Reference Floor

When there is more than one floor in a model, it is often helpful to see how different floors relate to each other. Any floor can be shown as the Reference Floor along with the current floor.

When the Reference Display is turned on, the reference floor is visible and objects on the current floor can snap to objects on reference floor; however, objects on the reference floor cannot be selected or edited.

Reference Display

To show the reference floor, select Tools> Reference Floors> Reference Display or press F9 on your keyboard. The reference floor can also be toggled on or off quickly in floor plan view by clicking the Reference Display toggle button on the utility toolbar.


Note: If the current floor and the reference floor have edges that line up, the reference floor may be difficult to see on screen. When lines of two different colors are superimposed upon each other, discoloration may result.

The display of objects in the reference display is controlled by layer set. The layer set being used for reference can be changed in the Change Floor/Reference dialog or in the Layer Set Management dialog. See "Layer Set Management".

If the reference display is on when a floor plan view is sent to layout, the reference display is always on in that layout view and cannot be turned off.

The reference display settings are also preserved if the reference display is on when a view is printed. See "Display Options and Printing".

By default, the floor below the current floor is the reference floor, but any floor can be referenced using the Change Floor/Reference dialog. To open the dialog, click the Change Floor/Reference

button. If the Reference Display was on or off, it remains so.

The Reference Floor currently used for reference is highlighted here. You can select another floor.

The Current Floor is highlighted here. You can select another floor to make it the current floor.

The Reference Display Layer Set, which controls which layers are visible in the reference display, shows here. The Reference Display Set is active by default. Select another layer set from the drop-down list to use it for the reference display.

While any layer set can be used as the Reference Display Layer Set, for best results you should use the default Reference Display Set or create a new layer set specifically for reference display purposes. See "Layer Sets".

Swap Floor/Reference

If one floor is defined as the current floor and another floor is defined as the reference floor, use the Swap Floor/Reference button to switch the status of the two floors.

Reference Display Options

Select Tools> Reference Floors> Reference Display Options to control what objects display and how they appear when the reference display is turned on. See "Layer Display Options Dialog".