MEP 2009 visibility issue...diffuser and dampers

[smw]

I was working on a HVAC floor plan in which i was basically finished with my entire sheet. everything was running good and at some point many of the diffusers and dampers have disappeared on the screen. amongst switching from one window to another and returning to this particular construct many of the diffusers and dampers are no longer visible. it is not consisttant through out the drawing as it is totally random and some dampers and some supply diffusers are not totally visible. you can see everything fine if you switch to a 3d view. if you select the part and use the object viewer it seems fine. the program is reconizing that the part is there becase you can select it and change properties and then if you move it it still cannot be seen on screen but you can see the notation showing a nonconnection. you can also check the connection and it will say its connected and act as it is but just cannot view the part. these also do not print. I have tried most of the basic things to fix this but have came to a wall. if i put a new part in it still does the same thing.

any help is appreciated.

[stelthorst]

Hi smw (Sorry I don't know your name)

First, welcome to AUGI and congrats on your first post.

It sounds like a display representation problem to me. The first thing I would check is the cut plane.

Go to FORMAT - Display Manager. Click the + sign next to Configurations and click on the display representation that is bolded. Go to the Cut Plane tab and make sure your fittings fall within the Display Above and Display Below Ranges.

If this doesn't work try changing the display representation to standard to confirm that it is a display problem. If you're still having problems if you can post the drawing I'll take a look.

Hope this helps,

[mighkel]

Ditto on the problem here. We haven't messed with display reps or cut planes on this project, but we have one drawing that decided to hide the equipment on us: dampers, diffusers, & vav boxes.
One trick (from Autodesk Support) is to insert the whole drawing into a new one and explode it once. This is getting us by right now.

[dmastro]

I'm on MEP2008 and have run into a similiar problem on occasion. Turned out Layer 0 would somehow become frozen and equipment would suddenly disappear in 2D top view but was completly normal in any 3D view. Check Layer 0's settings.

[bradg]

I also had a somewhat similar problem, where random diffusers and VAV boxes would disappear from a sheet viewport. Turns out mine was a draworder problem.

As we're still trying to transition to using AMEP's 3D features, the engineer working on the project had drawn in regular one-line duct (not using AMEP's tool) and then placed their existing 2D diffuser and VAV box blocks where he wanted. Then, I went back and re-drew (traced) his work with AMEP's 3D tools. I placed the diffusers directly over top of the 2D blocks he used, and when I was finished, froze the layer his blocks were on. Despite being frozen and below the 3D diffusers (elevation-wise), for some reason some of the 2D blocks would get drawn over-top of the 3D diffusers, and cause them to disappear in the sheet viewport. To fix it, I went back to the original construct drawing, selected all (select similar) of the 2D block diffusers, and changed DRAWORDER to Back. Even now it occasionally happens again, but at least it's a somewhat simple fix.

Not sure if you're drawing is set up similar to mine, but hopefully this helps nonetheless.

-Brad