Level—Intermediate

Display States are a flexible tool that can be used to create multiple ways to display your assemblies without having to create new configurations. Display States allow you to limit your review of any assembly, viewing only certain components or showing components with a different display style like shaded, hidden line removed, transparent, and more.

Using display states, you can set combinations of the following settings for different assembly components in a Display State:

•  Hide/Show state

•  Display mode

•  Component color

•  Component texture

•  Transparency

The reason to do this could be a temporary working state so components you are not working with are hidden or you want to display the assembly differently for enhanced visualization.

The examples shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 are two display states (Display State-1 and Display State-2). These Display States are within the same configuration. Display State-2 shows some of the exterior components transparent for visualization purposes.

Figure 1- Display State-1

Figure 2- Display State-2

Creating and Changing Display States

The default display state is Display State-1. The Display State pane is part of the FeatureManager design tree. The display of this pane can be expanded or collapsed by picking the button shown in the top left corner of Figure 3.

Figure 3- RMB menu for display states

To show the RMB (right mouse button) menu as shown in Figure 3, expand the Display State pane, right click right below the icons. This menu allow for the creation of the new display state, rename the current display state, clearing (resetting) the Display State to the default state, and selecting another display state (Show Display State).

To change the display of components within the display either right click (Figure 4) or pick the area to change (Figure 5). Then select the display characteristics you wish to change.

Figure 4 – RMB menu

Figure 5 – Click within a specific area

When viewing the Display State table the display mode, color, and texture can be different from the parent part or sub assembly. This is shown in Figure 5. The Rear Gearbox display mode is set to hidden line. Notice the other components are shaded and have a check box in the con. This denotes the default (parent) Display State. The Rear Gearbox also has the color overridden to yellow. The parent color is shown in the lower half of the box, and the Display State color in the upper left half. Texture works the same way as color does in this respect.

Hidden and transparency have no dependency on the parent. Hidden and transparency controls the display of the components within the current assembly only. It an on/off switch.

Display States and Configurations

Multiple Display States can be created within a configuration (see Figure 6). You can also activate a different Display State by double-clicking the desired Display State.

A Display State can also be copied by selecting the display state, right click and select Copy. Select another configuration, right click and select Paste.

Figure 6 – ConfigurationManager with display states

Conclusion

Display States are a flexible tool that can be used to create multiple ways to display your assemblies without having to create new configurations.