Is it possible to assign a different color for each family table instance

[akantor]

Hello.

Beeing a rookie to Pro/E world, got a quesation: Is it possible to assign a different color for each family table instance?

Very easy task for SW, but I have no idea how to do it in Creo...

Could somebody help?

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[dschenken]

Of the longest running unfulfilled requests, color in family tables has got to be #1.

The usual answer is to copy/paste a large number of copies of the desired surface(s), assign them the desired colors, and then suppress all except the desired color in each instance.

One answer that should work, but supposedly doesn't, is to assign a different material to each instance, and with it, a color assigned to the material. Seems like it should work, but apparently only the mass properties/related characteristics are made accessible in the instance. The color is whatever color the generic is.

[TomD.inPDX]

You might also wish to learn that animations using transparencies has trouble with texture-assigned surfaces.  Only the body color goes transparent, not any of the subsequently assigned surfaces of the solid body.

But as David was suggesting, it has long been requested and promptly ignored.  The material option in a family table does work to some extent, but it fails if you have two members set to different instances.  It only uses one texture for both members.  A lot of support cases quoted and :works to specification"  is always the answer.

Creo tries to be many things.  Just stuff this and that into its gut and it can do anything!  Right?  The devil is here, in the muck where someone in their infinite wisdom decided the specification was met and it has stood time.  The functionality will simply never be improved.  The ripple effect and the significance of such a change is unattainable in today's environment.  Many of these "little nits" will have to be addressed on a case by case basis.  All the more reason to be satisfied with core Creo and not worry about the fringe.

[BrianSnyder]

Assigning a color in the material does work but only if the color exists in the global materials file.  This is set with the configuration option global_appearance_file and the file must be named global.dmt

There is a limitation however.  Only one color can be shown at a time in an assembly.  If an assembly uses different color parts from the same generic part file it's almost random which color the parts will be.  The generic will also lose its assigned color and be the color of the last regenerated family table instance.

All that said.  Going through the effort to create a global materials file with "X" number of colors, then creating materials with "X" numbers of colors in the part, then assigning aforementioned materials for "X" number of colored family table parts is tedious & complicated to say the least.  PTC should do better.