Mechanical equipment/plumbing accessories won't mask model lines

[matt__w]

We're trying a new "experiment" in-house with model lines and a multi-phase project. We've created a level 100' above the building where we've drawn some model lines. We then duplicated the model line level and assigned various phase settings to them. We then changed the phase settings of some of the model lines and placed mechanical equpiment/plumbing accessories on the lines to indicate valves, etc...

What we're trying to do is create riser diagrams based on the phasing of the project. Everything looks great on screen... the equipment and accessories are masking the model lines but when the sheets are plotted, they appear as if wireframe mode is turned on (I verified that it is NOT turned on). A manually-created masking region and annotation will mask the model lines though. However, annotation is not a viable option because of the simple fact that you can't assign phases to it.

Any thoughts on what could be the problem and what the solution might be?

Thanks in advance!
Matt

[CADastrophe]

Does it show correctly in Print Preview? Could you post an screen-cap and a plotted .pdf (if it the problems occurs with .pdf) of the situation?

Regarding masking regions - you cannot assign a phase to them, but you can embed it into a generic model and the Masking Region will inherit the phasing of the element. I don't know if that will help you or not...

[matt__w]

It does NOT show correctly in a print preview, but it DOES show correctly on screen. :-/

I've tried a generic model (with a masking region) and I get the same results as stated above; looks good on screen, not so much on paper or PDF.

Masked.PNGNot Masked.PNG

[CADastrophe]

What Discipline is this View? And as an experiment: instead of embedding Generic Annotation into the Generic Model, try a solid hatch set to color White.

[matt__w]

What Discipline is this View? And as an experiment: instead of embedding Generic Annotation into the Generic Model, try a solid hatch set to color White.

The discipline was set to COORDINATION but I noticed that when I switched to MECHANICAL the items were masking as I'd expect HOWEVER.... The thickness of the model lines was diminished. When you hover over a model line, you can see a sort of ghosted display of the defined thickness but it doesn't plot that way. Another "quirk" is that the familes don't show masking in the plan view but they plot masking the lines.NonMasking Model Lines.png

[CADastrophe]

That's because Model Lines are considered "Architectural" and are made halftone according to the View Discipline just like Walls, Doors, etc.

There's also a little bit more strange behavior, which may or may not be affecting thing here: If an "out-of-discipline" element has a surface pattern, the pattern does NOT get blocked out by "in-discipline" elements, but does get blocked out by other "out-of-discipline" elements. This may also affect other things like Masking Regions, but I haven't delved into that far...

[neightyeight]

We ran into something that may relate to your issue. When a masking region is contained in an annotation family nested within a model family it will not mask objects behind it. Our problem was with our floor cleanout - you could still see the piping under it when printed although it looked fine on screen. The solution was to print using raster mode rather than vector and then the masking region worked as expected. If I remember correctly a masking region in a detail family that was nested in a model family would behave correctly with either raster or vector. I might be wrong about that though. Hope it helps!