bringing a layer to the top

[dbcriss]

i've drawn a 3 dimensional box with a hinged lid. The hinged lid is a grouped layer and looking at the drawing the box appears to have a lid partly open. Everything look nice. But, parts of the box under the lid which normally would not be seen show up on the drawing. Actually, I had to erase a lot of lines on the box where they'd be hidden, but I was wondering if there was a way to group lines of the lid and bring them to the top and just hide anything falling underneath. Thanks, David

[i44troll]

David,

If you were to attach an image to your post it might make more sense to me. However, let me see if I can get close........

I wont be dealing with a hinged lid but a detachable one. If you have drawn a hinged lid your (isometric) image would have to change as the lid is opened, in this example I am simply placing a lid on a box without having to erase any lines. In the first image I have a lid and the bottom box. The lid is a simple drawing that was completely colored in with "white" (matching the same white colored exterior). To do this I used the SHAPES tab, DRAW A POLYGON button, then on LINE TYPE I chose FILLED (bottom of the drop-down list) and traced the outer lines that were drawn. Then go to the EDIT tab and select the Z down arrow, click once on the filled area and that should bring all your lines to the surface. Go to the SELECT tab, window around the whole lid then click the "GR" button to group selected objects. Now, because they are grouped as one entity you can move them around together and place them on the top or below other lines or grouped entities.
first image.......
   

since the lid is colored with the same white as the background picture any time it is placed over another object you see only the white and no other objects that lie beneath. This next example shows how the lid is simply moved into place without having to erase any lines on the box.
   

The same thing applies when I just move the box lid to the side to expose only a part of the opening. Nothing was erased in this drawing as well just simply "hidden" under the white coloring of the lid.
   


Hope this helps
CHRIS