2D section, materials style and... headache !

[Famaice]

Hard to understand something in the reliationship between materials style and 2D section/elevation !

The problem :

I have a metal structure building. All my structure element style are in a material style call metal.strcuture.galvanized.
Some of my structural elements are in layers called A-[structural element type ex. beam/pilar/...-E (E for Existing) - this layers are in blue, linetype continuous, thin
Others of my structural element are in layers called A-[structural element type ex. beam/pilar/...-N (N for New) - this layers are in red, linetype continuous, strong

When i do a 2D section of my conception (elevation for exemple) - Some of the structural elements are drawned/generated but not all (the blue but not the red for ex.) !
But if i put the layers A-...-N in blue then refreshing my section --> Woaw all the structural elements are drawn and visible on the section !!!

Did someone else know/meet this kind of problem ? How did you resolve or manage it ? Is it a ACA 2012 bug or do i make mistakes in my styles setting ?

Help is welcome 'cause you got a veritable headache to solve when you're designing a complete reffinery with multiple conceptions and meet this problem.

[dkoch]

The key to understanding how 2D Section/Elevation generation works is to realize that element color is a primary driver. You tell ACA to use a particular Display Representation Set [DRS] when generating the 2D Section/Elevation. That DRS contains instructions for the graphics that are to be generated for ACA objects, including color (whether directly in the Display Representation for that object, or, if the display is set to By Material, by the Display Representation settings for the assigned Material Definition).

ACA then takes the color that is assigned to the graphics and runs it through the 2D Section/Elevation Style. In addition to the out-of-the-box components, you can define custom display components on the Components tab. The Design Rules tab is where color-based rules are defined. Starting at the top of the list, a given component will be compared against a combination of Color and Context. When a match occurs, that object will be placed on the Component listed in the Component column. If there is no match, it goes on the default component for its condition (on defining line, or, if behind, in the Subdivision in which it falls).

Finally, the Display Properties are applied to the linework within each component. This could be at the drawing default level, but if you have a custom 2D Section/Elevation Style, you probably have a style-level override set, so you can assign display properties to custom components and/or control the display of the out-of-the-box components specifically for this 2D Section/Elevation Style.

It may be that your blue linework is being directed to a component whose display is turned on for your 2D Section/Elevation Style and active display settings but your red linework is being mapped to a component that is turned off.