Have You Tried: AutoCAD Wipeouts and Masks

Learning
AutoCAD Wipeouts and Masks Feature

For the Have You Tried this month, we have some great techniques for removing the visual clutter from complex drawings that have lots of overlapping objects.

Overlapping objects and annotation can decrease readability while at the same time increase the chances for confusion of a design. Creating wipeouts and using masks to hide parts of the overlapping geometry are ways to avoid confusion in the drawing while increasing readability. Wipeouts and masks can also be used to trim geometry around annotation objects and blocks.

In this Have You Tried, we’ll go over how to:

  • Create a wipeout
  • Create irregular shaped wipeout objects
  • Add a background mask to multiline text
  • Break dimension and multileader lines

Learn how to reduce visual clutter in your drawings caused by geometry and annotation overlap, with the step-by-step examples in the Have You Tried: What’s Behind that Mask topic.

AutoCAD wipeout example

Keep the Feedback Coming

Thanks for all the great feedback submitted so far. Because of the great feedback, we have been able to improve the topics in the AutoCAD Online Help system.

The best way to submit feedback is by using the “Was this helpful?” section located at the bottom of every Help topic. Let us know what you like or don’t like about a topic or provide suggestions for other subjects that you’d like to see covered in greater detail. The more specific your comments, the better.



Lee Ambrosius

Lee Ambrosius is a Principal Learning Content Developer at Autodesk, Inc., for the AutoCAD software and AutoCAD LT software products. He works primarily on the CAD administration, customization, and developer documentation. Lee has also worked on the user documentation for AutoCAD on Windows and Mac. He has presented on a wide range of topics at Autodesk University over the past 10 years, from general AutoCAD customization to ObjectARX technology. Lee has authored a number of AutoCAD-related books, with his most recent projects being AutoCAD Platform Customization: User Interface, AutoLISP, VBA, and Beyond and AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD LT 2015 Bible. When he’s not writing, you can find him roaming various community forums, posting articles on his blog, or tweeting AutoCAD-related information.

Try AutoCAD free for 15 days
The AutoCAD Blog is all about helping you get the most out of AutoCAD. It's also the best way for you to connect with the makers of AutoCAD. Subscribe to keep up with AutoCAD