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Assembly Selection
Mode
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Selects parent assembly
nodes instead of leaf (geometry) nodes when you select actors in the assembly
tree or viewport. In default mode (when assembly selection mode is not
selected, also known as part selection mode), all geometry under your selection
is selected.When in assembly selection mode, the viewport has a blue border.
You can also select assemblies while in default mode as follows:
- Press
Alt
while making a selection in the viewport.
- After selecting an actor in the viewport,
press the left arrow key. This selects the assembly that holds the selected
actor. Continue to press the left or right arrow key to change your selection.
Selection and highlighting colors depend on the selection mode.
Choose colors from
Document Properties
- Selection. See
Selection.
Use assembly selection mode whenever possible to improve performance and to
create more maintainable animations (because actors inherit assembly keys). For
example, you have an assembly with 10,000 parts. To change the opacity of the
entire assembly during an animation, enable assembly selection mode, select the
assembly, and change the opacity. This creates one animation key. The
alternative is to use default mode, select the assembly (which selects all
10,000 parts), and change the opacity. This creates 10,000 keys. The
performance with one key is better than with 10,000 keys. In addition, if you
add another part to the assembly, the assembly key applies to the new part
automatically. You can also use assembly selection mode to implement compound
motion, where actors move in more than one direction. A common example of
compound motion is when you combine translation of an assembly of nuts or bolts
with rotation of the individual nuts or bolts. This allows the nuts or bolts to
rotate around their own axes while the entire group of nuts or bolts moves.
Note:
The properties available for
an assembly might differ from the properties available for individual geometry
actors.
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Show Actors
with Kinematic Links Only
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Lists in the Assembly tree
only actors with kinematic links. See
Kinematic Commands.
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Create Selection Set
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Creates a selection set containing the selected
actors. Selecting a selection set selects all actors in the set, and
the Properties pane displays properties common to all actors in the
set. Use selection sets to operate on the same actors repeatedly.
Selection sets are listed in the Assembly pane. When you create a
selection set, its name is selected so you can type a different
name. |
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Create Hotspot
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Creates a hotspot
containing the selected actors. Hotspots are groups of actors, similar to
selection sets, with shared highlight, tooltip, and link properties that can
supersede those of the individual actors. Although hotspots can be active in
the viewport, their primary purpose is for defining custom hotspots in vector
output (see
Hotspots Tab).
Hotspots can contain geometry actors and most collaborative actors (not ground,
cutting planes, and other non-vectorizable actors).
Notes:
Hotspots are always listed
in the Assembly pane, even when the hotspot contains collaborative actors. To
create a hotspot:
- Select one or more actors.
- Click
Create
Hotspot
.
The new hotspot appears under
Hotspots
in the Assembly tree, and hotspot properties appear in the
Properties pane. See
Properties.
- Optionally type the hotspot name or press
Enter
to accept the default.
- Specify hotspot properties in the
Properties pane.
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Sort Alphabetically
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Sorts the tree by
alphabetical order. By default, the actor order for SOLIDWORKSassemblies matches the CAD system.
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Configure
Columns
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Displays the
Configure
Columns dialog box, where you select columns to display. See
Configure Columns.
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Search
Actors
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Displays the
Search
pane, where you can search for actors. See
Search.
Click
to access the
Search Next
Actor and
Search Previous
Actor commands, which find the next or previous actor using the
current search criteria.
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Select
Actors
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Displays the
Select
pane, where you can select actors using advanced capabilities. See
Select.
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