Datasheet

USING THE INVENTOR GRAPHICAL INTERFACE 9
Controlling Component Transparency
It is generally helpful to set the display settings so that as you activate one component in the context
of an assembly, the other components become ghosted or transparent. This allows you to see which
component you’re actively editing and yet still reference other components in the assembly. You
can toggle the Transparency setting on and off by going to the View tab and clicking the Component
Transparency drop-down found on the Appearance panel.
With the Bottom subassembly activated, you will notice the Assembly panel is still visible.
Next double-click the part icon for Bottom-Back. This activates the single part for editing. You
will notice that the Ribbon bar has changed and the Model tab is active. The Ribbon bar change
reflects that you are now editing a part file, and are therefore working at the part editing level of
the model hierarchy, with part feature tools ready for selection.
With the part active for editing, you will notice that the Model browser now shows all the
features present in the active file. Examining these features within the active part, you can see
the standard origin features, some user work planes, some additional features such as extrusions,
and a fillet feature. You will also notice a red X at the bottom of the part signifying an end-of-part
(EOP) marker.
Using EOP Markers
You can use the EOP marker to insert a feature anywhere in the model tree, where the new feature
should have been created. Since part features are created sequentially, the EOP marker allows you to
figure out how a part was constructed. Dragging the EOP marker to the top and then dragging it down
one feature at a time re-creates the part. In addition, dragging the EOP marker to the top of the part
file reduces the overall part size significantly, similar to zipping a file. If you encounter a blank file
in your modeling session, be sure to check the Model browser to make sure the EOP marker has been
dragged to the bottom of the part file.
To return to the top-level assembly, you can simply double-click the filename (Stapler.iam)at
the top of the Model browser, or you can click the Return icon at the top of your screen. Each click
of the Return icon will move you up one level in the assembly. Regardless of which method you
use, you will notice that the Ribbon bar returns to the assembly tools (from the part feature tools)
once you are back to the top-level assembly.
As demonstrated in this quick tour of a typical assembly structure, the Inventor Ribbon tabs
are unique and intuitive to the environment you are in at the time. In the next example, you will
explore the changes encountered in the Styles Editor located on the Format tab.
Task-Based Dialog Boxes
In addition to the Ribbon bar updating based on the current environment, as described in the
previous section, some Inventor dialog boxes are also task-based. Instead of containing every
control needed for every environment, the dialog box displays only the controls necessary for the
current task. Follow these steps to see an example of this:
1. While in an assembly file, with either the top-level assembly or a subassembly active, select
the Manage tab and then select Styles Editor, as shown in Figure 1.11.