Visibility in .idw

[antti.ylikauma]

Hello

In .idw, if .iam contains one hidden visibility, the root visibility is square (contains ON and OFF visibilities). When you check the visibility, it automatically turns everything ON inside the .iam. Is there a way to change that if .iam contains ON and OFF visibilities, it would turn everything OFF instead of ON?

It is really frustrating to check visibility twice on every .iam that has hidden features/parts to get them hidden. Assemblies contain hundreds of .iam-files (and they have .iam inside) so browser selection is no option, need to do it from the root.

Thanks in advance.

[JDMather]

My first thought is that View Representations might be a solution.

[antti.ylikauma]

Thanks for the answer.

View Presentation is not an option in my opinion, because I have to insert multiple views on .idw and hide different features on different views, and I only do it once on each view.

[JDMather]

Can you Attach dataset (done the hard way) that illustrates your need?  (Make up dummy dataset if your actual data is proprietary.)

[antti.ylikauma]

Sorry but I can't make a dataset right now. Even though I could, I don't want to change the properties that cause this issue. Here is an example in .idw browser tree written:

- .iam

- .iam

.

.

.

- example.iam (want this visibility OFF)

   - .iam

       - .iam

           - .ipt (has hidden visibilities).

So if I want exapmle.iam visibility OFF from the browser, I have to check it twice, because in the first check it turns .ipt hidden features ON and then I can check the whole Example.iam OFF.

[sundars]

Hi @antti.ylikauma 

I know what you are talking about. There is an inconsistency in the UI with respect to how the visibility command is shown in the context menus. Believe it or not, I have brought this up with the ux designers multiple times.

Unfortunately, there is no right answer here. Some may want to turn OFF components while others may want to turn ON components. 

In this case

A1

 + S1

     + P1

     + P2

1. Turn OFF P2

2. RMB click on S1, the context menu and inspect the Visibility command

In Assy & Presentations

You will see a checkmark next to the visibility command

Clicking on visibility will turn OFF all components

In Drawings
You will see a colored square
Clicking on visibility will turn ON all components

It's basically very legacy behavior which was never made consistent. In the most simplest case, if you have a drawing of A1->S1->P1,P2 and you turn OFF S1 then all components will get turned OFF and drawing views do not allow you to turn off all components by design. It's because we don't want users to have empty views.

I created an investigate story for the designers to review - INVGEN-62094.

Thanks

-shiva

[antti.ylikauma]

Hello and thank you for your answer. That is exactly what I mean.

It becomes tricky when I insert multiple views of the same .iam and have to hide different sub .iam from different views. For example A1 contains S1 - S100 and I have to hide S2, 55-70, 85,94 form one view and S3, 40-44, 80-82,98 from another view. Browser names are what they are, so I have to check from the view which sub .iam is selected each time. And I have to do it twice now every time.

Would it be possible for user to choose which way one would like it to work in .idw?

"In Drawings
You will see a colored square
Clicking on visibility will turn ON all components" -> choose form options if it will turn all components ON or OFF.

Thank you

Antti

[antti.ylikauma]

And I understand the empty view logic, but could there be some check or something that allows you to turn visibility square->OFF if the view contains other visible parts?

Hope you understood my previous message and the writing above, it's always tricky to put everything in words 😄

-Antti

[sundars]

Hi @antti.ylikauma 

Thank you for your viewpoints. I will add your ask to the investigative story. We will look into an option to do either/or - i.e. turn on or turn off, but it would be up to the designers. Typically we try to keep it simple by not adding too much complexity and over head into the logic. But I do understand your points and no worries, I totally understood what you said. 🙂

Thanks

-shiva

[SteveMDennis]

The real issue here is that even though the commands are both called visibility, they are two entirely different commands that have different rules/restrictions.

The drawing visibility is actually handling visibility for sketches, edges, trails and in this example BODY/COMPONENT. When you select the sub assembly your are actually selecting the individual components/bodies inside it, leading to the mixed state. 

The assembly visibility is handling visibility for ONLY occurrences, of which the sub assembly IS an occurrence, so control of JUST that can be handled (meaning no mixed state). The occurrence visibility that is handled has rules for same branch occurrences and what the final result is. This visibility is further controlled by design views.

Drawings has no concept of occurrence visibility today.

As far as the mixed state going ON and you want it to go OFF, if we change it (it's been like this for 20+ years) I can guarantee someone is relying on the mixed state going ON...

I have discussed this with our UX designers as Shiva hinted and I don't see us making a change in this area.

[antti.ylikauma]

Hello

Thank you for your answer.

I understand that they are two different issues.

Still this issue causes a lot of extra work in making for example installation manuals, in which you want to hide many different assemblies.

Changing the mixed state to go OFF would definitely cause problems to some users. That's why it would be better if the user could choose how the mixed state would work.

BR,

Antti

[SteveMDennis · Accepted solution]

I hear you, we are trying not to add new application options for every little nuance of the system, we already have so so many...

But  I will add your request to our list.