Inactive components

Hi Vasco...

Correct me if I'm wrong but you're asking if you can have inactive components show up using the transparent style rather than the stippled halftone grey normally used for inactive components?

There's no automatic way to do this. You can't set the dim_inactive_components option to use a different transparency setting. However, I was able to achieve the same effect and this might be useful for you.

For normal work, I think you have to live with the stippled transparency settings. But if you're trying to take pictures for presentations and would prefer the nicer blended transparency, try this:

Open the Find Tool (use the binoculars icon or hold down Ctrl-F). When the tool opens, set the options to "Look For" Components. Also set the "Look By" to Components. Make sure "Look In" is set to your top level assembly and that "Include Submodels" is checked.

From the Attributes tab, select "Name" and keep the default values for "Comparison" and "Value". Select Find Now. This will essentially select all components below the top level assembly. Select all of the items in the "Items Found" list and move them to the "Items Selected" list. Finally, select Close.

At this point you can de-select any objects your want to stay shaded (without transparency) by holding the CTRL key and picking those objects.

To complete the process, select View>Display Style>Transparent.

This sounds like a lot of extra effort... but this seems to be the only way to achieve the desired effect. I tried coming up with some sort of automatic search to select only INACTIVE components but I just couldn't make it work.I could envision a way you might create a mapkey to automatically perform the search, select all items EXCEPT the active one, and then set everything else to Transparent but this would require a bit of time to develop.

I know this probably isn't what you wanted to hear... but hopefully it can give you some help.

Thanks and take care...

-Brian