Last week, we saw how to make use of the Show and NoShow Views in order to unclutter a CAD model and work more efficiently by using these two layers in an optimized way. In this article, we will use the NoShow View to differentiate between various elements of the model in order to take them out of Display or delete them altogether to make our model more responsive.
As mentioned in last week’s article, the View toolbar menu contains three useful options to send elements to the NoShow View. Let’s review them quickly:
- Put In NoShow: This command allows us to filter by type. By clicking on ALL, it is possible to send all objects of a certain type to the NoShow View at once. We can also select those objects manually either from the Object Manager or directly from the Viewport.
- Put In NoShow by Color: Some models will colour-code their surfaces. This command allows us to send these surfaces to the NoShow View based on this criterion.
- Put In NoShow by Size: This command makes it possible to send entities to the NoShow View based on their size, allowing us to keep only the smallest or the biggest parts in the NoShow View.
Using the Views to filter between CAD objects
While these options are a handy way to unclutter a CAD model and make inspection more convenient by sending parts we want to inspect separately to separate layers, they can also be used as a quick way to filter between the various CAD objects. For example, using the Put In NoShow by Size option is a fast and easy way to isolate parts we do not wish to inspect such as nuts and bolts. These kinds of Objects are usually organized into their respective sub-assemblies groups rather than into size-based groups or type-based groups, making it hard to select them all at once. Once isolated in the NoShow View, these parts can be put out of Display by selecting them and unchecking the Display Object option from the General tab in the Object Manager.
An Object that is not on Display will neither appear in the Show nor the NoShow View. The object’s name will also appear in red in the Object Manager, indicating it is no longer on Display. Using the Put In NoShow by Color option, let’s illustrate this procedure on the light blue parts of our Frame Tool model (accessible through File: Example Models: Frame Tool).
Removing objects altogether
If some Objects will have no use in our inspection, we can delete them altogether so they are entirely removed from the CAD. This will not only unclutter the Viewport and the Object Manager but also make our CAD model lighter and more responsive, in addition to making its file size smaller. There are a few ways to delete an Object from a BuildIT model.
- Select the Object either from the Viewport or the Object Manager by left-clicking on it.
- Press the Cut button located on the top-right of the Object manager tab or press the Delete key on your keyboard
- Right-click on the Object in the Viewport or in the Object Manager.
- Select the Cut option from the contextual menu.
However, be aware that an Object that has been Cut is no longer contained within the BuildIT model and cannot be recovered in a quick and easy way without importing it back from a previous version of the file. Make sure to use this feature with caution.
