I wish to lightly colour sections of my floor plan and be able to see the text and graphic details under the colouring. 
The plans I have, are large building floor plans and need to show coloured sections of the floor but still need to show other details under the shading.
I only know hatching, and with solid, it is just that - solid
Can anyone help me with coloured shading on a floor plan ?

I dont really think that there is smth like transparent hatch in autocad, but you could use light color solid hatch that is on the bottom layer, so that you can see everything else.

hopefully it helps

I would still use Solid hatch, and after that change the draw order for the solidhatch. There´s is a toolbox cold "draw order", simply select the hatch and press the button send to back. Now everything else should be visible, but of course you should use a light/different colour then everything else.
 
Hopefully this help you out!
 
//Tobias

Are you hatching and then putting the text in place, or is the text in place and then you're hatching?  Our text always has a clear area around it, when we hatch an area around it (ACAD 2005)..

[QUOTE=rossassociates]Are you hatching and then putting the text in place, or is the text in place and then you're hatching?  Our text always has a clear area around it, when we hatch an area around it (ACAD 2005).. [/QUOTE]
 
That depends on if you have "Island detection" on or off, and which style of "Island detection" you have ( normal, outer or ignore)
 
To see the "Island detection" you have too press the arrow in the lower right corner in the hatch dialog box.
 
//Tobias

Thanks, but the floor plans are large building floor plans (2000m2 +) with a lot of items that must remain visible through the shading.
If possible I need the building floor plan to have the whole plan shaded in possibly 3 or 4 different sections, but still seeing the whole floor plan under the shading.
Hope there is an answer.
 
Alliegaeta
 

Thanks  but island detection would be too fiddly for these plans, there is too much to show under the shading.
I dont really want to hatch lightly
The floor plans of a 2000m2 + need to look like it has a light wash of colour over it and be broken up in a few sections
 
Alliegaeta

Right on Tobias,
gave it a demo this morning, thanks for that.
 
Solid, send to back, make sure colours are lightly done and bingo, done.
 
Much appreciated.
Alliegaeta

You may want to check out the help section on regions.  You can create a region then assign shading to that region, then change the transparency of the shading.  You will have to also know a little about Visual Styles (Realistic) and how to plot the view port with the Visual Style.

Thanks Ron C, I would like to learn about Visual Styles and what you say, I don't have to use the shading often but even using the solid command  and send to back has made my new task possible for me (or should I say created another area of work for me)

There is an easier way, depending on the plotter driver you are using. From the plotter configuration screen select graphics. There you should see (depending on you plotter) something entitled Line Merge Control. If the display order of you drawing is correct Lines Overwrite will work. If you do not wish to control you display order select lines merge. When using lines merge, lines under a screened solid hatch will show through the hatch. 

If you place the shading on a locked layer there is a transparency slider on the dashboard (2007+) which applies the transparency to everything on locked layers.