Default object display colors

[NXMold]

I'm modeling in a single component, setting sheet bodies and faces to different colors as I go.

New surfaces, and in some cases modified surfaces (ie, when using "Trim and Extend" to "Make Corner") are created using some "default" object display color. Somehow, this particular model the default has become BLACK.

Black is not a good color, and surfaces in my model are turning black faster than bad banannas. How can I fix this?

NX 5.0.3.2 MoldWizard

 

[JohnRBaker]

Make sure that you have the 2-sided lights option toggled ON. A surface only reflects the light from a single side per light so if you don't have the 2-sided option on, one side of your surfaces will always be 'black'.

This setting can be found at...

Preferences -> Visualization -> Visual

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[cowski]

You can set the creation color for entities separately (solids this color, sheets that color, strings another color, etc). In NX2 (version I am on at the moment) it can be changed under Preferences -> object... in the dialog box that comes up you can change colors for entity types. Also, if this is only happening with sheet bodies - you may want to check the 'lighting' preferences. Perhaps they are not really black, but you are seeing the 'backside' of the surface. I think the option is called '2 sided light' but of course it may be different in later versions.

 

[NXMold]

Two sided light is ON
Preferences| Object default color is blue (glad to find that setting!)

The BLACK issue started when I imported some geometry from an igs file, several surfaces in that igs data were black. Now its recurring.

I have two yellow surfaces, I use trim corner to combine them. Now I have one surface body, the original portion is still yellow, the other faces turned black.



NX 5.0.3.2 MoldWizard

 

[JohnRBaker]

Try editing the Face of the Surface and see if you can change the color.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[NXMold]

Oh yeah, that works fine. I have edited all black faces to make them some other color, no black remains that I can see. But it comes back.

I was sewing a few sheets into a solid (green & yellow), the preview body was black but after hitting OK the yellow surfaces stayed yellow, the green turned black.

NX 5.0.3.2 MoldWizard

 

[JohnRBaker]

Can you post a sample part with one of these 'black' surfaces in it?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[NXMold]

I deleted most of the geometry, leaving two sheet bodies. If you sew these bodies you should see the green change to black.



NX 5.0.3.2 MoldWizard

 

[JohnRBaker]

OK, I see the problem although I'm not sure exactly how it ended-up this way. The situation is that the underlying SHEET BODY has been assigned the color 'Black' (#216), while all of the FACES of the body have been assigned 'Medium Faded Yellow' (#47). This makes the body LOOK like it's yellow, but its really not.

Now the reason that you even notice this is because of an option that has been set under...

Preferences -> Modeling...

...titled 'Boolean Face Properties from' and you've probably have it set to 'Target Body', which is the default. Change it to 'Tool Body' and this will prevent the behavior that you're seeing, but it also means that the colors of the bodies never change. However, that does NOT solve the problem of the Sheet Body having one color set yet looking like another. To that you will need to do is go to...

Edit -> Object Display...

...and select the SHEET BODY. When the dialog comes up go to the Settings section and toggle on the 'Apply to All Faces' option and then assign whatever color you would like it to be.

Now if you go back and set the Modeling Preference back to the default, after the Sew operation the Green faces will change to match the rest of the model, if that was what you wanted than you're home free.

Now as to why this is happening, it's possible that somewhere up the line, since these are translated parts, that color was only assigned to the FACES of that the body, and that the BODY itself may have had no color assignment and therefore ended up BLACK by default (NX had to assign it something).

Anyway, take a look at the other parts of the mode which were translated and see if this is a consistent condition. Note that the way to check the color of the Sheet Body is to use...

Information -> Object...

...just make sure that you actually selecting the SHEET BODY and not the 'Body' feature ( you can use QuickPick or filter for Sheet Bodies).

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[NXMold]

Yikes. This object display voodoo is miserable and elusive. Body vs Face vs Sheet Body properties (attributes too) is not intuitive.

Why cant I right click on "Body (0)" in the part navigator and see this information? I mean, why is "Sheet Body" different than "Body"?

I thought I got past this last time, when I discovered the setting "Apply to All Faces" in the Edit Object Display dialog. In this case it was ineffective because I was selecting "Body" rather than "Sheet Body".

----

I imported a pile of surfaces from an igs file (from japan)into a clean part model. Some came in black, I selected all (ctl+a) with a color filter to get the black faces, changed them to yellow.

Then I wave linked some of the faces into this part (the yellow ones), removed parameters, and built a solid. Thats how I caught the black plague.

NX 5.0.3.2 MoldWizard

 

[JohnRBaker]

That's the price we pay for having a 'feature-based' system. The 'Sheet Body' is the underlying geometry type, the actual topological object, which is what we 'see' and hence it carries the color assignment, along with other stuff like layer, Show/Hide status, etc. However the 'Body', even if it has no parameters, is the 'feature' and so it has top billing in the Part Navigator or when selecting without any filtering. However, if you go into the Navigator and toggle OFF the 'Timestamp Order' the presentation will now be object-based and not feature-based which might be more useful to you in some situations.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[NXMold]

Sheet Body is the geometry, Body is the feature?

So the Body is just a 'dummy pointer' to get the geometry to show up in the part navigator, unlike unparamaterized curves?

Would this mean that setting any parameters, attributes, etc, for the Body is poor practice?

I have encountered some of this before, with moldwizard attributes for mold trim and pocket status.

NX 5.0.3.2 MoldWizard