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How to equalize material appearances globally in whole assembly in 2013?

17 REPLIES 17
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Message 1 of 18
Orest_iy
692 Views, 17 Replies

How to equalize material appearances globally in whole assembly in 2013?

Hello

 

In Inventor 2012 user has ability to change the material properties globally.

All parts using certain material will follow the changes made to properties and written to single library. It is clear and predictable.

 

In Inventor 2013 material properties belong to individual file.

When changes were done to appearance properties of a single part there could be situation when the same material parts in the assembly could have different appearance.

Here is the fact I do not understand and it is contradict to actual reality since the same material with the same standard must look absolutelly the same when switched to Master view.

Seems like to make parts look the same or to change the appearance I should click on each single file and make the same changes to each file.

 

I do not intend to change the appereance properties in single file on purpose to make problems to myself but I am sure I will take somebody else part and it will be changed due unnecessary reflection or other too much realistic things added in 2013. So finally I will get some sort of parrot collored assembly without clear and most importand easy way to make an order.

 

So I wish I could equalize all same material parts in apearance view. I do not count the way of clicking each file.

Please advise this could be possible in 2013.

 

 

Best Regards,

Orest Yavtushenko

17 REPLIES 17
Message 2 of 18
blair
in reply to: Orest_iy

They are really two separate items. Material contains the physical properties (mass/density) and appearance is your finish of the item. It will have a basic appearance, but this can be changed with the Appearance tab.

 

Following example:

Material = Steel, it contains basics such as Thermal information along with Mechanical

Appearance = Red, Blue, Yellow or Chrome.

 

The easiest is to create a new library on your network and have everyone point to that library for your custom requirement's will still have the stock Inventor and Autodesk libraries. Click on the small gear icon (lower LH corner) of the Material's Browser.


Inventor 2020, In-Cad, Simulation Mechanical

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Message 3 of 18
SBix26
in reply to: Orest_iy

The logic is no different between 2012 and 2013, just the tools.  Materials & Appearances are no longer edited through the Style Editor, but they still exist both locally in each file and globally in M&A libraries.  If you want to change material properties, you do it locally in one file, then save it to the library.  Then other parts that already use that material must be updated from the library.  This is exactly the same in 2012 & 2013, just different dialogs.  (I'll leave my comments on the usability of the new dialogs for another thread...).

Message 4 of 18
Orest_iy
in reply to: blair

I wish I had Red, Blue, Yellow and Black in Inventor 2013 instead of Anodized Aluminium Red with St. Elmos fire, half transparenced and fully reflected and other not engineering mess. Here was a main reason I was trying to create a custom library right agter first installation of 2013 but got enormous amount of crushes half year ago. I still on 2012 and tried 2013 again yesterday due to reinstallation at new machine. I have downloaded a lot of fixes from Autodesk but not absolutelly sure I will spend days creating libraries and will get the same negative result as I've got initially.

Did you make your own library and it is working well?

Orest

Message 5 of 18
Orest_iy
in reply to: SBix26

Sam,

Let admit I have my own library and I create my custom apearances and some custom materials and tied them how they must look by default.

I could not use third party parts as they are since they either altered or not, in both cases it will not match my library. I should move all of them either to My Steel - My Steel apearance or to My Aluminium - My Aluminium appearance and to other My stuff otherwise I will have the same material in different colours and other properties. I do not see any similarity and easinest of that vs 2012 where I do nothing since even if I had parts with somebody's else fantasies they will be presented according to my library.

 

Regards,

Orest

Message 6 of 18
SBix26
in reply to: Orest_iy

I'm not understanding where the difference is.  A material in 2013 = material style in 2012.  If the material in a part file doesn't match one with the same name in a material library, then they're different.  You either update the part file from the library, or you update the library from the part file, or you leave them alone and they remain different.  This is the same regardless of which version you use.  The difference is in how you edit them and where libraries are stored.

 

If I'm missing something, please clarify it for me-- there is still time for me to learn something today!

Message 7 of 18
Orest_iy
in reply to: SBix26

I can take a part and change appearance properties in some single part in 2013.

This exactly part will be yellow for example. Inventor 2013 will confirm I have got a Steel as Material and it has assigned by default Appereance. Nothing will say this part requires either Save or Update since its default and "built-in" appereance was changed. This part does not have appereance overrides. I will have a yellow Steel for instance and it will be yellow along with Default color assigned to other Steel parts.

 

I cannot make this trick in 2012. I say it is a difference.

In 2012 I can instantly make an order switching to Master view and see parts with assigned Materials and assigned to Materials color style. I do not have built into file appreance properties. I would say it is a major difference who finally carries color the external Libray (2012) or the File (2013)

 

Message 8 of 18
SBix26
in reply to: Orest_iy

OK, so you are talking about overriding the default appearance for a material.  Is this in a part file or in an assembly?

Message 9 of 18
blair
in reply to: Orest_iy

You are talking about color overides (changes) at the asembly level. They don't migrate to the part level, the same as assembly features (making a hole through a number of parts at the assembly level dosn't migrate to the part level).

 

This allows you to have your basic parts (steel color) and when you do the assembly you can change the color to a finished color (Red). When you open the assembly all the parts are Red, when you open each part they are still the basic Steel color.

 

This has been like this for quite some time, at least back to IV2010


Inventor 2020, In-Cad, Simulation Mechanical

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Message 10 of 18
Orest_iy
in reply to: SBix26

It is a part file

Here is a picture I've done with a copy of my project in Inventor 2013

http://screencast.com/t/N36my4gmGpbY

Message 11 of 18
Orest_iy
in reply to: blair

http://screencast.com/t/YKHDXRNf

 

Have a guess what color is a Steel?

Inventor claims all is the Steel and all is Steel color and no overrides.

I made it on purpose but here was a question of this topic, how to equalize those parts?

Message 12 of 18
blair
in reply to: Orest_iy

Someone at your organization has changed the appearance of steel to a green and a blue. These are not overiders, but color changes at the part level. Overides take place at the assembly level. 

 

 


Inventor 2020, In-Cad, Simulation Mechanical

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Message 13 of 18
SBix26
in reply to: blair

The answer, then, is to edit those two parts and update the Steel appearance from the library.  The local one is modified.  This is exactly how it works in 2012 and earlier versions, too.

Message 14 of 18
Orest_iy
in reply to: SBix26

Yes, you are right, it makes sense. I could create the similar colored picture within the same Material in 2012 too. I agree it is a similar logic but a bit hidden in 2012. I could not say it is good or bad at the moment. I did not toughly played with colors until 2013 with all this reflections, abnormal colors and complete absence of so common and simple colors used to present in 2012.

In 2012 I have created just couple more materials and some custom colors.

In 2013 I would change half a library deletting reflections, and other tooo realistic mess and adding simple and clear colors before I could work in this environment.

Orest

Message 15 of 18
SBix26
in reply to: Orest_iy

I totally agree!  I'm still working on a completely new library, since migration didn't work well.  I have created a bunch of simple color appearances, but materials are not retaining their assets in many cases.  Newly created ones seem to work better.

Message 16 of 18
Orest_iy
in reply to: SBix26

I used to spend couple weeks in June in desperate attempts of creating the own library overwhelming the Autodesk with bunches of crush reports and finaly stay on 2012 till now. I am glad you managed to create the own library so I will try too. Hope the list of 2013 fixes worked out. I cannot say I am happy from the new appearances, resulting so far in attempts to make everything as close as used to be in 2012 but I could retard from something new which is not this bad.

Orest

Message 17 of 18
blair
in reply to: Orest_iy

The migration of materials/colors from 2012 to 2013 was a problem. Part of the problem was a lack of documentation from Autodesk on this matter. You needed to process/import your material colors first before upgrading your parts and assemblies.

 

Without migrating your old "Styles" first it would try and use the "next best" match.


Inventor 2020, In-Cad, Simulation Mechanical

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Message 18 of 18
Orest_iy
in reply to: blair

Ok

Thank you for advise.

I do not need the actual colors, since I am not an artist. Even worse, I need distinguish colors to make purelly engineering design and I do not care my bearing are blue and bolts are black. I also need clear names like Blue, Red, Yellow and Black without any etcetera and some transparent colors like a Blue in 2012. As long it wont give me a new bunch of greeting to Autodesk with creating library I hope I will manage it.

Aluminium Anodized Red I took from 2013 help, which said this is exact match if I need the red color. Just guess if I should use 2013 as it is I probably need a long table of comformity between colors I need and how they named in 2013.

Orest

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