The mask alignment command allows the user to hide certain portions of the alignment within the drawing.
Why would you want to mask an alignment? One common reason you would want to mask a portion of an alignment would be if you were wanting to show the extended existing surface profile in profile view, but no stations or alignment are necessary for the alignment in plan view. If you were tying into a road centerline, and you wanted to see how the centerline continued after the design centerline tied into the existing, you could mask the portion of the existing centerline in plan view, and still see the centerline elevations continued beyond the proposed centerline in the profile view.
Another reason you may want to mask a portion of an alignment is to simply clean up the printed sheet or drawing. If there are portions of the alignment that create confusion in the drawing or cause it seem just pain messy, masking alignments can be helpful. One example of this would be to mask the alignment that passes through an intersection to help clean up the intersection.
Some important things to note about how alignment masking works outside of the drawing in which the mask was created:
- The masking alignment will show through xrefs
- You are unable to change masking alignment through data shortcuts
- Click near the beginning of the alignment and then you can click lock to start within the alignment properties, masking tab
- Click near to the end of the alignment and then you can also lock to end within the alignment properties, masking tab
Below is a video that outlines a few of the features of masking alignments.
If you’re finding yourself stuck or need further help to understand and create masking of alignments or any other CAD need, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the technical team at Seiler Design Solutions [email protected].
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