EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => PCB/EDA/CAD => Altium Designer => Topic started by: tszaboo on October 13, 2020, 09:04:02 pm
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I'am encountering the same issue over and over. So the 3D feature is really nice, so I end up importing the enclosure into altium to check for tolerances and the general look and feel of the device under design. Now, this is good, but the enclosure of course obscures large part of the PCB. I can set the opacity, but it would be nice to hide for example all 3D models on a specific mechanical layer. Do you know a way to do this?
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Support helped me. For anyone finding this in 2038 looking for the same question:
Select a part on the layer -> find similar objects -> properties -> Opacity = 0%
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As someone in 2020, I didn't even know this was a question I needed answering until I read it and thought "Yeah, I really need to know how to do that!"
I have had issues very recently where I could not see the pads under some SMD components in the 3D view, now I have all my 3D models at 50% Opacity I get the best of both worlds!
I just selected the 3D model in the 3D view, selected similar objects and made them fade away like magic!
Nice one for posting that.
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The harder way: query the objects with PCB Filter, or look them up in PCB List (list by type 3D Component Body).
Querying does nothing by itself, but can select things faster and more specifically (downside is the huge learning curve). List and Properties can edit objects. You can even enter arbitrary transparency in List (used to be able to in Properties too, until they revamped the panel in.. AD18?).
Find Similar Objects is a good way to introduce yourself to the query system, just tick Create Expression. The references are... alas, a bit piecemeal, but the query builder is helpful.
Tim
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The harder way: query the objects with PCB Filter, or look them up in PCB List (list by type 3D Component Body).
Querying does nothing by itself, but can select things faster and more specifically (downside is the huge learning curve). List and Properties can edit objects. You can even enter arbitrary transparency in List (used to be able to in Properties too, until they revamped the panel in.. AD18?).
Find Similar Objects is a good way to introduce yourself to the query system, just tick Create Expression. The references are... alas, a bit piecemeal, but the query builder is helpful.
Tim
Yeah, the query system would also work. I use it for setting up rules, didin't think about using it to do a selection. I was trying to do this on the PCB list ( which is also a very powerful tool) but that didn't work, or it was inconvenient. Probably I should learn the scripting system, that way I could just write a srcipt, maybe it is even possible to map this to a button. But then again, I've used altium for what... Few thousand hours? It is hard to tell how much time I'm spending on what on a project. Nowadays I'm spending a lot more time on documentation than actual design.
As someone in 2020, I didn't even know this was a question I needed answering until I read it and thought "Yeah, I really need to know how to do that!"
I have had issues very recently where I could not see the pads under some SMD components in the 3D view, now I have all my 3D models at 50% Opacity I get the best of both worlds!
I just selected the 3D model in the 3D view, selected similar objects and made them fade away like magic!
Nice one for posting that.
If you want to just quickly look under 3D models, you could hide all of them in the layer view. Shrtcut L, second tab.
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... or in 3d view simply shift z
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... or in 3d view simply shift z
Nice tip. Now I have 3D components at 50% opacity that can be completely removed with a simple keypress.
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filter : something like is3dbody and onlayer('mechanical3')
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What I'd like to see is the solder paste layer in 3d mode. You can see it in 2d but I'd like to see it with the 3d models