When you place a new track or object in the 2D editor, it will always be drawn on top of all other items. But some of the early placed items may become hidden and look disordered in means of 3D vertical positions and heights. Unfortunately, there is no command like “Bring To Front” in the current version of SCARM, but you can cope with that very easy. See below how it works.
Bring To Front
In order to perform “Bring To Front” command, select the track or object that you want to move on top of all other items.
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To select more than one track or object, use either selection rectangle or hold Shift while clicking with left mouse button on each item. |
Then cut (Ctrl-X) and immediately paste (Ctrl-V) the selection – all selected items will be moved on top of all other tracks and objects. That is all.
Send To Back
Using that trick, you can perform also a “Send To Back” command in the 2D editor. To do that, select the tracks and/or objects that you want to move below all other items, then use “Edit” > “Invert Selection” menu command and finally cut and paste the already inverted selection – in that way, initially selected items will be moved below all other tracks and objects.
Please, note the following about how SCARM draws the image in 2D mode:
• All tunnel tracks in 2D mode are drawn below all other tracks
• All bridge tracks in 2D mode are drawn on top of all other tracks
• All figures with Vertical position + Height properties < 1.5mm (0.06") are drawn below the tracks
• All figures with Vertical position + Height properties > 1.5mm (0.06″) are drawn on top of the tracks
In the 3D Viewer, the tracks’ and objects’ vertical positions and heights are always drawn correctly.
See also
How does Copy-Paste works
I’ve discovered another way to bring objects to the front if they are complex grouped items: simply ungroup and regroup the item. This avoids having duplicate items.
For single items like track I will copy the item I want in front, move it temporarily and delete the original, then put the new item in its place. This avoids having duplicate overlapping items accumulate in the list of track parts.
I notice that the SCARM program slows down if you have many detailed items (like dozens of trees and complex grouped items) so I try to avoid having too many duplicate overlapping items like that.
Hey guys (and gals too).
First time posting here.
I am running the latest version of SCARM on Windows7 64bit Dell Latitude
laptop. Pretty decent machine.
First, let me say I love the program.
The setup… :
I set up my baseboard, placed some bench work around the perimeter,
laid some track, a couple buildings and trees.
I then proceeded to raise the benchwork to a vertical elevation of 2″ to
accommodate for the the foam insulation bed on top of the wood. I am also
using layers. Layer1=Bench work, Layer2=Bench work Measurements, Layer3=HO Atlas Track, and Layer4=Misc Objects…
Now my issue……….. :
The track shows up on top of the raised bench work in the 3D view. But I
cannot get the track to appear when I have both Layer1, and Layer3 selected.
This issue did not start happening until I pushed the bench work up 2″ via the Vertical setting for the rectangles, and 2 or 3 polys I am using.
I did try the copy paste mentioned here (somewhere) as a sort of “Bring to Front”,
but alas, that did not help either. : -(
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks a BUNCH
Cheers all!
Hello RogueEngineer,
That is happening because all figures with Vertical position + Height properties > 1.5mm (0.06″) are drawn on top of the tracks in 2D, as noted in the article above. This is hard coded in SCARM and sometimes leads to improper drawing as in your case. The only way to cope with that is to setup these figures as needed and then move them to invisible layer as you already did.
Hello 2all,
I tried to use the cut and paste procedure to bring cars and other objects to the front, because I’m having problems selecting them, but it didn’t help !
When selecting objects on a road, the object (temporarily) disappears and the road is selected instead.
Does anyone knows a solution to this problem ?
You need to select the vehicle not by clicking over, but with selection rectangle. Clicking over vehicle that is on the road will always result in selection of the road.
I tried the “bring to front” without success. In 2D it always seems to show a polygon object on top of the track even if the track is more recently added and is higher.
That is normal. See the note about the order in which SCARM draws the tracks and figures in the article – it is marked with exclamation mark icon.