Assembly Transparency

Tools, Options, Display/Selection Mode

I created a macro that would allow you to preview hidden and suppressed components in your assembly tree it helps when you just have no idea which hidden component is which. I would be glad to send it to you if you like.

Corey

If you are referring to to option "Assembly transparency for in context edit" none of these settings allow me to completing turn off the assembly parts when in-context. All this allows me to do is control the transparency of the parts. Even when set to 100% it still leaves me with a wireframe display.

Did I miss something from your response?

Turn off "shaded with edge" and select "shaded" (View > Display) and the wireframe will dissapear leaving only the part selected for editing showing.

Dave H

SR wrote:

Have a look at "assembly envelopes" they are sort of the tool for this, toggle between hide a show assy components.

Krister L

I have a set of 3 macros I use for this. The 1st and 3rd are modifications of other macros I found, and the 2nd macro I got from ???.

-One to record the current shown/hidden status of each part.

-One to "Show Only" and selected parts.

-Lastly, one to reset the previous shown/hidden status (that was stored in a text file), and show/hide parts/subassemblies accordingly.

Suppressed parts are ignored thru-out, and new parts are ignored in the reset macro. I can send you them if you want.

After writing these macros, I found a Visibility Toggle macro at:

It works pretty well is pretty intuitive. It basically records a selection set, and works off of that. It costs $10. It is kind of slow tho, but I'm guessing that is because it is more of a stand-alone program rather than a macro. It has what you're looking for plus a couple other similiar features (like toggling all shown parts to hidden and vice-versa). Also, it is more professional looking, and easier for macro-phobes to use, than my version.

Ken

Dave H,

That's is much closer to what I'm looking for except even though the display of the components is hidden, all edge, vertices, planes, etc. are highlighted as I brush my cursor over the view making it very difficult to work. I appreciate your reply.

Thanks, SR

It sounds like what you want is everything else to disappear and be out of the picture. So, instead of editing the part there, just RMB and "open" the part. This way you will be working on it by itself.

WT

Thanks for the macro offer Ken, but I think I'm going to try the Visibility Toggle macro you pointed me to below. Thanks again!

Thanks to all those that replied along with Ken. SR

SR, not quite sure if I am following the whole problem but you may want to check under Tools, Options, Display/Selection and uncheck Enable Selection Through Transparency. It is the second check box form the bottom in 2004.

One other thing that may help is switching the setting from transparent to opaque. It looks like this sets it to the way it worked in previous versions where all other components turn grey and the part that you are modifying turns pink.

Sorry if I am missing what the problem is altogether.

If you leave that on you can toggle it hold shift down and you will select like there are no transparent parts. Otherwise you select strait through them.

Corey

Guys:

What are your thoughts on this macro?

How slow? What seems to be the threshold of components where it's a pain to use?

I have a combo of free macros I'm using for this type of thing -- but with alot of parts they are dog slow.

Wouldn't be nice if SolidWorks Corp. put incredibly useful things like this into the software? I think it's great that SWX has a good API that allows this sort of thing but some on these things should be no-brainers for them to integrate into the code.

Todd