Clear/Transparent Surface

[matthewcsmith]

I've got a part I've created in Solidworks and am having trouble with a surface on the part. It's showing up as clear or transparent. The surface is not set to be transparent nor is the material/appearance set to something which is clear. I've attached the part to the post.

Anybody seen this before and/or have a work around?

Thanks!

Matt Smith
Mechanical Engineer
'04 RHIT Grad

 

[JMirisola]

Is there actually anything there? From the pictures, it appears to be completely missing. Can you select it?
The next question would be what graphics card and driver are you using, along with SWx version?
Have you tried deleting/patching the face?

Jeff Mirisola
My Blog

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Post the actual part for review. The JPG image doesn't really help.

 

[Updraft]

Matt,

I am guessing this part was imported from a neutral file format, such as IGES or Parasolid, and there are problems with it that left this surface out. I do not do much with surfaces, but if this is a case of a missing surface I think you can select the bounding edges and create a surface to fill in. Since you only posted an image and not the part file we don't really know what the situation is. I'll bet if you post the part file someone here will fix it for you and show you how they did it.

- - -Updraft

 

[matthewcsmith]

Thanks for the responses everyone.

Jeff,

Win 7 x64, SW 2012 x64 SP5.0, ATI FirePro V7800, driver 8.830.5.4000 (SW current approved)
The surface is there and can be selected if you click on it. It just appears clear. BUT if you hover the cursor over the surface, it does not highlight like a normal surface does.
I'm not sure what you mean by patching the face.

CorBlimeyLimey,

I can't post the whole part for confidentiality reasons. It's a part of 3 configurations. Each configuration cuts a portion of the part away so that when assembled, all 3 configurations make the whole part again.

Updraft,

I've seen the same thing before too with imported files. This one was drawn in SW though.

Matt Smith
Mechanical Engineer
'04 RHIT Grad

 

[JMirisola]

Then I'd say delete the face and fill/patch or, as Updraft suggested, using the bounding surfaces option. Sometimes SolidWorks just likes to be difficult for no particular reason.

Jeff Mirisola
My Blog

 

[maxh3]

I have a similar question. Once I right-clicked a face on a part I was working with and selected "change transparency" so I could see through it. When I was done, I couldn't figure out how to change the face back to not transparent. How do you do that? I could select the face by right-clicking and using "select other", but couldn't seem to find a way to change the transparency of a face in a part file without the right-click pop-up menu, which goes away after you use "select other" to select the transparent face.

 

[JMirisola]

Try holding down the shift key when right clicking on the transparent face.

Jeff Mirisola
My Blog

 

[mjcole]

Matt,

At the upper right hand corner of your Feature/Property Manager there is a little >> which shows or hides the Display Pane there are 4 columns 1 for Hide/Show, Color, LineDisplay, and Transparency. If you right click the empty space in the feature manager and pick "Hide/Show Tree Items" and choose Show or Automatic settings for Surface Bodies and SolidBodies folders. Then you can expand the Surface Bodies folder and just click in the display pane to toggle the transparent status in the 4th column from the left. There will only be a surface bodies or solid bodies folder if the model is a surface body or a solid body.

To find out whether or not the model has errors in it such as missing or sliver surfaces use the import diagnostics tool from Tools menu.

http://help.solidworks.com/2013/English/solidworks/sldworks/c_import_diagnostics_overview.htm

It can fix small gaps in models and other errors.

It does look like the surface is missing. There is another useful option in Tools Options or just clicking the Options flyout button. I believe it's under System Options -Display/Selection.
Show open edges of surfaces in different color
it's shown in the check boxes below the transparency settings.

with this option checked off you will see any edges of open surfaces in a different color.

For fixes you can extend the edges of the angled sloped surface and create a flat surface or one of the filled types and use a mutual trim to join them back together.

Michael

"It's not the size of the Forum that matters, It's the Quality of the Posts"

Michael Cole
Boston, MA
CSWP, CSWI, CSWTS
Follow me on !w¡#$%
@ TrajPar - @ mcSldWrx2008
= ProE = SolidWorks

 

[SBaugh]

The second item on this "Hidden Solidworks Commands" Document I made last year talks about transparent faces you hide.


As for the original question, it sounds like you have a bad face. Did you do a Tools\Check to make sure the model does not have any ad entities?

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
Berry Plastics
Cad Admin\Design Engineer
GEASWUG Greater Evansville Area SWUG Leader

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

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