Can't get a line renderer to work on my canvas

Unity Engine
2

If your subject is using the correct words, LineRenderers don’t know anything about Canvases or Canvas Renderers.

Three (3) primary ways that Unity draws / stacks / sorts / layers / overlays stuff:

In short, as far as the Standard Rendering Pipeline,

  1. The default 3D Renderers draw stuff according to Z depth - distance from camera.

  2. SpriteRenderers draw according to their Sorting Layer and Sorting Depth properties

  3. UI Canvas Renderers draw in linear transform sequence, like a stack of papers

If you find that you need to mix and match items using these different ways of rendering, and have them appear in ways they are not initially designed for, you need to:

  • identify what you are using
  • search online for the combination of things you are doing and how to to achieve what you want.

There may be more than one solution to try.

For instance, you may even use multiple co-located cameras to more-explicitly control apparent draw ordering.

Additional reading in the official docs:

And SortingGroups can also be extremely helpful in certain circumstances:

Other rendering pipelines may have other ways of layering (HDRP and URP). Go see the latest docs for details.

Beyond that…

How to report your problem productively in the Unity3D forums:

http://plbm.com/?p=220

This is the bare minimum of information to report:

  • what you want
  • what you tried
  • what you expected to happen
  • what actually happened, log output, variable values, and especially any errors you see
  • links to documentation you used to cross-check your work (CRITICAL!!!)

The purpose of YOU providing links is to make our job easier, while simultaneously showing us that you actually put effort into the process. If you haven’t put effort into finding the documentation, why should we bother putting effort into replying?

If you post a code snippet, ALWAYS USE CODE TAGS:

How to use code tags: Using code tags properly

  • Do not TALK about code without posting it.
  • Do NOT post unformatted code.
  • Do NOT retype code. Use copy/paste properly using code tags.
  • Do NOT post screenshots of code.
  • Do NOT post photographs of code.
  • ONLY post the relevant code, and then refer to it in your discussion.
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