For my post today, I thought I’d delve into creating transparent parts in a drawing.
It’s a very common thing. An assembly contains components that are made out of some sort of clear material. Glass, Lexan, so on.
For my example. I’ve created a representation of an aircraft window.
The sample file
It’s not a perfectly engineered design, but it does show the new functionality nicely.
The other way to show the part as transparent was to render the view, which while effective, wasn’t always desirable.
Rendered views on a drawing
However, if you turn off rendering, the part now looks like a solid plate, and nothing like the clear glass it’s supposed to represent.
Now the window looks like a hatch!
The ability to show a component as transparent improves this process.
The first step to make the window transparent is to change your selection filter to Select Part Priority.
Switching selection priority
Now, select the part you want to make transparent, in this case, it’s the window, and choose the Transparent option.
Making a component transparent
The view will recalculate, and now the edges behind the part will appear as they would if the part were transparent.
The isometric view is now transparent
And if you need to, you can choose which views have transparency! It doesn’t have to be all or nothing!
Both views transparent!
So give this one a try, it could be one of those small things that makes life much easier!
And below, here’s a video showing the same functionality! Enjoy!
If you look for What’s new in Inventor in 2017-2019, click on the links below.