Colorizing faces in assembly with external components

[aleksei_ovsienko]

It seems like I can not colorize faces of external components in assemblies. The system just wouldn't let me. This is the same old issue when external component assemblies don't allow you to execute features. But I am astonished to find out that I can't even colorize a face in the assembly. I can colorize the whole body for some reason. So why not individual faces?

This is extremely annoying as I use different part numbers for raw un-anodized parts and parts that have been anodized and engraved.
My part is essentially an assembly that includes the raw part and appearance. I track them separately for data management and ERP because machining and anodizing is done by different suppliers. So now if I want to add engraving in any anodized part I'm out of luck because they're all assemblies.

Overall interface for applying appearances to faces is no good. I have to drag the appearance to each individual face. Why can't I just select the faces I want and apply the appearance I want to them? This dragging is extremely resrictive. Imagine I need to colorize embossed text? I would spend half the day dragging that appearance to every face.

Please can we either allow the same features to be used with external component assemblies as with internal component ones, or get rid of internal components altogether. To me internal components make zero sense and are a constant source of confusion as Fusion seems to cater for them much better than for external ones, yet internal components have no place in any professional collaborative environment.

[TrippyLighting]

Applying appearance materials is part of the render environment, which has not seen any upgrades in at least 8 years. 

[billbedford]

Colouring faces of external components can be done by either

1) Opening the components and using Appearance in the usual way

Or 2) By using edit-in-place and then Appearance

[aleksei_ovsienko]

This will colour the face in the part. I don't want that. I want the face to have its original color in the part and then have that face to be colored differently in the assembly. It mimics the actual workflow when the part first arrives un-anodized and then anodizing/engraving/powdercoating is applied either as a separate step or as a part of assembly. 

For example if I engrave products serial number on the lid I obviously want to have it done when the product is being built, not when the lid part is initially purchased from a machine shop. It is part of build process. Or for the purpose of tracking items coming in and out from and to suppliers a coated part is different from the same part that was free-issued to the galvanic plating shop. So I create an assembly called Anodized Lid that consumes an external part called Lid. And they have different part numbers and are separately tracked on the system.
But now I find that I can't add an engraving on said Lid, because I can colour bodies, but not surfaces. Do I have to now split the part in two bodies as a workaround? I might try but it is painfully ridiculous.

[TrippyLighting]

I wonder if you can accomplish this with appearance configurations at the part level. 

You'd have a default config and a configuration with the colored face, and then in the assembly, pick what you need.

Depending on how deeply your external parts are nested, that could be very cumbersome as you'd carry those configurations through to every assembly level.

Also, this might come with some performance hit. Updating and working with Configurations can be a bit slower.

[John_Wright]

Derive the assembly in rather then Xref, you can then change the apearance to individual faces. This may have many implications on other aspects of work flow, but it will solve the questioned issue.