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Working with Hidden Lines

How to View Hidden Lines​

Design Master HVAC uses the hidden line functionality built into AutoCAD to display hidden lines. The hidden lines will not automatically appear while you are working on your project.

To view them, type HIDE at the command line. This will display the hidden lines. However, it will also disable the real-time zoom and pan features. To turn them back on, type REGEN. This command will remove the hidden lines and enable the real-time zoom and pan.

How to Plot Hidden Lines​

How you plot hidden lines in AutoCAD depends upon whether you are plotting from model space or paper space. Plotting from paper space is recommended.

Plotting Hidden Lines From Paper Space​

To plot hidden lines in paper space, you need to tell the viewport being plotted to hide the entities in it before plotting them.

  1. Type MVIEW at the command line.

  2. Type S for Shadeplot.

  3. Type H for Hidden.

  4. Select the viewport.

This setting will be saved with the drawing.

Plotting Hidden Lines From Model Space​

To plot hidden lines in model space, you need to set the Shade plot ▾ setting to Legacy hidden using the steps below:

  1. Type PLOT at the command line.

  2. Press the arrow in the bottom right of the dialog box, as shown below, to expand the Plot - Model dialog box so that the Shaded viewport options are visible.

  3. Set Shade plot ▾ to Legacy hidden.

This setting will be saved with the drawing.

note

If you plot from the command line, you will need to select a detailed plot configuration. One of the prompts will be Enter shade plot setting. Answer Legacy hidden to that prompt to plot with hidden lines.

Troubleshooting Hidden Lines​

If you are having problems plotting hidden lines, check the following settings:

  • Do not use XCLIPS on your XREF's.

  • LTSCALE typically should be set to the same value as DIMSCALE.

  • PSLTSCALE typically should be set to 0.

  • SPLFRAME must be set to 0.

  • HIDEPRECISION must be set to 1.

The LTSCALE and PSLTSCALE settings listed above are for the default Design Master HVAC linetypes. If you are using your own linetypes for the hidden lines, those settings might need to be different. Consult the AutoCAD documentation for more information on those variables.