Display Overrides setting in the reference attachment dialog box


Product(s): OpenRoads Designer CONNECT Edition
Version(s): 10.10+
Area:  Display Overrides

 

Background

Have you ever wondered what the “Display Overrides” setting in the reference attachment dialog box does? Not only do you need to know what it controls but you will need to understand where and how it works.

Practical example of using the “Display Overrides” setting

Did you ever have all your design data referenced into one model? You can think of this model as the container model. You then create multiple drawing sheets by referencing the container model into the sheet models. Now you want to change the display (turning a reference off or turning a level off in view display) in all the sheet models but you also want to have the overall plan sheet displayed differently than the other sheet models. How can this be accomplished without opening every model and making your changes? The “Display Overrides” setting in the reference attachment settings can allow you to make your changes without opening each model. Read on to find out how to get the results that you desire.

What settings are being controlled?

The "display override" option, listed in the Reference Dialog Box, controls how reference display, locate, snap, raster reference display, and level view display (not global display or global freeze) are handled for nested reference files. So for nested reference files, in the reference dialog box, the on/off of the display of the reference, the on/off of the reference locate and the on/off of the reference snap are controlled according to the "display override" option. In addition it also controls the raster reference display of rasters attached through the nested reference file and level view display (not global display or global freeze) of the nested reference files.

Which files are affected?

The setting only affects how nested references are displayed in your active model. The setting gets set in the direct attachment settings but it only affects the display of the nested attachments that come through that direct attachment. It does not affect the display of the direct attachment.

Scenario

Let's say you call your active model “Master Model A”. Your direct attachment is called “Direct Attachment B” The nested attachment is called “Nested Attachment C”. “Nested Attachment C” is attached to “Direct Attachment B” and that is attached to “Master Model A”.

Setting options

Never Override means that no matter what changes you make to the settings for Nested Attachment C, from within the Master Model A, are for that session only. Upon reloading the file, the settings for Nested attachment C will always revert to the settings that are set in the Direct Attachment B. Therefore, NEVER overriding what the Direct Attachment B settings are for Nested Attachment C.

Always Override means that no matter what changes you make to the settings in Direct Attachment B, for the Nested Attachment C, those settings will be ignored and whatever settings you set in the Master Model A for that Nested Attachment C will be honored. Therefore, ALWAYS overriding what the Direct Attachment B settings are for the Nested Attachment C.

Allow Override means that you can control these settings from the Direct Attachment B for Nested Attachment C and these changes will be honored in Master Model A, UNTIL a change is made to a setting in Master Model A. Once an "override" is set in Master Model A for any of the settings, the files become out of sync and act independent from each other. Therefore, this will act as "Never Override" but will "Allow" you to make the override if you choose to. But if you do make a change then the files become out of sync and changes made to the Nested Attachment C from the Direct Attachment B will no longer be carried through to Master Model A. It is then acting like “Always Override”. 

 

Click the video below to play it. To view in full screen mode, first click the YouTube link at the bottom of the video to launch the video on the YouTube site. Then, click the fullscreen button (rightmost button at bottom of video).

 

Recorded in 1280 X 720 resolution.

 

So how does this relate to the “Practical example” above?

In the example at the start of this article, for the overall plan sheet you would set the “Display Overrides” setting for the container reference to “Always Override”. That will allow you to display the reference information in the overall plan sheet independent of the other sheet models or references. For the other sheet models, you would want to set the “Display Overrides” setting for the container reference to “Never Override”. This allows you to make display changes (turning a reference off or turning a level off in view display) in the container file and those changes will be reflected in all the other sheet models. Just remember which display settings are affected by the setting.

Another example:

Use case: Design dgns are referenced into a Master Container dgn. This Master Container is referenced to a Sheet dgn for plans/production…

Never Override - Use this when you want to control what is displayed in the Sheet dgn within the Master dgn. So the Sheet dgn never overrides how the nested references of the Master are defined.

Allow or Always Override - Use this when you want to control how nested references are displayed within the Sheet dgn, not the Master dgn. So the Sheet dgn will always override how the nested references are displayed compared to what is displayed in the Master dgn.

*When you attach a nested reference in the Allow state it will behave as Never override until you made any type of change to the Sheet dgn. Then it will behave as Always override.

*When you attach a nested reference in the Always state it takes the display settings from the initial setting. If you go back to the Master and turn off a level it will still be on in the Sheet because it will *always* override.