Part III: Working with Assemblies
Set the Assembly Edit Part color to a shade of blue, and the Assembly Non-Edit Parts to a
shade of gray.
Also set the Assembly transparency for in context edit setting to Force Assembly
Transparency, with the slider at around 90 percent.
- Now you are ready to begin. Select the Table Top part, and click the Edit Component
button on the Assembly toolbar. This command is also available through both the RMB
menu and the drop-down menu as Edit Part. (If you right-click a subassembly, the Edit
Subassembly option becomes available.) Notice that the Table Top part and the
FeatureManager text turn the same color.
- Expand the Table Top part in the Assembly FeatureManager, select the Front plane,
and open a new sketch on it. Notice that you cannot select the edges of the transparent
parts through the transparency, even if the Select Through Transparency option is
selected (Tools ➪ Options ➪ Display/Selection). This setting applies only to faces, not to
edges. Instead, change the display mode for the entire assembly to Wireframe.
- Now select the 16 hole edges on the legs. It does not matter whether you select the
top edges or the bottom, or even a combination of top and bottom. Use the Convert
Entities command to project the edges into the sketch plane as circles, as shown in
Figure 16.17.
- Create a cut that goes Through All. You may have to change the direction of the
extrude to get it to work. Exit Edit Component mode using the confirmation corner and
save the tutorial assembly.
- Now open the file named Chapter 16 Tutorial Machine Assembly.sldasm.
Notice that the Table Top part in this assembly is using the Wireframe display state,
which is assigned in the Display pane.
