Global visibility changes with the Visibility tool

The Visibility tool can make global changes to the class or layer visibilities of a drawing. In a complex drawing, for example, this can be an easy way to quickly show the classes or layers only of selected objects. All classes or layers can easily be set to show again. This feature does not affect visibilities in viewports.

1. To make changes to the class or layer visibility of selected objects, select the objects first.

The Visibility Tool Preferences dialog box opens. Specify the effect to occur when the Visibility tool is double-clicked.

Parameter	Description
Makes all classes visible	All classes in the drawing area are set to visible
Makes all layers visible	All layers in the drawing area are set to visible
Makes only the classes of the selected objects visible	The class(es) of selected objects remain visible; other classes are set to invisible
Makes only the layers of the selected objects visible	The layer(s) of selected objects remain visible; other layers are set to invisible

The classes or layers in the drawing area are set to visible or invisible as specified, and the Message bar shows the change that occurred. The Navigation palette (Vectorworks Design Series required) updates to display the new visibility status.

Reasons for global visibility not changing

When you use the Visibility tool to make global changes, several factors may prevent the visibility from changing as expected.

● The layer and class options control the visibility of objects in the inactive layers and classes. For example, if the layer options are set to gray objects in inactive layers, grayed objects do not become fully visible when the Visibility tool is double-clicked. (See Setting global visibility with class and design layer options.) An alert displays in this situation.

● The Visibility tool cannot hide the active class or layer immediately, since the active class or layer is always set to visible. An alert displays in this situation.

● A container object (such as a symbol or a group) and its component parts can belong to different classes, and their visibilities can be set differently. For example, if the classes of the individual objects that make up a symbol are set to invisible or gray, they become visible only when the first double-click option (Makes all classes visible) is used.