Skip to main content
12-Amethyst
Feb 19, 2020 8:49 AM UTC
Question

Different Color Areas on Same Surface

We have a requirement to highlight areas of a casting model as zoned areas, where the zoned area has specil requirements, ie cannot be repaired with welds etc.  We usually do this by highlighing the areas by drawing sketches on the drawing views.  We thought it might be a good idea to show these surfaces as different coloured surfaces in the 3D model so found a way on youtube, where a guy showed how to change a particular surface to transparent, then copy and paste a new surface over the transparent surface, which could then be split into 2 surfaces, with one being the colour of the original part and the other surface being coloured to a new colour to highlight a special attention area.  Our current policy for casting to machined, is to take this casting model, create a new part for the machined and then merge the casting into the machined model (using Get Data > Merge/Inheritance).  Unfortunately, when we then apply machined cuts to the machined part, these newly created "coloured" sufaces, used to highlight areas of concern are not cut.

Has anyone any ideas if this can be acheived.  would be so much easier if the original surface of the extrude/revolve etc could be split and coloured seperately.

 

Thanks

 

Stu 

13 replies

tbraxton
22-Sapphire II
Feb 19, 2020 2:35 PM UTC

I have employed your suggested approach to specifying the surface finish on molded parts (see pic). Create a copy of the surface that you need to highlight and then assign the color to it and put it on a layer. In the example shown a copy of the solid surfaces was created as a single feature and then colored to designate finish.

 

If you need to "split" a surface then trim it and retain both sides of the trim operation. This will allow the region to be defined but does not often render well in shaded images. You can also retain only one side of the trim operation to maintain the underlying color of your cast part in contrast to the designated area.

 

You could also take a look at cosmetic sketches which may also support what you need to do. You can define regions on a surface and then add hatching to designate the area of interest.

Translate
12-Amethyst
Feb 19, 2020 2:53 PM UTC

Thanks for replying...this was our original strategy, to copy and [aste a new surface over the existing surface of the solid part, then colouring the newly copied surface.  However, we were experiencing a lot of color mis-match called aliasing, as shown in attached picture.  We discovered another method where the original portion of the solid model was changed to a transparent "glass" colour which stopped the aliasing. But with this method, we have to leave the copied coloured surfaces on the model so that it represented what looked like a 3d solid component.  The problem arose when we came to machine the original part.  this seems like such a simple thing to be able to do, but cnnot do.

 

Stu

 
 

 

 

 

 

Translate
tbraxton
22-Sapphire II
Feb 19, 2020 3:25 PM UTC

Here is an example of an as machined casting using inheritance feature. The orange surfs are an example of what you want if I understand correctly. The colored quilt is a feature in the as machined model, not the parent as cast model. Does this represent in a general sense what you need? If it does then you can use the method I described above to achieve this.

 

I don't think what you are observing as undesirable is aliasing in your shading image example but I understand you want to avoid that. It is more likely an interference pattern of two congruent surfaces shaded simultaneously.

Translate
13-Aquamarine
Aug 28, 2025 8:56 AM UTC

Can you post the link to that YouTube video/tutorial please? Thank you!

Translate
kdirth
21-Topaz I
Aug 28, 2025 12:23 PM UTC

Designate under Model Intent, added in 3.0, might be a better tool for what you are trying to accomplish.

Translate
There is always more to learn.