Coloring features using the feature tree, NOT selecting surfaces

[ptc-3872989]

Hello,

I've seen quite a few posts about coloring features by choosing individual surfaces, or by using the search function, but I am interested in a more simple way to color features.

Lets say I make a simple cube and I round all the edges and apply a draft to 4 surfaces. I would like to color the drafts RED and the rounds BLUE... but without selecting each individual surface.

There must be a way to select a color in the appearance manager, then select a feature in the tree, and have all the surfaces of that feature become the new color... at least I hope there is.

Can anyone help?

Thank you very much.

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[KrisR]

I've been able to do this to color a whole part by selecting the top of the model tree (the actual part name) but not the individual features. It may work if they are "grouped", perhaps?

[ptc-3872989]

I tried grouping the features, but that did not work.

Looks like I'm going to be picking allot if individual surfaces to color.

[Kevin]

Depending on the geometry you may be able to use a seed and boundary selection method although it doesn't work by selecting the color first, you should select your surfaces first then the color from the appearance gallery (using WF5, haven't tried with Creo yet). You can select a single surface that attaches to the surfaces you want to change the color of, hold the SHIFT key, and select the edge of the selected surface. This should highlight the surfaces you want to change and select all of them when one is selected. You should also be able to select intent surfaces for features. These selection methods can help minimize the surfaces you need to select as opposed to selecting them all individually.

[ptc-3872989]

That worked, and does cut down on the "clicks" to get the result I'm looking for.

The intent of my question is as follows:

I have a few injection molded parts that are complicated with multiple walls, rounds, and drafts. To model a production part, it takes roughly 10 different draft operations that have different hinges and sometimes different draft angles. I wanted to make a "cartoon" to aide in explaining the different draft surfaces and parting lines. To do this, I wanted to color code the part so it was easy to know what surfaces were related.

With all the different features, it would me much easier to just select the individual draft features in the tree instead of picking surfaces. Also, it would eliminate the chance that I forget a surface... or color a surface incorrectly.

Thank you very much for the input. Unfortunately... in all the time I've spent researching this, I could have done it the hard way.... twice.

[BrianMartin]

Hi Bryan...

Try selecting the surfaces using the Find Tool (the binocular's icon). You should be able to find any surfaces created by your different draft features using this tool. You can color all rounds and/or drafts a certain color OR... select them by feature type and parameter.

You could add a feature parameter called "color" to your drafts. I believe you could then write a "rule" to select all surfaces related to a draft that had the feature parameter "RED" assigned to it. Then again, I haven't tried this so maybe I'm reaching.

Investigate the Find Tool... it may be what you need!!

Thanks!

-Brian

[Kevin]

I tried Brian's suggestion and that seemed to work best in WF5 since it gets rid of most of the mouse clicks. I thought intent surfaces worked but the last time I tried it didn't in WF5. I must have been in Creo because intent surfaces do work the way I described with it. Personally, I like intent surfaces, it's usually just a single mouse click while hovering over a surface and any intent surfaces should highlight. For WF5 you can search for intent surfaces. I liked this better than the seed and boundary method since it seemed more consistant.

[BrianMartin]

Hi Kevin...

I definitely prefer the Intent Surfaces, too. There are a couple of ways to build your own intent surfaces or add to the ones automatically created. You can create a Reference Object that gather multiple surfaces into one feature which can be used and recalled later.

One problem you might have encountered with Creo... many times I've seen the intent edges and surfaces turned OFF by default. In Wildfire 5 (and prior releases), these features had to be enabled by setting the config.pro option logical_objects to yes. Perhaps the default is still "off" in Creo?

Another thing to try... in all previous releases, even if the logical objects config option was on, you had to go to the model player and force regenerate each model from the first feature before intent edges and surfaces would appear. Maybe it could be that the logical objects are on, but you need to perform the force regeneration using the model player before the intent surfaces come back?

Thanks for the input... hope you're doing well!

-Brian

[Kevin]

The problem is actually in WF5, in Creo 1 this works as expected and it doesn't matter whether I select the surface groups first or whether I open the appearance editor first. Checked the settings and still the only way I've been abble to get this to work in WF5 is a seed and boundary selection or through the search tool. It may also be a datecode issue. In one WF5 datecode searching by intent surfaces worked in another it didn't. The current one I'm using is M060 which doesn't work.