Control Visibility of Invisible Actors in SOLIDWORKS Composer 2021

In SOLIDWORKS Composer 2021 we can control the visibility of the actors that are invisible in the viewport when selected.

As hidden or invisible actors have their visibility turned off and sometimes when we show them in the viewport, it’s difficult to locate if the geometry-actor is shown when the assembly is large and we have way too many parts.

With Composer 2021 we can now specify to highlight actors in the viewport when they are selected in the Assembly tree even before the geometry actor is shown.

Invisible Actor Setting:

1. Go to File > Applications Preferences, the Application Preferences Dialog box opens up
2. Click on the Selection Tab
3. Toggle ON/OFF – “Highlight in the viewport invisible actors belonging to the selection”

Visibility of hidden actors

See below the images of the model with this visibility option is Toggled OFF and ON. In both cases, the geometry actor Finger Grip is toggled off (hidden) and is not visible in the viewport. But when we select the finger grip from the assembly tree, the location of the hidden actor can be seen with the visibility actor option ON.

Visibility of Hidden actor OFF – when selected

Visibility of Hidden actor ON- when selected

In the previous version of the composer, this option (control) didn’t even exist, and the visibility of the hidden actor couldn’t be shown even when it was selected.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS Composer

To learn more about SOLIDWORKS Composer attend our SOLIDWORKS Composer Essentials training course either in a classroom near you or live online.