Inventor: Cannot change visibility of solid when in sketch mode

[Anonymous]

 I think the title explains completely.

The weird thing is that this isn't always a problem. I cannot figure out how to reliably repro it, but it does come up pretty often. I think it might have to do with the sketch depending on the solid somehow? Like I said, I cannot detect rhyme or reason for when this problem arises.

One way that I'm usually able to get around the problem is to disable visibility when not in sketch, then return to sketch. Not a huge deal, but it does slow me down.

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@Anonymous,

marius.gildehaus has edited your subject line and embedded pictures for clarity
Original: Sometimes, cannot change visibility of solid when in sketch

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[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I think I have seen this behavior. I bet you have created custom design view representation in the part, right? When you edit a feature, the solid body is rolled back. In order to display the geometry in such state, the body visibility override may be violated. When you are actively editing the part, I suggest you activate Master Design View. It is because the body visibility and appearance change are captured as are in Master Design View.

Try this real quick. Activate Master Design View and turn off the body visibility. Edit the sketch. It should behave as you anticipated it. My suggestion is that you use Design View Rep to turn on/off bodies after you longer need to edit the features.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

No, I did not create a custom design view representation.

[marius.gildehaus]

Hello @Anonymous!

I see that you are visiting as a new member to the Inventor Forum. Welcome to the Autodesk Community!

Could you maybe upload a dataset or provide a Screencast?

That will make it easier for us to see and understand the problem here.

Thanks!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Could you share the file you are working on? I would like to understand the behavior better.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Here you go.

[Anonymous]

Here you go. See the other reply that I posted a few moments ago for a screen cast of how the file was created.

[JDMather]

I was able to reproduce the issue.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I think I know the behavior. This is indeed related to the ability to alter body visibility in rollback state (editing a sketch). In theory, any solid body created before this sketch should be allowed to change visibility. However, the same operation would need to be blocked for solid bodies created after this sketch. It is because when the sketch is edited, the part history is rolled back to before later solid bodies were created. Those solid bodies did not exist yet.

Inventor is not good at offering conditional options in general. The logic can be quite complicated. For example, an earlier created unconsumed sketch can be moved down to feature tree. Should the solid bodies created after the sketch while their browser order is higher be allowed to make visible?

At the moment, the workflow to make solid bodies invisible or visible while editing a sketch is to finish sketch, change the body visibility, and edit the sketch again.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

"However, the same operation would need to be blocked for solid bodies created after this sketch."

Not sure if you understand my problem (maybe you do), so just to be clear, that is not the case that I described; my sketch was created AFTER the solid body.

"Should the solid bodies created after the sketch while their browser order is higher be allowed to make visible?"

I don't think you'd be allowed to move the sketch down that far, because the sketch must precede features that depend on the sketch. At least, I am not able to move a sketch further down than the first feature that uses the sketch.

"At the moment, the workflow to make solid bodies invisible or visible while editing a sketch is to finish sketch, change the body visibility, and edit the sketch again."

That's the work around that I described in my original post. However, towards the end of my screen that I posted ~ half a day ago, you can see that this does not always work. That must be a bug; at the very least, it is completely unexpected behavior.

Another possible work around (not always adequate) is to use Slice Graphics, but if the body lies on both sides of the sketch plane, ~ half the solid will still be visible. Using Slice Graphics as a work around can be annoying in another way: you might have to rotate your view in order to get the "bigger" half of the solid on the side that gets chopped off (i.e. the near side). (This technique can work as a full work around if the solid does not lie on both sides of the sketch plane.)

[Anonymous]

edit: please, disregard this message

[Anonymous]

Do you guys consider this to be a bug?

[Anonymous]

Same problem -- is this fixed in Inventor 2019?

[danielsson_tina]

I'm using Inventor 2023 and this is still an issue. I can reproduce this bug in the same way as the posted video.

I did some further testing and it didn't make any difference if later sketches were placed on the solid, on a plane placed on the solid or not connected to the solid at all. See attached image with 3 different workflows.

I tried moving the "End of Part" to just below Sketch 2 too, but that didn't help either.

Edit: I just noticed that hiding the solid before entering the sketch works in the 1st workflow, but not the other two. So if you have this problem you can first create a new plane on the same surface that the sketch you want to edit is. Make sure the plane is above the sketch in the tree. Redefine the plane of the sketch to the new plane. Hide the solid and enter the sketch.

[BDCollett]

Indeed, this functionality is frustrating when working with multibodies. You can only turn the visibility of solids off on the latest sketch. 

A way around this limitation is to create view reps with the bodies visibility off, they will then stay off if the sketch does not involve the body. It would be nice if you could leave a bodies visibility off regardless.

[choefler]

With every new release that comes out, I have been hopeful that this issue gets resolved.  We just installed Inventor 2026, and this issue has still been ignored.  The issue is annoying when working in a multi part, part file.  While editing a sketch you can't turn part visibility on and off.  You have to exit the sketch and turn on and off the parts you do and don't want to see and then go back to editing the sketch.   When you make a new sketch you always have the option to turn on and off a part visibility, which is nice.  Unfortunately, when you go back to edit the sketch you just made, the ability to turn on and off part visibility is disabled.  This doesn't make any sense.  Seems like it could be an easy fix.  You should be able to have the same options that you had when you initially created the sketch.

[choefler]

problem not fixed in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026.  Can't believe it.