Topo in Section Cut – Bug?

My standard when viewing a building section is to view *only* what the section line is cutting through – not the elements beyond. For this reason, after placing the section in plan view, I drag the bounding box line that represents the far clip offset really close (technical term) to the section line. I don’t see a way to set it to a distance of zero, so I just zoom in and eyeball it (technical term that comes from using Revit). The problem this causes is that where the section cuts through a toposurface the cut fill will not display.

When I increased the far clip offset to 1″ the cut pattern became visible. It turns invisible when the far clip offset is set to any value smaller than 0.89″ in fact. This seems to me to be a bug with the toposurface entity, since none of the other cut patterns in the model behave this way – they are consistently visible. Hopefully this tip will save somebody some time. I won’t say how much time it would have saved me because it’s just too darn embarrassing.

Outta My Way! (Interference)

Some would call this a workaround. Well, it is.

AutoCAD Architecture wall objects allow Interference Conditions.  I use this feature to show my wall boundary being cut by recessed fire extinguisher cabinets.  The block I use for the cabinets includes a mass element, which is what cuts the wall.  A problem arises when attempting to use more than one fire extinguisher on a single wall.  Apparently there is a rule with Interference Conditions that a single item cannot be attached to a wall more than once.  Even though each instance of the block has a unique handle, the mass elements within each block all are technically the same object.

This leaves two options:

1.) Break the wall into two separate walls.

2.) Create a duplicate block definition, and make sure to copy the mass element so its handle is different from the original.

Either choice should work fine, but I chose to create a new block because I didn’t want to break the wall.  Plus, I now have an extra block ready to use next time I encounter the same problem.

Don’t Be Afraid – Prologue

Due in large part to a recent thread on the Autodesk forums, I am going to be reevaluating my content storage and delivery systems in AutoCAD Architecture.  That is, the style templates and tool palettes.

Style Templates

Currently all our AEC content exists in a single ‘style template’ drawing file.  The biggest reason for this setup is the complexity of the Display System,