Editing Graphic Properties

You can display and edit the graphic properties of a selected object through a dedicated interface.

Before you begin:
  • The Properties dialog box dedicated to Assembly objects is different. For more information, see Product Structure Design User's Guide: Editing Properties: Managing Graphic Properties in Products.
  • If you select an Assembly object and another object type (point, line, and so on) simultaneously, only one Properties dialog box is displayed. If the dialog box dedicated to Assembly objects opens, you can only modify the graphic properties of the Assembly object. Your changes do not impact other object types.
  1. In the 3D area or in the tree, select the element for which you want to display graphic properties.
  2. Press ALT+Enter, or right-click then select Properties.
  3. Click the Graphic tab.
  4. Select a color from the Color list.
    The color modification impacts the display at rendering level only, and not the graphic properties themselves. This can be useful, for example, to highlight an object among others without altering its graphic properties. To deactivate this inheritance mechanism, click the Color list. All the elements located at a lower level have their own color back, and No Color is displayed in the list.

    When working with Edges and points and Shading selected, the color applied to the product is also applied to the mesh but not to lineic elements (edges, sketches, and so on) which turn black. In this case, you cannot modify the color of these lineic elements. However, when working with the Edges and points check box selected, the color you apply to the product is also applied to lineic elements.

    Important: There is a specific inheritance mechanism for Mechanical Modeler objects:
    • When a mechanical object (a pad, for example) has been assigned a color, this color is used to display the object. Otherwise, the object is displayed using the color of its parent element. To reset the parent-children inheritance, select Reset properties from the Edit menu, or from the object's context menu. This command cancels any local modification applied to the graphic properties of the pad (including color and transparency).
    • Point symbol, line thickness, and linetype are set at the part body level and cannot be inherited.

    You can also apply a color on a subelement of a surface but the subelement keeps its color when you update the geometry. In addition, if you create a new feature using the subelement's surface, the color of the subelement is not saved in the new feature.

    No Color is relevant for Assembly objects only. It lets you deactivate the color inheritance for Assembly objects. You can then apply a color onto a face without having to modify the product color. To do so, proceed in the following order:

    • 1. Select the product, then access the Properties dialog box.
    • 2. From the Color list, select No Color.
    • 3. Select the face onto which you want to apply the color.
    • 4. Access the face's graphic properties.
    • 5. From the Color list, select the color.

    You cannot apply a color to the representation itself, but only to the part body and its subelements. If you access the representation properties, the Graphic tab is unavailable. For more information, see Part Design User's Guide: Displaying and Editing Properties: Displaying and Editing Bodies Properties.

  5. To make the part more or less transparent, drag the Transparency slider to the appropriate value (between 0 and 255).
    Visual feedback differs according to the transparency mode you set through the Performance tab.

    You cannot modify the transparency of a part onto which a material is applied through the part's graphic properties.

    When a material has been applied onto a part, the graphic properties defined in the Properties dialog box have no impact on the part display anymore. As a consequence, if you need to modify the transparency for example, you must do so in the material properties. For more information, see Rendering Scene Design User's Guide.

    Important:
    • For .asm documents, you can select or clear the Transparency check box to apply or not a transparency inheritance independently from the color of the selected object.
    • If you apply transparency on a solid (or on one or more of its faces) on which you perform a section cut using any sectioning commands, the interior of this solid is not materialized.
  6. Use the appropriate lists to set edge linetype (dashed, and so on) and thickness.
  7. From the Symbol list, select the symbol used to represent the point.
  8. Optional: Select the Low Intensity check box.
    The low-intensity color is applied to the selected element. By default, the color applied to low-intensity elements is "dark green" but you can modify it in the Visualization tab.

    Three methods let you put elements in low-intensity state:

    • Select Low Intensity in the Graphic tab of the Properties dialog box.
    • Right-click any view from the 3D area or the tree, and then select Background > Low-intensified when working with the 2D Layout for 3D Design app. See the guide of interest for more information.
    • Click Low intensity background in the 2D Visualization section of the Sketcher app, or in the Tools section of the Generative Shape Design app, for example. See the guide of interest for more information.

      However, representations on a green background (such as measures) are not clearly displayed when set to Low intensity background , or Unpickable low intensity background because of the superimposition of the low-intensity mode's dark green color.

    You can keep the low-intensity state for 2D or 3D objects displayed in Shading with Material rendering style. This means that when you apply the low-intensity state to objects onto which materials have been applied, this state is kept even though elements are visualized in Shading with Material.

    As soon as you clear Low Intensity, the materials are displayed.

    Note: The Shown box is displayed for information only to indicate if the object is always visible (that is, in Show mode), or always hidden (that is, in No Show mode).
  9. Use the Layer box to choose among the list of named layers, and assign the chosen layer to the selected objects.
  10. In the Rendering Style list, select a style provided that the object supports rendering styles.
    By default, there is no rendering style. The selected rendering style is used to visualize the object independently from the rendering style applied to the 3D area when using the Rendering style per object visualization mode.

    You can apply rendering styles only to CATParts, or to CATParts embedded in CATProducts.

    • Part body: you can apply a rendering style to each body composing the part body, even though a body is embedded into another one. All the elements gathered in the part body, or in the body, inherit the rendering style of their parent. As a consequence, you cannot apply a rendering style to the child solid features (such as a pad, or a fillet).
    • Geometrical set: you can apply a rendering style to the geometrical set as a whole, and to each child feature in the tree. You can apply a different rendering style to each feature. If a feature has no rendering style, it is displayed with the rendering style applied to the parent element or, if no parent exists, with the rendering style of the viewer used to display the feature.
    • Shape body: the behavior is identical to the one of the geometrical set, except that different child features may share the same visual representation and therefore, the same rendering style.

  11. Click Apply or OK.