How to "bring text forward" so it isn't covered by model shading (like what's happening in the photo below).

When I use Utilities > Display > FEM Label Tool Plus to show element names, it shows them nicely as first but if I rotate the model and it has "smooth shaded" active, some/all of the text will get hidden. This also happens with element CS, node ID's that I display, etc. How can I force it to display the text/axes without them being hidden?

Thanks!

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0 Arthur Hickson over 2 years ago

It's a problem as the text is drawn in "3D" space, and if the model is shaded then the shading polygons on the outside of entities will typically then occlude any text that is drawn inside, rotating the model around you sometimes see the text which is located at a fixed point but always written left to write parallel to the screen appear and disappear. If the model is not shaded then of course the labels are always visible. You maybe able to orient the view and control the entities displayed so you can get the labels to show, but this might not be possible with shading. One way to try and get something to show is to change the shading so that it is transparent. Display/ Shading and slide the Transparency slider to a value like .8 then the labels inside will be visible through the transparent pixel dither pattern, as will other lines inside the model.

You can use transparency on a results fringe plot to achieve a similar effect if your results are hiding labels inside the model. (The control is under the "third icon" "display attributes", set the shading to transparent and adjust the transparency slider.
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0 elijah.d.lamppin.civ over 2 years ago

I LOVE that transparency idea! That serves as an excellent workaround. Thank you so much! I wish I had asked this question 2 years ago haha
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