In addition to the overall layer opacity settings described in Setting the Design Layer Opacity, an opacity setting is available for individual objects. Opacity can be applied to any type of 2D object, including planar objects, 2D walls, text, worksheet backgrounds, and plug-in objects that include a 2D object.
If layer opacity is set in addition to object opacity, the results are additive; for example, a layer opacity of 50% and an object opacity of 50% will display the object at 25% opacity. Similarly, the opacity settings of nested and container objects are combined.
This feature is available on all Mac systems and on Windows systems that have the GDI+ imaging Vectorworks preference enabled. See Vectorworks Display Preferences.
To set the opacity of a 2D object:
1. Select the object(s) and click the Opacity button on the Attributes palette to open the Set Opacity dialog box.
2. Drag the Opacity slider to the left to decrease the opacity, or enter an opacity percentage (0-100) to the right of the slider. Alternatively, select Use Class Opacity to use the opacity value set by the object’s class.
If Use at Creation is enabled for the object’s class, the object’s opacity is automatically set by the class. If Use at Creation is disabled for the class, the object only takes on the class style when the Use Class Opacity option is selected. Class opacity can be overridden in viewports.
3. If desired, click Preview to view the results of the opacity setting.
4. Click OK to apply the opacity setting.
The opacity setting applies to 2D objects only. For a similar effect in 3D, a transparency shader can be applied with the Renderworks product (see Textures and Shaders ).
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