SW2009 SP3.0 Display States Bug?

[IanLougheed]

Two posts in one day I guess.

I recently upgraded my machine from SW2008 SP5.0 to SW2009 SP3.0. After doing the upgrade, I immediately noticed the Display States changes they had made.

I don't regularly use PhotoWorks, so few of my parts or assemblies have any PhotoWorks appearance properties. However, on my assemblies there are now multiple display states including the "<config_name>_PhotoWorks Display State". Typically, the PhotoWorks display state just shows all my components as gray.

Now to the crux of my problem. I went through each configuration of my assembly (4 of them in this particular case), assigning each to its original display state, which restored the colours I had assigned to the components. However, I encounter two strange behaviours.

1. When I open the assembly at a later date, it appears in the same grayed-out, transparent look that it does in the PhotoWorks display state, but tells me that I am in my coloured display state. If I change to the PhotoWorks display state, then back to my colored display state, the assembly shows the correct appearance.

2. Within the drawing file for this assembly, model views show similar behaviour. I have the coloured display state selected for each view, but they appear in the grayed-out transparent look. However, in this case switching back and forth between display states does not resolve the view.

I hope this explanation makes sense. It's fairly complicated to explain. At any rate, is anybody else experiencing this problem? Is it a bug, or am I missing something in the display state relationships?

Thank you for any help,

Ian Lougheed

 

[rockguy]

I believe your falling victim to the consolidation changes made to textures/colors and appearances. The display state will be added automatically in 2009, that is normal and really shouldn't effect anything becasue you don't need to use it. As for your colors changing. It happens here as well and it can be tempermental. For a brief explination of how it's supposed to work watch this video

http://robrodriguez.com/wordpress/?p=488

Rob Rodriguez CSWP

http://www.axiscadsolutions.com

http://www.robrodriguez.com

http://www.robrodriguezblog.com

Eastern Region SWUGN Representative

http://www.swugn.org

http://www.nvtswug.com

SW 2007 SP 2.0

 

[IanLougheed]

Thanks for your reply Rob. I am certainly falling victim to those changes. However, from the looks of things this is a much-welcome improvement to the haphazard organization of colours, appearances, and textures from previous versions. I watched your video, and that explained what (to me) is the most logical appearance management system to date. Assuming it works correctly.

However, my concern isn't with the surprising change in appearance of my assemblies upon opening them in 2009. My problem lies in the fact that my assemblies and drawing views are not displaying the selected display state.

For example, in an assembly I have two display states now. One, call it X, includes my appearance definitions from when I built the assembly. Another, call it Y, was automatically generated with SW 2009, and makes my assembly appear gray and transparent.

If I open my assembly, the Display States tab will show that Display State X is currently active. However, the assembly is gray and transparent. If I select Display State Y, the assembly (correctly) remains gray and transparent. If I now switch back to Display State X, the assembly correctly reverts to the appearances tied to X. So in short, I can't get my assembly to reliably display with the selected Display State.

Furthermore, in a drawing of this assembly, my drawing views exhibit similar behaviour. The main difference is that by flipping from X to Y to X again, the appearance does not correct itself.

I'd just like to know if anyone else has had this problem or found any solutions/idiosyncracies before I approach my VAR.

Thanks again.