Controlling the visibility and presence of parts and external objects in folding sequences

Managing visibility

To avoid part overload in a folding sequence of multipart 3D models, you can manage the visibility of each part and external object and control at which moment you want to see it and when not.

You can place a part or external object into a folding sequence but put it in hidden state initially. When later the moment comes for the panel/object to be seen, you make it visible.

By default all parts and objects are set to be initially visible when you attached them in the 3D model. The sections that follow explain how you can initially hide parts/objects and later visualize them in the folding sequence of the 3D model.

To hide an object on its first placement

1. Right-click the panel, and then click Properties.

The Inserted Part Properties dialog box appears.

2. Leave the Part initially visibile check box empty, and then click OK.

Notice that in the 3D Parts tab the part appears as Hidden.

top of page

To visualize the object at a later moment

1. Select the step of the folding sequence where the object should pop-up.
2. Select the part from the list view.
3. On the contextual edit bar, apply the Show action.

In the 3D Parts tab, the part now appears as Visible.

top of page

II. Setting a presence condition

You can place a part or an external object into a folding sequence and set a condition for whether it will be taking part in the 3D model.

You can set the presence of a panel or object by either setting a Yes/No value for it, or by creating a condition that needs to be met for the part/object to take part in the 3D model.

By default, all parts and objects in 3D models are set to be in use — that is, the part's Conditional Presence property is Yes:

Setting presence with a Yes/No value in a parameter

You can set the presence condition as a parameter. You then control the presence of the part by manipulating the parameter.

For example, let us have a drawing with a window that provides a look at the product. The presence of this window is dependend on the Window parameter, which can have the values Yes or No.

When Window = Yes, the window is in the drawing and we need an additional part of PVC foil, which must take part in the 3D model of the product.

When Window = No, the box will be produced without a window, consequently, the PVC foil part is not needed and need not take part in the 3D model.

We will use the same parameter to set conditional presence to the PVC 3D part.

1. Do any of the following:
   • In the assembled 3D model, right-click the plastic part, and then click Properties.
   
   • In the tabular area, right-click the part, and then click Properties.
   
2. Set the condition Window = Yes, and then click OK.

When Window = Yes, there is information in the 3D tab about the Plastic part:

In the Parts tab, we see that 1 piece of the Plastic part takes part in the 3D model (Count=1).

When Window = No, there is no information in 3D tab about the PVC part:

In the Parts tab, we see that the Plastic part is attached to the 3D model (Placements = 1), but will not be used in the current job (Count = 0).

top of page

Setting presence with an expression

You can set the presence of a part by creating a condition that needs to be met for the part to be present. If the condition is not met, the part will not be present. For example, in the above example the presence of the window can be set to depend on the box's length and height. In such a case, the condition would read, for example, A>100 and H>70.

top of page