The Appearance of Things - Appearance Callouts

Posted on June 9th, 2008 in Assemblies, Models, SolidWorks, User Interface by admin

The Appearance Callouts window is nothing new, in fact I believe it made its debut in 2006, but I feel myself using it a lot more in 2008. Since I started using it again, I discovered it really does make it easier to apply colors and textures to parts, bodies, features and faces. In watching users at my job, I noticed that a lot of them do not use the Appearance Callouts when editing colors and textures either. I even asked a few of them and when they replied that they not familiar with the tool, a light bulb went off. I figured now was as good as time as any to reintroduce the Appearance Callouts function.

Accessing the Appearance Callouts Window

There are two ways to access the Appearance Callouts window, one being more annoying then the other. The first, and most annoying in my opinion, is enabling the Appearance Callouts in the the View menu. With this option enabled, the Appearance Callouts window will be shown every time you select a face, feature, body or part. If you are a glutton for punishment you can turn on the option but I believe you will quickly turn it off.

The second way to access the window is to manually display the Appearance Callouts window by either selecting a face in the model or right-clicking a feature, body or part in the FeatureManager. In the Context Menu, select the down arrow on the Appearance Callouts button.

Appearance Callouts Hierarchy

The Appearance Callouts window displays the hierarchy of colors and textures for the selected object. The order displayed in the window shows which objects types take precedence when applying colors and textures. Colors and textures applied to a face will override colors or texture applied to a feature. Features Override bodies and bodies override parts.

Applying Colors

In the Appearance Callouts window, select the entity you wish to have the color applied. To apply color to an entire part click the color box that corresponds to the part level.

Then in the Color and Optics PropertyManager select the color to be applied to the entire part and click the green check mark.

Now the entire part will be the color selected. Next, we want to apply a color only to the front face of our part leaving the rest of the part the previously select color. In the Appearance Callouts window select the color box that corresponds to the selected face.

Then select the desired color in the Color and Optics PropertyManager click the green check mark.

Applying Textures

Applying a texture to an element is just as easy as applying a color. In the Appearance Callouts window select the texture box that corresponds with the desired model element.

In the Texture PropertyManager select the desired texture to be applied to either the face, feature, body or part and click the green check mark.

Removing Colors and Textures

Removing colors and textures is just as easy as adding them. In the Appearance Callouts window select the colored element you wish have have cleared of its color (or texture).

In the either the Color and Optics PropertyManager or Textures PropertyManager, select Remove Color or Remove Textures.

Appearance Callouts in Assemblies

Using the Appearance Callouts tool in assemblies is the same as in parts except for the addition of component colors and textures displayed in the window.

That concludes today’s coverage on Appearance Callouts. Keep an eye out for Wednesdays post about the Display Pane. As always, any input or questions would be greatly appreciated.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Related Links:

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Viewing 4 Comments

 

Trackbacks

(Trackback URL)

close Reblog this comment
Powered by Disqus · Learn more
blog comments powered by Disqus