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Changing Transparency

Changing Transparency

Changing Transparency

(OP)
I have an assembly with about 30 parts and sub-assemblies, and when I try to make one of the parts transparent, it works, but if I click on anything else it automatically makes it a solid again. How do I make it continously transparent?

RE: Changing Transparency

Odd.  I right-click the part and select "Change Transparency" for this and it always sticks.

There are some System Options that control assembly transparency.  Maybe check into this and make sure those settings aren't over-riding what you do within your assembly.  (?)

 

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
Ive played around with every option and it still does the same thing. Anything else it might be?

RE: Changing Transparency

cp3 ... It's probably not graphics card and driver related, but which are you using anyway?

RE: Changing Transparency

Are you editing a part within the assy when this happens?

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
No, Im not. I click on a certain part, go to Change Transparency, and click onto the screen, and it immediately goes back to a solid shape. However, the shape appears almost as a shaded part, not a shaded with edges part like all the other ones.

And I can assure you its not the graphics card or the driver.

RE: Changing Transparency

Does a Ctrl-Q return the part to solid with edges?

RE: Changing Transparency


cp3, what SW version and SP are you running, also OS and 32 or 64 bit?
 

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
Ctrl-Q doesnt do anything.

Im using SolidWorks Premium 2009.

Sorry, but Im not sure what SP or OS mean.

I dont think it has anything to do with my computer or any of the software I have. Because I can click on it, make it transparent, and it works fine, I can even rotate and zoom in and out. But as soon as I click on anything.. Literally anything, and it changes back.

RE: Changing Transparency

Yeah, that sounds like a graphics card issue to me.  2009 is a bit testy with cards and drivers.

Dan

www.eltronresearch.com
Dan's Blog

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
How do I find out which graphics card Im using?

RE: Changing Transparency


cp3, No need to apologise!

SP= SW Service Pack number, OS = computer's Operating System (Widows/Vista/Mac, these have SP's too and can make a difference).  

RE: Changing Transparency

Quote:

And I can assure you its not the graphics card or the driver.

How do I find out which graphics card Im using?

WTF?

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
Im using Windows XP version 2002, Service Pack 3

RE: Changing Transparency


Have a look under your Programs listing, find the SolidWorks Program group, then the SW program itself, from this you should find "SolidWorks Tools" and in this run the "SolidWorks Rx" Program and hit the Diagnostics Tab, this will list your Graphics card at the top and there's a link to see tested cards.

Hope this helps.
 

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
My graphics card is:

GeForce 6600/PCI/SSE2

And the reason I said earlier that it wasnt my graphics card is because I figured that since I can see parts in transparent mode and rotate them around, that it wouldnt be a graphics issue. But maybe Im wrong.

I thought it would be a simple option that I clicked on accident. Because Ive had solidworks for several months, and Ive never had this problem before.

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
Actually, I know its not the graphics card because I opened up another assembly, changed a part to be transparent, and it works just fine.  

RE: Changing Transparency

GeForce cards aren't approved for SolidWorks.  It's your graphics card.

 

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.

RE: Changing Transparency

To clarify, the GeForce 6600 isn't approved for v2009 of SolidWorks.  Even for the less-intensive (and more reliable) v2007, it passes only with the following limits:

Quote:

Limited number of accelerated windows. Amount of video memory determines the number. If 64M - 128M of memory, 3-12 accelerated full screen windows.

It disappears entirely from the list as of v2008.

 

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
Then why can I do it in another assembly?

Is it because the assembly that I can do it in is alot smaller than the one that I cant do it in?

RE: Changing Transparency

Yeah, that would be my guess.  I've worked on a few client computers in the past with cards like this and they work OK until you open more than, say, three parts at a time (or an assembly with several parts).  Then it's choke time and all sorts of glitches start to occur, such as super-slow transition from one part/window to another.

For serious production work, check into some of the other cards, as listed at the SolidWorks site.  I've seen lots of folks posting lots of problems with the nVidia Quadro cards lately, so I'm not sure I'd recommend that direction.

I run an ATI FireGL V5600 on this system and it works great with v2007, v2008, and v2009 of SolidWorks.  (ATI used to produce cards that really weren't very reliable with SolidWorks, but they seem to be on top lately.)  Cards like this will run several hundred dollars, but you'll avoid hassles of the type you're seeing now--plus you can essentially have as many parts open as your RAM will allow.

 

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
Hmmm, Ill have to consider that. Thanks for all your help.

Oh, on a side note, what if I created more sub-assemblies so as to avoid using so many parts? Would that help at all?  

RE: Changing Transparency

It may help if you only have one of those smaller sub-assemblies open at a time (consisting of no more than 3-4 parts), but do you really want to live like that?

 

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.

RE: Changing Transparency

Try to use the software OpenGL.  Go to Tools->options->system options->performance and select 'Use software OpenGL'.

Dan

www.eltronresearch.com
Dan's Blog

RE: Changing Transparency


Quote (cp3):

Is it because the assembly that I can do it in is alot smaller than the one that I cant do it in?

I think that's very likely!

I've had occasions where it seemed it HAD to be a corrupt assembly file or something and NOT the card (which was an approved ATI GL) as similar assemblies, some even bigger would be fine, but the then SW 2007 would often (but not always) suddenly exit to the desktop without warning when working on this assembly only. I downloaded a new driver, later but not yet tested and the problem was gone.
 

Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK

SW2009x64 SP4.0 Intel Core i7 2.94Ghz, 12Gb Ram, NVIDIA Quadro FX3700 Driver: 6.14.11.8246
SW2009x64 SP4.0 Intel Core 2 Duo 3.17Ghz, 8Gb Ram NVIDIA Quadro FX3700 Driver: 6.14.11.8246  

RE: Changing Transparency

(OP)
Hey Eltron.. For some reason that option (Use software OpenGL) is greyed out.

RE: Changing Transparency

The option is greyed out because it is a GeForce card. Software OpenGL is automatically selected when using non OpenGL compliant cards.

RE: Changing Transparency

Check the Use software OpenGL switch with SolidWorks launched, but with no files open.

Then see if you can turn the switch on.

What this switch does is totally bypass your video card.  The cpu will handle the graphics.  You will likely get a performance hit, but if your transparancy issue goes away you will know your graphics card is the culprit.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
Anna Built Workstation, Core i7 EE965, FirePro V8700, 12 gigs of RAM, OCZ Vertex 120 Gig SSD
SW2009 SP3.0, Windows 7 RC1
http://www.solidmuse.com
http://www.phxswug.com

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