Visibility columns

The active class and design layer are always visible. Each inactive class and layer can be set to be visible, invisible, or gray. These visibilities can be set independently for the drawing area, saved views, and viewports. For maximum usability, class and design layer visibilities can be set with the Visibility columns available in multiple places in the Organization dialog box, Navigation palette (Vectorworks Design Suite product required), and other dialog boxes. The Visibility columns work the same way wherever they are used. Visibility set with the columns is subject to the class and layer options settings.

For an alternative workflow, you can use the Visibility tool to set visibility for the class and/or layer of a clicked object in the drawing area or in a viewport; see The Visibility tool.

To change the setting for a single class or design layer, click on one of its visibility columns. To change the settings for multiple items, click a visibility column as follows:

Press the Ctrl key (Windows) or Cmd key (Mac) and click selected class or layer rows.

Press the Shift key and click the first and last rows of a group of classes or layers.

Press the Alt key (Windows) or Option key (Mac) and click any row to change all classes or layers.

When displaying classes in hierarchical order (see Displaying classes in hierarchical order), change the visibility setting of a group header to change the visibility of all of its subclasses.

Layer or class visibility for the drawing area

Use the Organization dialog box or the Navigation palette (Design Suite product required) to set the visibilities of classes and design layers in the drawing area.

To set the class and design layer visibilities for the drawing area:

From the Organization dialog box, select the Classes or Design Layers tab in Details view.

Click in the Visibility column for each class or design layer to set its visibility.

To see the changes in the drawing before saving them, click Preview.

Class and design layer visibility in the drawing area are also affected by the Class Options and Layer Options settings. See Setting global visibility with class and design layer options.

Layer or class visibility for viewports and saved views

Use the Organization dialog box to set the visibilities of classes and design layers in existing viewports and saved views. You can also set these visibilities while creating and editing classes, design layers, viewports, and saved views, as described in the following topics:

For viewports with the visibility set by style, layer and class visibilities can only be edited from the Edit Viewport Style dialog box.

Creating classes and Setting class properties

Creating layers and Setting design layer properties

Viewport properties

Creating and editing viewport styles

Creating saved views

To set the class and design layer visibilities for viewports and saved views:

From the Organization dialog box, select a tab in Visibilities view.

Select one or more class, design layer, viewport, or saved view names and set the Visibility settings for classes and design layers.

On the Saved Views tab, change the active design layer and class, and the design layer and class options.

To see the changes before saving them, click Preview (not available on the Saved Views tab).

Concept: Visibility of drawing elements

The Organization dialog box

The Navigation palette