilets so this gets us back to construction document production as fast as possible.

So there is no 3d content or "Model Elements" that get masked.  Even if I modeled the content though, the filled regions would still come out in front so this technique doesn't have any bearing on the particularities of filled regions in question.

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itsmyalterego

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Hank -- Gotcha.  I didn't pick up that you had made this family on your own.   Or that there was no model to begin with.  So that makes sense.  I was envisioning a 3D model "simplified" with the use of masking regions.  I've been traumatized by masking regions by... someone who didn't want or didn't know to control visibility through VG, worksets, individual object overrides, detail level, or linework.  it was a complete disaster, so I'm maybe irrationally opposed to them in general. 

TK, good point. Didn't think of that -- typically I've only turned off all model elements in plan, where transparent isn't noticeable due to the floor. 

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hank

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That's like me with lock things!   I rarely feel comfortable locking alignments because inevitably I'll try to move something and get the dreaded "Cannot maintain Constraints" message!

Thanks for the input!

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