Fade to Black

You can find any command in Civil 3D by typing a few characters on the keyboard and hitting the TAB key to “walk” through commands. I recently opened a drawing with an attached xref, but the xref was faded out so bad I could barely see it. There is a variable to control the locking and fading of objects when using the LAYISO (isolate layer) command, but I had forgotten the variable for xrefs.

If you open a drawing that appears to be faded back, an you want to adjust the setting, type XDWGFADECTL. You can set the fade percentage from 0-100, 70 seems about right for me. How did I find the variable? I typed “X” on the command line, and hit the tab key until I found what I was looking for.

To change “fade factor” of objects when using the LAYISO command, type LAYLOCKFADECTL on the command line.

I’ve heard complaints about the fading of layers when isolating layers, “Why do the layers show up at all?” So you can use object snaps on objects that aren’t part of the isolation.

Looking for more “unique” variables and commands? I wrote an article sometime ago entitled Superman. Check it out.

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