Creating a Visibility Activity

This procedure describes how to add a visibility activity to a process.

A visibility activity can:

hide one or more parts (which turns off the display of a part) or
show one or more parts (which turns on the display so you can view the part movement, if any)
provide a transparent view of a part
provide a different color for a part
reset color or opaqueness of a part to the design values.

In addition to selecting discrete parts for visibility activities, you can also select manufacturing assemblies.

When visibility activities appear on the same level as other activities, visibility activities remain in effect throughout a simulation unless the process encounters visibility activities countermanding their predecessors. When a visibility activity is a child activity of another activity and the simulation options are set to Parent, the visibility activity affects the simulation only during the parent activity; no additional visibility activity is required to countermand effects of the initial visibility activity.

This procedure assumes that you have either selected the activity immediately prior to the one you wish to insert or that you have selected process.

Click Visibility Activity from the Simulation Activity Creation toolbar.

The Activity Creation Options dialog box appears asking where to place the activity.

Select the location for the activity and click OK .

A visibility activity appears on the PPR tree (initially named SimulationVisibility), a preview window appears, and the Edit Visibility Operation dialog box appears.

By default, Hide Selected is checked.

Select the part or parts whose visibility you want altered.

The part (or parts) appear in the preview window.
	If you want to alter the visibility of more than one part, you may do so by continuing to select parts. All of the parts selected will appear in the preview window and the number of parts listed in the selection box will increase.
	If you inadvertently select the wrong part, you can de-select the part or parts while the window is open by clicking on the part a second time.

Do you want the parts to remain visible?

If no, click OK; the activity is added to the PPR tree; the procedure is over.
If yes, select Show Selected (the color and opaqueness Set/Reset options will no longer be grayed out).

If you want the parts to remain visible do you want to alter their color or opaqueness?

If no, select the `OK` button; the activity is added to the PPR tree; the procedure is over. If yes, set select one or both of the following: `Set` or `Reset Color` `Set` or `Reset Opaqueness`.
	Setting the values changes the color and opaqueness from the current values; resetting the values returns the color and opaqueness back to the original design values.

Use the data fields to alter the values you want altered:

If you want to alter the color, select a color from the Color box.
If you want to alter the opaqueness, select a percentage from the Opaqueness.
If you want to have the color and opaqueness changes occur over a specified interval, in the Duration box, enter the number of seconds in which you wish the change to occur.

Click OK button; the activity is added to the PPR tree.

	The name of the activity starts with either hide or show and then contains the part name. If you selected more than one part, the first part selected is the name on the activity.
	The image below shows the effect of altering the color to blue and the opaqueness to 25%.

	If, in the `Tools > Options > General > Display > Performance` dialog box, you have selected `High` transparency quality, you can see differences among 75%, 50%, and 25% opaqueness setting. If you have selected `Low`, the object will appear somewhat transparent, but different levels of opaqueness will not be apparent. See `Tools > Options > General > Display > Performance` for more information.
	If the color and/or opaqueness was already set on the parent of the selected part, the change in color and opaqueness for the child product is not visible for the user. The child is displayed using the color /opaqueness of the parent.
	For more details, see `Displaying and Editing Graphic Properties` in the V5 Infrastructure User's Guide.

About Selecting Manufacturing Assemblies

In addition to selecting discrete parts for visibility activities, you can also select manufacturing assemblies. Selecting a single assembly instead of all its constituent parts is often more efficient for users.

When you select a manufacturing assembly, the Selection field in the Edit Visibility Operation dialog box shows that one product has been selected; it does not provide a count of the number of parts selected. Similarly, when you select an assembly, on the PPR tree, only the assembly node appears highlighted. In the 3D view, all the parts of the assembly appear highlighted in the geometry.

If the children are changed for a manufacturing assembly that is assigned to a visibility activity, their graphical properties are not automatically changed. You have to run the simulation for the corresponding visibility activity in order for the changes to be applied on the new parts from the manufacturing assembly.