Controlling the Display of Assemblies

You can change the display of an assembly or assembly components.

You can change the transparency of all components at the same time by changing the transparency of the top level assembly.

You can remove a component completely from view or make it 75% transparent. Turning off the display of a component temporarily removes it from view, allowing you to work with underlying components.

Hiding or showing a component affects only the visibility of the component. Hidden components have the same accessibility and behaviors as shown components in the same suppression state.

Changing the visibility does not affect the rebuild or evaluation speed. Display performance improves, however.

You can define different combinations of display settings (hide/show state, transparency, display mode, color, and texture) for each component in an assembly, and save them in display states.

Other tasks you can perform with component visibility:

  • Select all hidden components and highlight them in the FeatureManager design tree.
  • Filter the FeatureManager design tree so hidden components are not listed.
  • Temporarily change the display of hidden and shown components, to enable you to graphically select hidden components that you want to show.
  • Temporarily isolate selected components.
  • Preview hidden components:
    • To preview a single hidden component, select the component.
    • To preview multiple hidden components, press Shift or Ctrl and select the components.
    • To remove the preview, click in the graphics area to deselect the component.

    In the graphics area, the component appears as transparent.

Changing the Transparency of an Assembly or Multibody Part

You can change the transparency of all components in an assembly or in a multibody part. Multibody parts and components that display in Shaded or Shaded with Edges modes change from opaque to transparent.

To change the transparency, right-click the assembly and click Top Level Transparency on the context toolbar.

For components that are transparent when you change the assembly to transparent:
  • If you do not change the transparency of the component, the component remains transparent when you change the assembly to opaque.
  • If you change the transparency of the component, the component becomes opaque when you change the assembly to opaque.

Changing the Visibility of an Assembly Component

To change the visibility of a component:

Method Procedure Changes apply to:
Display Pane Click in the Hide/Show column for the component to hide or show the component. The active display state.
Context toolbar Click or right-click the component, and select Hide Components or Show Components . The active display state.
Toolbar Select the component, then click Hide/Show Components (Assembly toolbar). The active display state.
Component Properties dialog box Under Display State specific properties, select Hide Component. The active display state.
Menu Select the component, click Edit, then click Hide (or Show, or Show with Dependents). The display states you specify.
Tab shortcut

To hide a component, move the pointer over it and press Tab.

To show a component, move the pointer over an area containing a hidden component and press Shift + Tab.

To show one or more components, move the pointer to the graphics area, and press and hold Ctrl + Shift + Tab. All hidden components are temporarily displayed as transparent. Click a hidden component to change it to shown.

 The active display state.

Changing the Transparency of an Assembly Component

To change the transparency of a component:

Method Procedure Changes apply to:
Display Pane Click in the Transparency column for the component to change the transparency. The active display state.
Context toolbar Click or right-click the component, and select Change Transparency . The active display state.
Toolbar Select the component, then click Change Transparency (Assembly toolbar). The active display state.

Hiding and Showing Components Using the Tab Key

In the graphics area, you can press Tab, Shift + Tab, and Ctrl + Shift + Tab to hide and show components of an assembly.

You can use these commands regardless of the component's state (resolved, lightweight, SpeedPak, or Quick view). The commands are not available when another command is active.

To hide a component:

  • Move the pointer over a component and press Tab.

To show a component:

  • Move the pointer over an area containing a hidden component and press Shift + Tab.

To show one or more components:

  1. Move the pointer to the graphics area, and press and hold Ctrl + Shift + Tab.

    All hidden components are temporarily displayed as transparent.

  2. Click a hidden component to change it to shown.
  3. Release the keys.

    The temporarily transparent components are hidden.