SolidWorks 2011 Assemblies Bible - Matt Lombard [23]
FIGURE 3.6
The Appearance PropertyManager has several tabs for other properties.
FIGURE 3.7
You can use these override options when applying an appearance to a part within an assembly.
The icons on the toolbar from left to right are Face, Feature, Body, Part, and Component. The component is just a part or subassembly within an upper-level assembly. You cannot apply an appearance as a subassembly component; it is either the part or the entire subassembly.
Removing appearances and overrides
Just as important as the ability to apply appearances is the ability to remove appearances. Figure 3.8 shows the front face of the truck cab selected and accessing the Appearances drop-down list. From the drop-down list, you can see that the feature called Split Line1 has a black color (appearance override) applied, while the part has an orange color. The red X symbol to the right of each appearance icon enables you to remove that particular appearance.
Another method to remove appearances is to use the Appearance PropertyManager, shown in Figure 3.5. Notice that below the selection box is a grayed-out button that says Remove Appearance. If your selection has an available appearance that can be removed, this button becomes activated.
If you remove an appearance, SolidWorks will use the next applied appearance on the previously mentioned hierarchy list. So removing an appearance applied to a feature causes the appearance applied to the body to be displayed; in this case, no appearance was applied to the body, so it goes next to the part. Because the part color is orange, removing the black cab color causes the faces of the cab to change from orange to black.
FIGURE 3.8
You can remove appearances and overrides.
If you remove all appearances from the part, SolidWorks reverts to the default appearance. You can change the default appearance by right-clicking an appearance in the Task Pane and selecting Set as Default Appearance, as shown in Figure 3.9.
The option at the bottom of the drop-down list in Figure 3.8, Remove All Component Appearances, removes any appearances applied at the component level. In the drop-down list shown in Figure 3.8, you can't see any component-level overrides; you can only see the appearance applied to the dump truck chassis at the part level (in the part's own window).
If, however, you look at the assembly colors using the Display Pane, you can see this additional level of information.
Using the Display Pane
The Display Pane flies out from the right side of the FeatureManager via a set of double arrows at the upper-right corner. It displays a quick list of which entities have appearances, transparency, or other visual properties assigned. It also shows hidden parts or bodies for assemblies and multi-body parts. The Display Pane is shown in Figure 3.10.
FIGURE 3.9
Setting a default appearance
FIGURE 3.10
Use the Display Pane to sort out appearances problems.
Notice that in the second column from the right, in the last row (the Fuel Tanks component), the Display Pane shows two triangles. The upper-left triangle indicates an appearance override. The part color is gray, while the component override is yellow.
The Display Pane also shows that the Truck Layout Master Model part is hidden, and that the Truck Body part is displayed in wireframe.
The Display Pane is not just a billboard that shows the state of visual properties of parts in the FeatureManager; you can also use it to change the settings. If you click any of the icons following part names in the FeatureManager, you can change the Hide/Show state and the display mode (such as shaded or wireframe), as well as add or remove overrides and even transparency. For visualization, the Display Pane is one of the most useful interface developments added to SolidWorks.
However, the Display Pane doesn't show you everything you need to know. For even more visual and display information, you need to use the DisplayManager.