SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [80]
FIGURE 5.13
Annotations views for Chapter5SampleCasting.sldprt
Using the DisplayManager
The DisplayManager is new in SolidWorks 2011. It organizes all of the display and visual information into a form that makes it easier to understand and control. The DisplayManager has buttons that you click to separately list Appearances, Decals, and Scenes, Lights, and Cameras. You can find the DisplayManager as a tab in the FeatureManager window area. Figure 5.14 shows the Appearances data for a part with a material and color applied to two faces and a feature.
FIGURE 5.14
Using the DisplayManager to manage appearances
Appearances in SolidWorks are a combination of color and texture, along with a property that looks like material but is not. Just think of appearance as being color and texture, and the topic is easier to understand.
In order to have appearances display and sort in the DisplayManager, you have to first apply appearances. Most of the appearances are meant to look like idealized materials in real life. Polished, cast, knurled, machined, sand blasted, and other surface finish types are available to add realism to your models. However, you might simply want each part to be a different color to help identify the different parts, using an abstract scheme in place of a realistic one.
Applying appearances
You can apply appearances to faces, bodies, features, parts, assembly components, or even the top-level assembly. Even if you don't apply an appearance, every part and assembly template starts with a default appearance, which is white, glossy plastic. If you use old SolidWorks templates, this default appearance may not apply to you.
You can apply appearances in several ways:
• Double-click: Double-clicking an appearance in the Appearances panel of the Task Pane applies the appearance to the document (part or assembly).
• Drag-and-drop: Dragging an appearance from the Appearances panel of the Task Pane enables you to drop it on geometry in the graphics window. When you do this, a toolbar pops up and presents you with several options. Figure 5.15 shows this toolbar with the options for Face, Feature, Body, and Part.
Figure 5.15
Determining a target for the appearance
• Context toolbar: You can also invoke the Appearance function from the context bars (left- or right-click). You can do this with pre-selection or no selection. This method also gives you options for the target to which to apply the appearance, the face, feature, body, or part. Figure 5.16 shows this method.
Figure 5.16
Using context toolbars to apply an appearance
Differentiating appearances and materials
It is easy to confuse appearances and materials. The biggest reason for this is that in many cases, appearances have the same names as materials, and the texture associated with the appearance typically also has the name of a material. SolidWorks has appearances with names such as high gloss plastic, wrought iron, and chromium plate.
It may become even more confusing because materials (which you can assign from the FeatureManager on the left) have appearances (which you assign from the Task Pane on the right) assigned to them. For example, you could assign an appearance called polished aluminum to a material called AISI 304.
You cannot use appearances to assign mass properties (such as density or stiffness) to a part, but you can use materials to assign an appearance as well as mass properties to a part. Figure 5.17 shows the RMB menu for editing material, which you invoke from the Material folder in the FeatureManager.
FIGURE 5.17
Editing a material
Materials assign properties to your parts for drawing hatch and mass properties, as well as simulation. Notice in Figure 5.18 that the second tab allows you to assign an appearance to the material. You can use this interface to create your own custom materials.
FIGURE 5.18