Hugo,
I blame PTC's documentation. Everything in the online help, for layers, is
absolutely accurate, and absolutely useless for learning. It is convoluted,
it tries to describe the visibility results in terms of the layer UI
functions only. That is not enough. I can't help but believe that the
original author, didn't get it.
The documentation ignores the difference between features and entities. This
dates back to when PTC was trying to differentiate Pro/E from all the other
Cad programs. "Pro/E has Features, not entities" - I heard that many times.
With that statement, Trainers couldn't talk about the difference. Or just
didn't know. It amounts to the same thing.
The documentation also ignores how layer status interacts with basic rules
governing *inherited invisibility*.
*Inherited invisibility *simply means that if an object is invisible,
everything that makes up that object is invisible.
Assy>parts>features>entities.
With this, an item on a layer, can impact the visibility of items not on
layers. Isolate is particularly powerful in this respect. This makes it much
more useful than many give credit. I find it troubling, when I hear of
people writing complex sets of layer rules, when by adapting to the use of
isolate, only one rule per layer may be needed.
Unfortunately, I don't think PTC will fix the documents, until there is a
groundswell of enlightenment among the general population of users. Then it
won't matter anymore.
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:30 AM, Hermans Hugo
<->wrote:
> Thank you, Glenn. Now you and someone else mentioned it, I remember it
> was on the mailing list some months ago. I hope PTC wont drop it completely
> in the future (although I have to admit it's use isn't widely spread).
>
> Regards, Hugo.
>
>
