Managing Assemblies

Hide all parts, selected parts, or unselected parts to aid in visualizing or evaluating the movement of an assembly.

To hide parts:

1. Select parts in the graphics area or in the Assembly list.

   • Use a box select to select multiple parts.

   • Select a folder in the Assembly list to select all parts in that folder.

2. Right-click to access the context menu and choose an option:

   • Hide - Hides the selected part or parts

   • Hide other instances - Hides all unselected instances.

   • Hide all instances - Hides all selected and unselected instances.

This command is a toggle: Hide/Show.

You can also use the y shortcut key to hide a part under the cursor; the part will show a highlight on hover. To show the part again, right-click and select Show all or Show all parts.

Hide example

The selected parts in the assembly:

The model after Hide:

The model after Hide other instances

Isolate works similarly to Hide, with the difference that unselected parts remain visually present for reference, but muted in color and unavailable for selection until you exit Isolate mode. Any Mate connectors and Mates of non-selected parts are also muted and unavailable for selection. As with the Hide commands, you are able to select the parts in the Feature list, graphics area, and with the box select functions. All Mates and Mate connectors of selected parts are also available for selection in the Mate process.

Use Isolate with individual parts, multiple parts, and groups.

This command is a toggle: Isolate/Exit isolate.

Steps

1. Select parts in the graphics area or in the Assembly list.

   • Use a box select to select multiple parts.

   • Select a folder in the Assembly list to select all parts in that folder.

2. Right-click in empty space and select Isolate from the context menu:
3. The selected part is visible and the remainder of the model is faded out. The Isolate dialog opens:

   

4. Use the dropdown and sliding scale to include more top-level parts or subassemblies in the Isolate command:
   1. Expand: connectivity - Expands the Isolate command to bring into view the top-level parts and subassemblies that are mated to the selected part. The first drag brings the entire subassembly into view. The second drag brings another top-level part or entire subassembly into view.

      

      

   2. Expand: distance - Expands the Isolate command to bring into view other parts based on distance in all directions, incrementally, from the center of the selected part. The parts are not necessarily mated to each other. The slider may bring into view more than one part at a time.

      

      

5. Use the Hide transparent parts checkbox to hide the parts that are grayed out (faded); this can help with visualizing the parts in view and also may enhance performance:

   

When modeling, you may need to see a part that is occluded visually by another part or parts, in order to perform some task. Onshape provides the Make transparent command in the context menu for parts and assemblies.

1. Select parts in the graphics area or in the Assembly list.

   • Use a box select to select multiple parts.

   • Select a folder in the Assembly list to select all parts in that folder.

2. Right-click to access the context menu, and select Make transparent.
3. In the dialog, select Expand distance or Expand connectivity, and then drag the slider to make each successive part transparent as you drill through to the part you need.
   

You can also use the t shortcut key to make the part (or multi-selected parts) under the cursor transparent; the part will show a highlight on hover. To show the part again, right-click and select Show all or Show all parts. This command is cumulative; you can use it on part after part, keeping all transparent until you select Exit make transparent from the context menu or close the dialog that opens.

This command is also available when editing part in context. For more information on in-context editing, see Modeling In Context.