Autoblanking

You can use autoblanking to remove an area of graphics from a drawing and leave a clear area. Generally, graphics added later will be drawn in this clear area. The main purpose is to allow annotation to be shown clearly in crowded parts of a drawing. The geometry of the blanked areas is defined by the geometry of the annotation element; for example, a circular annotation element can define a circular blanked area where no 3D design graphics will appear. Overlapping 2D, text and other annotation graphics will not be hidden by blanking.

When autoblanking is switched on, the geometry will be hidden in the blanked areas immediately the annotation that defines them is drawn or modified. When autoblanking is switched off, the blanks will not be generated on the screen, but switching autoblanking on will generate all blanks immediately. Blanks will always be generated in plot files generated from Draft, even when Autoblanking is off. The advantage of working with Autoblanking switched off is that view control operations such as zooming and panning will be slightly faster.

The command to switch autoblanking ON or OFF for a Draft session is:

AUTOBLANKING ON/OFF

Autoblanking can be used for the following annotation elements: LDIM, ADIM, RDIM, PDIM, GLAB, SLAB, VNOT, and NOTE. The attribute BLNK specifies whether autoblanking is required, and attribute BMAR specifies the blanking margin to be applied.

BLNK TRUE/FALSE

BMAR value

where value is a real value that is greater than or equal to 0.0. If BMAR is set to 0.0 then a blanked region will be drawn with no blanking margin.