Viewing the attributes of an assembly

Use the Edit Object Attributes tool to view details about an assembly including its position relative to the world centre, the size of its bounding box relative to the world centre, its volume, material, and weight. You can also edit many of these attributes.

To display the attributes of an assembly:

  1. In the Project panel, select the root Assembly or the assembly in the Project Tree for which you want to view its attributes. The Assembly panel is displayed below the splitter bar.
  2. In the Properties area of the Assembly panel, click the Edit Object Attributes button. This displays the Attributes panel, containing the assembly's attributes, below the splitter bar. All of these attributes can be edited, except for the following:
    • The nearest point to the centre.

      This value is the distance to the closest point on the selected assembly, or any of its associated visible meshes and assemblies, from the world centre. This is useful for calculating the radius of a rotary shank when it is aligned with the world centre. The value shown in brackets is twice that of the calculated nearest distance; equal to the diameter of the rotary shank when aligned with the world centre.

    Note: If the selected assembly and all of its associated meshes and assemblies are not currently visible, the value is displayed as None.
    • The width (X), length (Y) and height (Z).

      These values are the dimensions of the bounding box surrounding the selected assembly and all of its associated meshes and assemblies, irrespective of their visibility, relative to the world centre.

    Note: The Width (X), Length (Y) and Height (Z) values are colour co-ordinated with the model datum displayed in the 3D view.
    • The volume of the assembly, as shown in mm³.
  3. The given weight of the assembly is controlled by the material and units of measurement currently selected. This value is updated if either the material or units of measurement are changed.

    To change the material used for the assembly:

    • Click the Material list and select the material in which it will eventually be cast. Gold (9ct) is selected by default.

    To calculate the volume of the assembly while compensating for any shrinkage that you would expect to occur during the casting process:

    • In the Shrinkage box, specify the percentage of the assembly's original volume by which you expect it to reduce during the casting process. No shrinkage is applied by default.

    To change the units of measurement in which the assembly is weighed:

    • Click the Weight list, followed by the unit of measurement that you want to use. Metric (g) is selected by default.
  4. If the assembly was created from an imported sliced triangle mesh originally created in JewelCAD, select Contains JewelCAD Sliced STL.
  5. Click on the splitter bar to apply any changes that you have made and close the settings.
Note: The availability of this feature is license dependent.