SE Drawing Performance?

[Marshall Wilson]

One of the most frustrating things I experience with SolidWorks is how Drawing files will build up in file size quickly for no obvious reason, and become slow. I'm pretty sure this is an unnecessary issue because if I save a sheet (from a one-sheet drawing) and re-insert it into a new drawing, file size may be considerably smaller.... Also - the inability to use hatch patterns in detail views has generally not been possible.

I'm currently doing some tutorials with a trial version of SE. Most of our workflow is pretty simple in the part and assembly environments, with most of our real time spent in the drawing environment, so my general question is : How is the Solid Edge drawing Interface generally? What ways is it stronger, more reliable than SW, and are there any ways in which the SE drawing environment is weaker than SolidWorks'?

Thanks!

[matt]

SE drawings or Draft as they call it is the area I've spent the least amount of time in. The SE reputation is built largely on drawings, so I would expect it to be pretty good. Keep us appraised as you find interesting things. I'll try to crack open some drafts myself and give it a go, although I have to admit that's not my specialty area.

[Marshall Wilson]

SE drawings or Draft as they call it is the area I've spent the least amount of time in. The SE reputation is built largely on drawings, so I would expect it to be pretty good. Keep us appraised as you find interesting things. I'll try to crack open some drafts myself and give it a go, although I have to admit that's not my specialty area.

I'll keep working with SE, will let all know as Things progress

[bnemec]

We're in process of going from SE to SW and aside from people not understanding what PDM is, and lacking Sheetmetal functionality; the bulk of CAD issues I get questions and gripes about is the Solidworks Drawing interface. Solid Edge draft is better from what our ~30 users have experienced. BUT, that's given what we use it for. Maybe there's some 'thing' that you do with SW drawing that SE drafting cannot do, I don't know.

I haven't had time to use SW a tremendous amount, but the context menu and UI in general is just not very handy in SW.

[matt]

One of the most frustrating things I experience with SolidWorks is how Drawing files will build up in file size quickly for no obvious reason, and become slow. ....

SolidWorks has a certain philosophy on things. They want to make everything easy. One way to do that is to have a lot of data calculated before hand that you may or may not want to use later. So unlike Solid Edge, SolidWorks puts a lot of your model data, including display information, configurations, and who knows what else, into the drawing. Sometimes there's a way to strip out that extra data, and sometimes not. They do the same thing with assemblies. The thinking is that storage space is cheaper than cpu time. I'm not defending either way, just repeating things I've heard from SW.

[bnemec]

SolidWorks has a certain philosophy on things. They want to make everything easy. One way to do that is to have a lot of data calculated before hand that you may or may not want to use later. So unlike Solid Edge, SolidWorks puts a lot of your model data, including display information, configurations, and who knows what else, into the drawing. Sometimes there's a way to strip out that extra data, and sometimes not. They do the same thing with assemblies. The thinking is that storage space is cheaper than cpu time. I'm not defending either way, just repeating things I've heard from SW.

@matt Just explained the root of many of the problems (confusions) we've had with using Solidworks Drawings.

[bnemec]

When placing views, Solid Edge beats SW over and over in my opinion. In Edge you can select the view (even 3D rotations or align to edge or normal to face) right from the drawing without needing to open the model to add a view.

This business of needing to edit the model to make the drawing is compounded with PDM where the model will get new versions (making where used out of date) just to add a view for the drawing. Even worse is if the drawing is done by someone that shouldn't be checking out the model and the model is in released state.

[AlexLachance]

SolidWorks has a certain philosophy on things. They want to make everything easy. One way to do that is to have a lot of data calculated before hand that you may or may not want to use later. So unlike Solid Edge, SolidWorks puts a lot of your model data, including display information, configurations, and who knows what else, into the drawing. Sometimes there's a way to strip out that extra data, and sometimes not. They do the same thing with assemblies. The thinking is that storage space is cheaper than cpu time. I'm not defending either way, just repeating things I've heard from SW.

SolidWorks really needs to work on a purge command to allow the user the ability to view all these things, purge them when possible, and if not possible, have the command point what prevents it from being possible. I've been saying this for a really long time, but I think it would help a whole lot, both the software and it's users, as it would also allow people to "visualize" how the program creates such links.

[mike miller]

We're in process of going from SE to SW and aside from people not understanding what PDM is, and lacking Sheetmetal functionality; the bulk of CAD issues I get questions and gripes about is the Solidworks Drawing interface. Solid Edge draft is better from what our ~30 users have experienced. BUT, that's given what we use it for. Maybe there's some 'thing' that you do with SW drawing that SE drafting cannot do, I don't know.

I haven't had time to use SW a tremendous amount, but the context menu and UI in general is just not very handy in SW.

You know, I'm really glad to hear that because we're mostly likely going to be migrating to SE in the next year. SE's UI seems extremely clunky to me so far....but I'm glad to hear you say the same thing about SWX because that means it's my lack of knowledge, and I can overcome that with time.

[bnemec]

You know, I'm really glad to hear that because we're mostly likely going to be migrating to SE in the next year. SE's UI seems extremely clunky to me so far....but I'm glad to hear you say the same thing about SWX because that means it's my lack of knowledge, and I can overcome that with time.

Yes, I think you are spot on. Some large percentage of the "CAD xx is slow to..." complaints are just due to lack of practice with the UI. Unless contract engineering/modeling is your game, it's hard to justify he cost of relearning everything.

[Marshall Wilson]

Yes, I think you are spot on. Some large percentage of the "CAD xx is slow to..." complaints are just due to lack of practice with the UI. Unless contract engineering/modeling is your game, it's hard to justify he cost of relearning everything.

Exactly. For years I trash-talked AutoCad when the problem was really my inexperience! Only now, after three years of seriously trying to learn Autocad, I am starting to see its real value!

[Marshall Wilson]

SolidWorks has a certain philosophy on things. They want to make everything easy. One way to do that is to have a lot of data calculated before hand that you may or may not want to use later. So unlike Solid Edge, SolidWorks puts a lot of your model data, including display information, configurations, and who knows what else, into the drawing. Sometimes there's a way to strip out that extra data, and sometimes not. They do the same thing with assemblies. The thinking is that storage space is cheaper than cpu time. I'm not defending either way, just repeating things I've heard from SW.

Like with what Alex mentioned, a "purge" command, if SW only provided some sort of way for the user to have some control over the data in drawing files it would be a great help. File size is not only about storage - from my experience, bigger file size = slower drawing performance.

[MJuric]

When placing views, Solid Edge beats SW over and over in my opinion. In Edge you can select the view (even 3D rotations or align to edge or normal to face) right from the drawing without needing to open the model to add a view.

This business of needing to edit the model to make the drawing is compounded with PDM where the model will get new versions (making where used out of date) just to add a view for the drawing. Even worse is if the drawing is done by someone that shouldn't be checking out the model and the model is in released state.

I'm not following this. You can make drawings of models without having to open the model. You can add pretty much any view you want without the model open. About the only view I know of that you need the model open for is when you want a view that can not be arrived at by some combination of projected or auxiliary view.

Furthermore if you need a view that you can't get to you can open the model, present the view you want and create a view of that all without checking the model out or changing it in any way. Not sure I would do that because then the drawing view is not really tied to anything you can just go back to, but you can do it if you want.

[AlexLachance]

I'm not following this. You can make drawings of models without having to open the model. You can add pretty much any view you want without the model open. About the only view I know of that you need the model open for is when you want a view that can not be arrived at by some combination of projected or auxiliary view.

Furthermore if you need a view that you can't get to you can open the model, present the view you want and create a view of that all without checking the model out or changing it in any way. Not sure I would do that because then the drawing view is not really tied to anything you can just go back to, but you can do it if you want.

Matt,

What he meant was having the model(part/assembly) loaded in it's cache, not necessarly opened. To create a view in a drawing, SolidWorks must first load the model of the assembly/part in it's cache. Not sure how it could work otherwise though

[MJuric]

Matt,

What he meant was having the model(part/assembly) loaded in it's cache, not necessarly opened. To create a view in a drawing, SolidWorks must first load the model of the assembly/part in it's cache. Not sure how it could work otherwise though

Maybe he can clarify because "This business of needing to edit the model to make the drawing is compounded with PDM where the model will get new versions" that sounds to me like he's talking about actually opening, checking the model out and checking it back in.

Unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible, you don't create new version by loading a part into cache and I wouldn't think it would effect PDM data at all.

[AlexLachance]

Maybe he can clarify because "This business of needing to edit the model to make the drawing is compounded with PDM where the model will get new versions" that sounds to me like he's talking about actually opening, checking the model out and checking it back in.

Unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible, you don't create new version by loading a part into cache and I wouldn't think it would effect PDM data at all.

What would trigger such thing, IMHO, would be external references, which would cause the model to update itself and therefor create a new version upon saving drawing, as it would also save the model(assembly or part)

Lots of assuming in there though, I've never even used PDM.

[MJuric]

What would trigger such thing, IMHO, would be external references, which would cause the model to update itself and therefor create a new version upon saving drawing, as it would also save the model(assembly or part)

Lots of assuming in there though, I've never even used PDM.

In the PDM you can't save changes unless you've checked the part out. Again, unless I'm missing something, in order for a new version to be created, which is created when you check a part in, you'd have to check it out while creating a drawing view.

I'm not aware of any situation where you would need to check the part out to create a drawing view unless you are also wanting to save that view in the model like in the case of where you add a named view.

Most other views can be created using projection, section, auxiliary etc.

[bnemec]

Maybe he can clarify because "This business of needing to edit the model to make the drawing is compounded with PDM where the model will get new versions" that sounds to me like he's talking about actually opening, checking the model out and checking it back in.

Unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible, you don't create new version by loading a part into cache and I wouldn't think it would effect PDM data at all.

He'll try to clarify. I had to get into Solidworks and work through example to make it clear in my mind and find the proper jargon that SW uses. What I had in my mind is display states. Yes, Solid Edge has those two but it seems Display States was the go to answer for our questions like "how do I ... in Solidworks drawing view"

I think Marshall Wilson's point of users need to know more about the software is the answer here. As with any CAD there's a dozen ways to do just about anything; when a new users asks how to do something, they may get a dozen different answers. Ten of them may cause problems somewhere else or just not work because of the hundreds of other variables.

[MJuric]

He'll try to clarify. I had to get into Solidworks and work through example to make it clear in my mind and find the proper jargon that SW uses. What I had in my mind is display states. Yes, Solid Edge has those two but it seems Display States was the go to answer for our questions like "how do I ... in Solidworks drawing view"

I think Marshall Wilson's point of users need to know more about the software is the answer here. As with any CAD there's a dozen ways to do just about anything; when a new users asks how to do something, they may get a dozen different answers. Ten of them may cause problems somewhere else or just not work because of the hundreds of other variables.

Without knowing what you're doing it's hard to say, but I rarely, dare I say never, use display states to control my drawing views. You can make parts visible/not visible right in the drawing in the feature tree. If I'm trying to show assemblies in different positions I make a configuration and you can change what config the drawing view is using. You can hide individual lines if you want to right in the drawing.

In fact I really don't even like display states. Not sure if it's my own ignorance of not know how to use them well or if it's that SW just doesn't work, but most of the time when I try to use them, renderings, illustrations etc I struggle to get them to do what I want.

[Marshall Wilson]

Without knowing what you're doing it's hard to say, but I rarely, dare I say never, use display states to control my drawing views. You can make parts visible/not visible right in the drawing in the feature tree. If I'm trying to show assemblies in different positions I make a configuration and you can change what config the drawing view is using. You can hide individual lines if you want to right in the drawing.

In fact I really don't even like display states. Not sure if it's my own ignorance of not know how to use them well or if it's that SW just doesn't work, but most of the time when I try to use them, renderings, illustrations etc I struggle to get them to do what I want.

Exactly. Display States are a quick way to trouble if you rely on them for part display in drawings. Configurations are a much more reliable way to go. I rarely use display states for anything after some unfortunate experiences a few years ago (Display states in drawing views would only display correctly if the model file had the same display state active)

[bnemec]

Without knowing what you're doing it's hard to say, but I rarely, dare I say never, use display states to control my drawing views. You can make parts visible/not visible right in the drawing in the feature tree. If I'm trying to show assemblies in different positions I make a configuration and you can change what config the drawing view is using. You can hide individual lines if you want to right in the drawing.

In fact I really don't even like display states. Not sure if it's my own ignorance of not know how to use them well or if it's that SW just doesn't work, but most of the time when I try to use them, renderings, illustrations etc I struggle to get them to do what I want.

That makes both of us not knowing what I'm doing.

Here's the tool in Solid Edge that I cannot seem to find a replacement in Solidworks. IIRC the suggestion is to use Display States. Hopefully someone can guide me.

It's called Custom Orientation which is a 3D viewport of the model and has tools to help orientate the model so that the view can efficiently display welds or some shape etc. I didn't realize how often we used it.

"Custom" button would bring up the dialog:

This can be done at any time, not just view creation. I don't know if this is of any help to Marshall in his original post, but If SW has something similar without using Display States I'd love to hear it.

[jcapriotti]

Here's the tool in Solid Edge that I cannot seem to find a replacement in Solidworks. IIRC the suggestion is to use Display States. Hopefully someone can guide me.

It's called Custom Orientation which is a 3D viewport of the model and has tools to help orientate the model so that the view can efficiently display welds or some shape etc. I didn't realize how often we used it.

This can be done at any time, not just view creation. I don't know if this is of any help to Marshall in his original post, but If SW has something similar without using Display States I'd love to hear it.

Open the model in another window and rotate it how you want. Then start a new view and select "Current model view".

[Jaylin Hochstetler]

Or by creating a "New View" and inserting it into a drawing, see video attached.

SW New View.mp4

(12.04 MiB) Downloaded 143 times

[MJuric]

That makes both of us not knowing what I'm doing.

Here's the tool in Solid Edge that I cannot seem to find a replacement in Solidworks. IIRC the suggestion is to use Display States. Hopefully someone can guide me.

It's called Custom Orientation which is a 3D viewport of the model and has tools to help orientate the model so that the view can efficiently display welds or some shape etc. I didn't realize how often we used it.

image.png

"Custom" button would bring up the dialog:

image.png

This can be done at any time, not just view creation. I don't know if this is of any help to Marshall in his original post, but If SW has something similar without using Display States I'd love to hear it.

As others have said you can open the model, rotate to what you want, and create a view from it without ever checking out the model.

For something a bit more robust and with some foresight you can create a named view in the model and then you can call that back without opening the model at all. You can create named views in any orientation you want, but that does require checking out the model and saving it.

[Glenn Schroeder]

Without knowing what you're doing it's hard to say, but I rarely, dare I say never, use display states to control my drawing views. You can make parts visible/not visible right in the drawing in the feature tree. If I'm trying to show assemblies in different positions I make a configuration and you can change what config the drawing view is using. You can hide individual lines if you want to right in the drawing.

In fact I really don't even like display states. Not sure if it's my own ignorance of not know how to use them well or if it's that SW just doesn't work, but most of the time when I try to use them, renderings, illustrations etc I struggle to get them to do what I want.

Exactly. Display States are a quick way to trouble if you rely on them for part display in drawings. Configurations are a much more reliable way to go. I rarely use display states for anything after some unfortunate experiences a few years ago (Display states in drawing views would only display correctly if the model file had the same display state active)

I will respectfully disagree with both of you. I use display states often, and wouldn't want to have to get by without them. It isn't unusual for me to want to hide dozens of components in a drawing view (or multiple drawing views). I'd hate to have to do that by hiding the components directly in the drawing view.

Also, while they can be difficult to manage for new users, display states have some advantages over configurations (which of course can also be difficult to manage).

1. They don't increase the file size as much as configurations.
2. When you suppress a component, any mates involving the suppressed component are also suppressed, which can result in unintended movement of the component that was mated to the suppressed one. That doesn't happen with display states since the component is just hidden instead of suppressed.

To directly address some of your points, if you're having trouble getting them to do what you want, feel free to ask, I'll be happy to help if I can, since I haven't had any issues like that. And I don't remember ever needed the desired display state to be active in the model for the drawing view to be displayed correctly. You might give them another try.

[Jaylin Hochstetler]

That makes both of us not knowing what I'm doing.

Here's the tool in Solid Edge that I cannot seem to find a replacement in Solidworks. IIRC the suggestion is to use Display States. Hopefully someone can guide me.

It's called Custom Orientation which is a 3D viewport of the model and has tools to help orientate the model so that the view can efficiently display welds or some shape etc. I didn't realize how often we used it.

image.png

"Custom" button would bring up the dialog:

image.png

This can be done at any time, not just view creation. I don't know if this is of any help to Marshall in his original post, but If SW has something similar without using Display States I'd love to hear it.

I like that! I didn't know you could do that in SE, another one of them nifty features in Solid Edge!

[MJuric]

I will respectfully disagree with both of you. I use display states often, and wouldn't want to have to get by without them. It isn't unusual for me to want to hide dozens of components in a drawing view (or multiple drawing views). I'd hate to have to do that by hiding the components directly in the drawing view.

Take this from someone who doesn't use drawing states often or much at all, but how is hiding a part in a display state any different than hiding it in a drawing?

I stopped using display states because it just seemed to add complexity and issues for me, maybe due to my own ignorance.

For example. I just pulled up a simple assembly. I created two display states. I created a view. In one view I used one display state and in a projected view I used another display state....and the alignment between the two views blew up.

Doing the same thing by hiding the part in the view does not effect the alignment,

This and many more issues is what I always seem to run into with Display states.

Furthermore I rarely if ever know exactly what parts I want to show and not show in a drawing view until I have already created that drawing view. By simply Clicking on the part in the drawing view it highlights it in the feature tree and I just turn it off by RMB, Show/Hide...done. If I need to show or hide a bunch of parts I just go to the feature and select them and turn them off.

In order to do this with display states I would have to
1) Open model
2) Check out model (Creating the problem we are discussing)
3) Create a new display state
4) hide the parts I want to hide in that display state
5) Save the model
6) Check the model back in
7) Go back to the drawing to find out there was another part I wanted to turn off...repeat steps one thru six.

By comparison in the drawing view it's RMB>Show/Hide repeat until you get the view you want or use [CNTRL] and or [SHFT] to select multiple parts in the feature tree and hide a bunch of parts, all without ever looking at the model.

[Jaylin Hochstetler]

Take this from someone who doesn't use drawing states often or much at all, but how is hiding a part in a display state any different than hiding it in a drawing?

I stopped using display states because it just seemed to add complexity and issues for me, maybe due to my own ignorance.

For example. I just pulled up a simple assembly. I created two display states. I created a view. In one view I used one display state and in a projected view I used another display state....and the alignment between the two views blew up.
image.png

Doing the same thing by hiding the part in the view does not effect the alignment,

image.png

This and many more issues is what I always seem to run into with Display states.

Furthermore I rarely if ever know exactly what parts I want to show and not show in a drawing view until I have already created that drawing view. By simply Clicking on the part in the drawing view it highlights it in the feature tree and I just turn it off by RMB, Show/Hide...done. If I need to show or hide a bunch of parts I just go to the feature and select them and turn them off.

In order to do this with display states I would have to
1) Open model
2) Check out model (Creating the problem we are discussing)
3) Create a new display state
4) hide the parts I want to hide in that display state
5) Save the model
6) Check the model back in
7) Go back to the drawing to find out there was another part I wanted to turn off...repeat steps one thru six.

By comparison in the drawing view it's RMB>Show/Hide repeat until you get the view you want or use [CNTRL] and or [SHFT] to select multiple parts in the feature tree and hide a bunch of parts, all without ever looking at the model.

The only time I use Display States is when I want to put a DV on multiple sheets with the same parts hidden. Because then I can drop them in the sheets, select that display state and the correct parts are hidden. This especially helpful if you are hiding a lot of parts. I am currently not using PDM so I don't have quite as many steps for creating a display state as you do. They have their pros and cons.

[Glenn Schroeder]

Take this from someone who doesn't use drawing states often or much at all, but how is hiding a part in a display state any different than hiding it in a drawing?

I stopped using display states because it just seemed to add complexity and issues for me, maybe due to my own ignorance.

For example. I just pulled up a simple assembly. I created two display states. I created a view. In one view I used one display state and in a projected view I used another display state....and the alignment between the two views blew up.
image.png

Doing the same thing by hiding the part in the view does not effect the alignment,

image.png

This and many more issues is what I always seem to run into with Display states.

Furthermore I rarely if ever know exactly what parts I want to show and not show in a drawing view until I have already created that drawing view. By simply Clicking on the part in the drawing view it highlights it in the feature tree and I just turn it off by RMB, Show/Hide...done. If I need to show or hide a bunch of parts I just go to the feature and select them and turn them off.

In order to do this with display states I would have to
1) Open model
2) Check out model (Creating the problem we are discussing)
3) Create a new display state
4) hide the parts I want to hide in that display state
5) Save the model
6) Check the model back in
7) Go back to the drawing to find out there was another part I wanted to turn off...repeat steps one thru six.

By comparison in the drawing view it's RMB>Show/Hide repeat until you get the view you want or use [CNTRL] and or [SHFT] to select multiple parts in the feature tree and hide a bunch of parts, all without ever looking at the model.

I will wholeheartedly agree that if you're only hiding one or two components of an Assembly it's easier to do it directly in the drawing view. However, if you have an Assembly like the one shown below, and want to hide everything except the concrete and rebar, or maybe keep the hardware that's embedded in the concrete, it's not so simple in the drawing view. On the other hand, it's very simple to set up a new display state in the drawing, do a click and drag box select, and hide multiple components in one step.

By the way, I've also had issues with drawing views becoming misaligned, even when it has nothing to do with display states. Breaking alignment and then re-applying it has always worked for me.

[bnemec]

Open the model in another window and rotate it how you want. Then start a new view and select "Current model view".

image.png

That might be what I was looking for. Seems too obvious now that it's pointed out, Thank you.

[bnemec]

Or by creating a "New View" and inserting it into a drawing, see video attached.
SW New View.mp4

I need to play around more with "Named views" and "Display States" Maybe I was am likely confused, I thought that since those things are done in the model that the model file would need to be saved in order for any views that used the Named View or Display State to work after the files are all closed and reopened.

[MJuric]

I will wholeheartedly agree that if you're only hiding one or two components of an Assembly it's easier to do it directly in the drawing view. However, if you have an Assembly like the one shown below, and want to hide everything except the concrete and rebar, or maybe keep the hardware that's embedded in the concrete, it's not so simple in the drawing view. On the other hand, it's very simple to set up a new display state in the drawing, do a click and drag box select, and hide multiple components in one step.

I'm not trying to argue here, but honestly I don't see the advantage. I can [CNTRL][SHFT] and select all the parts in a drawing view then unselect the concrete and rebar and RMB, Show/Hide.

It also depends on how your assembly is set up. For instance we typically put all our fasteners in a folder in the assembly. Even if I have multiple sub assemblies and I want to hide all the fasteners in multiple S/A's I just open the tree, select all the parts in the fastener folders and RMB>Show/Hide.

Hiding multiple parts in a single step in the drawing view is just as easy as doing it in a display state as far as I can tell unless I'm missing something. The only difference is whether you do it in the graphics window or in the feature tree.

Furthermore you're foregoing all the work of creating display states, opening models, saving models Etc. This also avoids the issue of creating a new version.

I'm not saying there's no advantage in some cases to using display states, certainly if you have several views of the same thing using a display state is a good way to go....although I just typically set one up and copy/Paste the view so I don't have to re-hide all the parts.

[Marshall Wilson]

I will respectfully disagree with both of you. I use display states often, and wouldn't want to have to get by without them. It isn't unusual for me to want to hide dozens of components in a drawing view (or multiple drawing views). I'd hate to have to do that by hiding the components directly in the drawing view.

Also, while they can be difficult to manage for new users, display states have some advantages over configurations (which of course can also be difficult to manage).

1. They don't increase the file size as much as configurations.
2. When you suppress a component, any mates involving the suppressed component are also suppressed, which can result in unintended movement of the component that was mated to the suppressed one. That doesn't happen with display states since the component is just hidden instead of suppressed.

To directly address some of your points, if you're having trouble getting them to do what you want, feel free to ask, I'll be happy to help if I can, since I haven't had any issues like that. And I don't remember ever needed the desired display state to be active in the model for the drawing view to be displayed correctly. You might give them another try.

Thanks Glenn. Your stamp of approval goes a long way so I'll definitely give display states another chance!
-m

[jcapriotti]

I'm not trying to argue here, but honestly I don't see the advantage. I can [CNTRL][SHFT] and select all the parts in a drawing view then unselect the concrete and rebar and RMB, Show/Hide.

It also depends on how your assembly is set up. For instance we typically put all our fasteners in a folder in the assembly. Even if I have multiple sub assemblies and I want to hide all the fasteners in multiple S/A's I just open the tree, select all the parts in the fastener folders and RMB>Show/Hide.

Hiding multiple parts in a single step in the drawing view is just as easy as doing it in a display state as far as I can tell unless I'm missing something. The only difference is whether you do it in the graphics window or in the feature tree.

Furthermore you're foregoing all the work of creating display states, opening models, saving models Etc. This also avoids the issue of creating a new version.

I'm not saying there's no advantage in some cases to using display states, certainly if you have several views of the same thing using a display state is a good way to go....although I just typically set one up and copy/Paste the view so I don't have to re-hide all the parts.

We do the same, hiding from the view properties essentially is like creating a display state in just that drawing view. A drawing only Display State would be useful in some cases for applying to multiple views.. We do create Display States in some very large assemblies that have numerous exploded views where we need to show just small groups of components. It's just too tedious to create and maintain this in the drawing view properties, display states are easier to work with when it gets complicated.

[MJuric]

We do the same, hiding from the view properties essentially is like creating a display state in just that drawing view. A drawing only Display State would be useful in some cases for applying to multiple views.. We do create Display States in some very large assemblies that have numerous exploded views where we need to show just small groups of components. It's just too tedious to create and maintain this in the drawing view properties, display states are easier to work with when it gets complicated.

Sometimes in really complicated situations I just create another config. Maybe displays states would be a better choice there but I've just run into several situations where displays states seemed odd, alignment issue I pointed out, that I just stopped even trying to use them.

[jcapriotti]

Sometimes in really complicated situations I just create another config. Maybe displays states would be a better choice there but I've just run into several situations where displays states seemed odd, alignment issue I pointed out, that I just stopped even trying to use them.

They have been flaky in various versions. I try to steer clear of using configurations for this because 1. We use configurations to represent part numbers or variants. 2. Configurations are heavy and slow on large assemblies. Display States are much faster and don't bloat the files size like configurations do.