Cells Disappear Changing Annotation Scale

We have a serious issue that I believe is related to TR#68884 which I found in Cell dissappears at drawing scale 1:100.  We currently have door tags created with the Place DataGroup Annotation tool because we use Drawing Extractions.  Because of the issues we've been having, we started placing the annotations in the same file as the 3D doors.  We extract the plans with walls, doors, windows, and annotations without incident typically to 1/8"=1'-0".  We then reference the extracted file into a drawing model which is 2D.  Then we reference the drawing model into a sheet model which is also 2D.  If the scale is always 1/8"=1'-0", then all is fine.  The problem occurs when we get to enlarged plans where we want to scale up a partial plan to something like 1/4"=1'-0".  The cells disappear in the sheet model completely (nest level 2).  They only disappear in the drawing model (nest depth 1) of the sheet model if we zoom in (a little).

Has anyone else experienced this?  I'll create a support ticket next.

  • I'm fairly certain the disappearing cells are related to a 3D set of objects/annotations extracted to a certain elevation and then the 2D file element priority for display order is not honoring the annotation scale correctly especially through reference attachments.
    Please don't include responses with Dynamic Views. I'm well aware of how they work with automatic annotations. Thank you.

    Mark Mates - BIM Manager - Mason & Hanger

  • AECOsim BD SS5 08.11.09.747

    Mark Mates - BIM Manager - Mason & Hanger

  • Make sure your DRAWING Model is 2d or you will always have issues with anything annotation.
    Also if you place your door annotations in the 3d it will screw you up.
    ALL annotations - whether created by extraction or by you directly should only be in the Drawing Model and NOT the 3d file.
    Problems arise if you do not follow this workflow.

    Ustn since 1988
    SS4 - i7-3.45Ghz-16 Gb-250/1Tb/1Tb-Win8.1-64b

    Eric D. Milberger
    Architect + Master Planner + BIM

    Senior  Master Planner NASA - Marshall Space Flight Center

    The Milberger Architectural Group, llc

  • The issue you're describing sure does sound similar to the description in defect 68884. There is a workaround included though that may be worth a try:

    Go to the level settings of the reference in the sheet model. There you will see that you have a priority of 100

    1. Go to Settings>Level Manager
    3. Select reference file
    3. Select level that element resides on
    4. Change display priority from 100 to 0.
    This should allow you to see the elements on this level when changing the drawing scale to Engr 1:100 or greater



  • Update:  That didn't help Steve although I think you meant to change the priority from 0 to a higher positive number.  I also tried to adjust the reference setting "Attach Level" to a level and set it's priority, but that didn't help either.  One thing that is showing promise is going back to extract with the option of "Preserve 3D Data".  This allows the files to be tagged via references such as 2D as Eric suggested.  So far the 2D file tagging is working and some of the other 3D file tags are not.  I don't know why, but we've been tagging doors and windows for extractions in 3D models and mostly the 3D master model for some time now.  I believe it was so that the designers only had to tag them in one place instead of 2 or 3 FP drawings, but I can't remember.  It also drastically reduces the file size.  For example, one of our floor plan extractions is ~36MB with preserve 3D data versus 1.5MB without.  I can live with that.  Another workaround and maybe this could be useful to Bentley programmers, is after extracting a file (we use the "Transpose XY Plane" option), open the extraction file run SetZ on all of the elements and set their value to 0... even though they appeared to be 0.  For whatever reason, this worked too, but it is a work around.


    Thanks for the help and I'll post updates to the progress.

    Mark Mates - BIM Manager - Mason & Hanger

    Answer Verified By: mmates