How to change color on imported STEP part

[EvanH]

I have model of a part provided by its manufacturer as STEP file. How do I select all the surface on the part at once, so I can change the color of the whole thing?

Using SW2009 64 bit.

 

Can only make a color change if I select each surface by hand. That will take a long time, there must be a way to do it with one operation.

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited September 22, 2010 by EvanH
added program version

[shift1313]

If you right click on the name of the part file at the top of the feature manager or really any component, then click on the appearance red/blue/yellow/green sphere you should get a list of available things to change. Depending on your part or parts this list will be different. BUT it will show you the current surface or solid body, all bodies, the entire part and so on. That should take care of it. If not let me know.

[EvanH]

shift -- Thank you very much for the reply. This is exactly the problem though, I cannot get the color to change by doing that.

 

Here's a screenshot (part is now resaved as .sldprt) ... I changed all the boxes in that appearances drop down box to magenta, but the part remains grey. It looks like the problem is, when I click on "Imported1" in the feature manager, the edges of the part become highlighted. For any other part, when I do that, the surfaces become highlighted and the color change works.

 

[bhamze]

Evan,

 

Can you attach part file? I can give it try for you.......maybe a video card glitch.

[shift1313]

Evan, expand the Feature Tree using the arrows i pointed to in the screen shot. Notice that the Appearance column has a color next to the part name and next to the imported body. The one on the imported body over-rules the one on the part name. I dont think this is the problem but double check it just in case.

[EvanH]

Evan,

Can you attach part file? I can give it try for you.......maybe a video card glitch.

 

 

 

Sure....

they are attached at the bottom, one as-downloaded and one saved as sldprt.

 

 

 

Evan, expand the Feature Tree using the arrows i pointed to in the screen shot. Notice that the Appearance column has a color next to the part name and next to the imported body. The one on the imported body over-rules the one on the part name. I dont think this is the problem but double check it just in case.

 

 

No color box next to Imported1 on the expanded feature tree:

 

 

 

 

I can change the color of one face at a time, no problem. By clicking on this square, for example, and then selecting a new color:

 

 

fittings.zip

[shift1313]

That was a bit odd on this piece but there is an appearance applied to the entire part that you need to remove. Start by opening the part file. select a face then click the appearance ball and select the face appearance box(pointed to on the image above). When the appearance properties tab pops up select Remove Appearance. This will remove the appearance from that face. Then you will notice the button says Remove All Appearances. Click that and it will "wipe" it clean. After I did that it appeared to be a brass color. but from there you should be able to apply a single color to the part.

 

If that didnt make sense i will try to take some screen shots for you.

[bhamze]

Evan,

 

Follow Matt's instruction. I downloaded file and was able to change color of part. I too needed to remove all parts appearance for it to work.

[EvanH]

Thanks for your patience, guys.

 

Matt, I think I follow what you said. But when I do that, only the face I originally selected changes color, even after I've done the "Remove All Appearances".

 

Here's a vid of what I tried:

[EvanH]

Thanks for your patience, guys.

 

Matt, I think I follow what you said ... but when I try only the face I originally selected will now change color.

 

Here's a vid:

[EvanH]

Great, I'm all set. Thanks for the help.