Hiding geometry within a component from scene to scene without using layers?

Here is what I am looking to do.

Import a component.

Hide desired geometry inside component, without exploding it or adding any “layer wrapping” to nested geometry, and have the desired hidden geometry stay “attached” to the given scene.

Current workflow is. Create MASTER file, import as component into another side file, assign any hidden geometry to scene specific layers to only be invisible to that scene. Example: Scene 1 gets Scene 1 layer to “wrap” existing geometry.

The problem I am facing is that whenever I update my MASTER file, the “layer wraps” go away. Also the amount of layers is also a concern.

Just want to make sure I am not overlooking an easy solution to this or an extension. Any advice would be great.

Thanks

“Hidden” is a flag attached to each entity individually. You can turn “view hidden geometry” on or off for the entire model and a scene can remember this global setting, but there is no way to use this flag to hide a different set of geometry in each scene. That’s what layers are for.

It sounds like your problem is that your layers are defined in the file that imports the component rather than in the MASTER one that defines it. When you update the component, the new definition doesn’t know about your layers so it ignores them.

Yes, Thank you. I understand the problem. I am looking to see if anyone has any advice or a solution.

I have a similar problem. I’m working with a complicated model, and I need to show multiple views (scenes) with a different set of details (items) in each scene. I create an item in one scene, then I have to go to every other scene, hide that item, and re-save the scene. With N scenes and M items, that could be as many as M x N hides and re-saves. Luckily many of the items don’t appear in all the scenes, due to the camera position.

Creating a layer for the items specific to each scene seems like an awkward workaround. Layers make sense when there is a purpose like “plumbing” or “electrical”, where there is clean separation of function, but not so sensible for just “scene 2 details”, etc. where some of the details might actually be needed in multiple scenes.

There must be a better way to do this, some way we can select the scenes that an item is to appear in.

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Hi, I have the same problem I think. After creating a new layer I have to go through each scene (of which there may be dozens) and deselect the the new layer then update the scene. I would much rather create a new layer (which may have a very particular detail) and then go through scenes and toggle visibility on IF I want it (not the other way round)… If there was a choice it would save so much time and drudgery. Does anyone know if there are ways of achieving this?

There is an extention to add new layers that are off to all existing scenes. I think it is called ‘Add_hidden_layer’ by Jim Foltz. It does as you request.

Thank you very much for the response and advice. I have installed the plugin/extension called Add Layer to SU 2017 and although it hasn’t been updated for a while, it seems to work fine. Add Layer is perfect for me, it does just one thing and is simple to understand and use. Problem solved and workflow improved. Many thanks Dan