AutoCAD 2011 introduced the transparency property for objects. Transparency gives you the opportunity to create presentation-ready drawings. You can draw an object that is up to 90% transparent. Here you see some trees filled with a 60%-transparent solid fill.
As with other object properties, you should use the Layer Properties Manager to create a layer and specify the transparency as a layer property. Here you see a red layer that is 75% transparent.
Transparency is pretty useless for the line that delineates an object, but is quite useful for a solid fill hatch or a gradient. Here you see the effect of a red 75%-transparent layer on top of an opaque blue layer. The result is purple at the point of overlap.
To create an object with a partially transparent solid fill, follow these steps:
- Open the Layer Properties Manager (the LAYER command).
- Click the New Layer button and name the layer.
- In the Color column for that layer, click the color swatch and choose a color.
- Click in the Transparency column for that layer to open the Layer Transparency dialog box and type a value between 0 (completely opaque, the default) and 90 (mostly transparent). Then click OK.
- Make any other changes that you want to the layer’s specifications and close or collapse the Layer Properties Manager.
- From the Home tab> Layers panel< Layer drop-down list, choose the new layer to make it current. (You can also do this after the next step.)
- Draw a closed object.
- Choose Home tab> Draw panel> Hatch.
- In the Pattern panel, choose Solid.
- At the Pick internal point or [Select objects/seTtings]: prompt, pick inside your closed object.
- Press Enter to accept the solid fill and end the command.
Do you use transparency in your drawings? Why or why not?
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