Chapter 14: Assembly Configurations and Display States
Note
The difference between a component and a part in SolidWorks assemblies is that a component is a generic way
of identifying any top-level item in an assembly, and may be a single part or a subassembly. It always refers to
a specific instance of the part within the assembly. In the case shown in Figure 14.1, the gripper jaw part is
used twice; this creates two instances of the gripper jaw. One instance has its component color set to a custom
color, and the other instance uses the part color. (The component color is also referred to as an override of the
part color.) The part color is what you see when you open the part in its own window. The component color is
only set in the assembly, and you can only see it in that particular assembly; it never affects how the part dis-
plays in any other assembly that the part is shown in.
When there is a difference between the part and component display properties (when an override exists), the
component property appears as the upper-left triangle, in the color column of the Display Pane, and the part
property appears as the lower-right triangle. You can only see these triangles in the Appearance column of the
Display Pane. n
Appearance overrides are discussed in Chapter 3, but I will briefly summarize it here, showing the
lowest priority at the top:l (^) Part
l Body
l (^) Feature
l Face
l (^) Component
If you override the appearance or display mode for a component in a subassembly, and the upper-
left triangle appears in the Display pane, you can remove the override through either the left
mouse button (LMB) or right mouse button (RMB) menu. Figure 14.2 shows the LMB menu from
a component of a subassembly with overrides.
FIGURE 14.2
You can remove overrides in the Assembly Display pane.