Chapter 5: Using Visualization Techniques
Automatic color features
The settings found at Tools ➪ Options ➪ Document Properties ➪ Colors can be used to automatically
color certain types of features with specific colors. For example, all Shell features can be colored
red as they are created.Remove appearances
You can access tools to remove appearances in two separate locations. The first is the Appearance
flyout on the context toolbar for either left- or right-clicking on a model (the Appearance flyout is
only available on the RMB menu if you have not disabled the context toolbar for shortcut menus).The second location is in the Appearances PropertyManager. Both of these locations are shown in
Figure 5.19.FIGURE 5.19Access the tool to remove appearances in the PropertyManager or the context toolbars
Using Display States
One of the most commonly used and powerful visualization aids available in SolidWorks is the
Display States functionality (see Figure 5.20). Display States is simply the capability to show parts
shaded, shaded with edges, wireframe, HLR (hidden lines removed), or HLG (hidden lines in gray).Cross-Reference
Chapter 14 deals with Display States in more detail. n
In addition to being able to use display states to differentiate parts in an assembly, you can use
display states for bodies within parts. I only mention the capabilities in this chapter because
display states are a huge tool for visualization in both parts and assemblies. Examples of the
functionality applied to real modeling situations will come in Chapters 12 through 16 for assemblies
and Chapter 28 multi-body topics.