A lot of inspiration for new and improved features in AutoCAD LT and AutoCAD come straight from the AUGI wishlist. (To see just how many wishes have been granted lately, check out this video, created by Shaan Hurley.) The wishlist itself is for AutoCAD, but of course many of the items also apply to AutoCAD LT features. One of those is the ability to control object visibility independent of layer. The main reason we put content onto layers is to organize it for control over display and plotting. A lot of the time, it works just fine to turn off an entire layer if you don’t want to see one or two objects on it – you can always turn it back on when you’re done. But what if you want to turn off half a layer, maybe in a crowded drawing where one piece of text is in your way but you need the rest of it on? Until now, you couldn’t do that. Object visibility was an all-or-nothing kind of thing. In AutoCAD LT 2011, a new addition to the right-click menu gives you even more control over your drawing’s appearance. With “Isolate Objects” and “Hide Objects,” you can temporarily turn off any objects you want, even if the other objects on the same layer are to remain on. As you might expect, “isolate” keeps the selected objects visible, while “hide” hides them. The next image shows a “before” and “after” of the “Isolate Objects” function. You can also combine the functions – in other words, you don’t have to un-isolate objects before hiding more. Here’s another before-and-after, this time using the “hide” function on the objects in the right-hand image above. A new light bulb icon on the status bar tells you if object isolation is in effect. Yellow indicates normal object visibility, while red means that some objects are hidden. You can also click on the light bulb to access the hide and isolate options. Objects hidden by these tools are not visible when you plot your drawing. By default, objects are returned to their normal (by layer) visibility when you close the drawing. This helps minimize confusion for the next person to open the drawing. If for some reason you want to preserve the visibility state, you can set OBJECTISOLATIONMODE to 1. I’m not sure I’d recommend this, though, unless you’re really sure that everyone on your team understands the possible consequences.

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