Customizing Parts: Appearance

The Onshape Appearance editor enables you to manually assign specific colors to specific parts. Once a color is assigned, it is not changed until you change it.

With the Appearance editor, you are also able to indicate that particular parts appear in Part Studios and Assemblies as translucent. This may come in handy when trying to reference parts that are hidden by other parts. Set the transparency in the Part Studio and also see the change in the part in any assemblies it is instanced in.

1. Right-click on a Part name in the Parts list to access the context menu.

   Note that you also have the ability to select multiple parts from the graphics area or from the Parts list to assign appearance characteristics to more than one part at a time.

   

2. Select Edit appearance.

   

3. Select a color, or specify the RGB values or the hex value for desired colors.

   Optionally use the Mixer tab to refine the color.

   When you have a color specification you want to save, click the plus sign under Custom colors. To remove a custom color, right-click the color tile and select Delete. You are also able to update a custom color with another color: right-click the color tile and select Update color.

4. Use the Part transparency slider to control transparency (on a scale from 0 - 1; use the slider to specify a value).
5. See below for setting Tessellation quality.
6. Accept .

Specifying tessellation quality of parts

In order to maximize performance, Onshape occasionally uses a lesser tessellation quality, which improves the rate of part rendering in the user interface, but may sacrifice some granularity of tessellation as a trade-off. When you need a finer tessellation, you are able to set it in two ways:

• In a Part Studio - For a selected part, right-click the part name in the Parts lists and select Edit appearance. In the Appearance dialog, use the drop down menu labeled Tessellation quality and select a quality level:
  • Auto - (Default) The system chooses the quality; balancing performance and quality
  • Coarse
  • Medium
  • Fine
  • Very fine - Never automatically chosen by the system; this setting requires user selection

  Note that when choosing a finer tessellation quality, Onshape performance may slow down until the tessellation is complete.

• In an Assembly - Right-click on the part for which to improve tessellation and select Use best available tessellation. Similarly, to set tessellation quality back to automatic: right-click on the part and select Use automatic tessellation setting.

A part or assembly that has tessellation turned on is indicated by this icon in the Instances list. For example:

The Onshape Appearance editor enables you to manually assign specific colors to specific parts. Once a color is assigned, it is not changed until you change it.

With the Appearance editor, you are also able to indicate that particular parts appear in Part Studios and Assemblies as translucent. This may come in handy when trying to reference parts that are hidden by other parts. Set the transparency in the Part Studio and also see the change in the part in any assemblies it is instanced in.

To use the Appearance editor:

1. Select the to the right of a part name in the Parts list to access the overflow menu.
2. Select Appearance from the menu to open the Appearance Editor.

• Free drag the selector to select a color. The RGB values will adjust according to your selection.
• Slide the arrows left or right to adjust the color's intensity.
• Use the slider to adjust the opacity OR tap the value to the right of ɑ to use a number pad for input.
• Use the sliders to adjust the RGB values OR tap the value itself to open a number pad and input a value.

The Onshape Appearance editor enables you to manually assign specific colors to specific parts. Once a color is assigned, it is not changed until you change it.

With the Appearance editor, you can also indicate that particular parts appear in Part Studios and Assemblies as translucent. This may come in handy when trying to reference parts that are hidden by other parts. Set the transparency in the Part Studio and also see the change in the part in any assemblies it is instanced in.

To use the Appearance editor:

1. Select the to the right of a part name in the Parts list to access the overflow menu.
2. Select Appearance from the menu to open the Appearance Editor.

• Use the slider to adjust the opacity OR tap the value to the right of ɑ to use a number pad for input.
• Use the sliders to adjust the RGB values OR tap the value itself to open a number pad and input a value.