Select an existing appearance or define your own, such as a striped wire, using the Material and Appearance Editors.
A basic set of appearances are defined for wires and segments. If you need additional appearances, you can define your own custom appearance using Tools tab Material and Appearance panel Material .
Set wire appearance
Note: Although textured appearances are supported, they cannot be viewed on wires displayed as centerlines. By adding a two-color wire appearance as a custom property for a single color wire, you can represent the correct appearance.
If an appearance, which affects a library wire, is modified in a harness assembly, the harness assembly template should be updated to reflect the change. Once the template is updated, all subsequently created harness assemblies have the new or modified appearance.
- Open an existing or new cable and harness assembly file with at least one wire or segment.
- On the ribbon, click Tools tab Material and Appearance panel Material .
- In the Document Materials pane, double-click the wire material to edit it.
- In the Material Editor, select the Appearance asset and click Replace .
- In the Asset Browser, select the desired Appearance and click Replace . You can also double-click to replace. close the Asset Browser to return to the Material Editor.
- To apply changes to the wire immediately, in the Material Editor, click Apply. Otherwise, click OK to close the Material Editor.
Create a striped wire
- Create an image (supported image formats) for the wire appearance. The image size need not be big. For example, 75 x 75 pixels is sufficient.
Note: If needed, see the example 2-color bitmap files in the Tutorial Files directory. The default locations is:
Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating system:
- Users\Public\Public Documents\Autodesk\Inventor [version]\Tutorial Files\Cable & Harness\Two Color Bitmaps.
- Save the image in:
Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating system:
- Users\Public\Public Documents\Autodesk\Inventor [version]\Textures\Surfaces.
- On the Tools tab Material and Appearance click Appearance . The Appearance Browser displays.
You can create appearances from scratch or duplicate something close to what you want and make modifications to the new appearance.
- In the Appearance Browser library section, lower section, locate the Plastic - Black Appearance. Right-click the appearance and select Duplicate. A new material is added to the document. Double-click the material to edit it.
- In the Appearance Editor, In the Generic properties, Specify a new name for the appearance.
- Click the image thumbnail. The Edit Image dialog box displays.
- In the Edit Image dialog box, in the Image properties, click the Source name. The Open File dialog box displays;
- Navigate to and select the new wire image made in step 1.
- Adjust the image properties to reflect what you want and close the image editor.
- Adjust any properties in the Appearance Editor and close the editor.
- Close the Appearance Browser.
- To begin creating the new wire, open the Cable and Harness library, and then click New.
- Enter properties specific to the new two-color wire.
- From the Appearance list, select the wire appearance you created.
- Click Save and then Close.
- Add the wire to your harness.
Note: Be sure the wire is displayed as rendered to see the two colors.
- To adjust the texture image on the wire, on the Tools tab Material and Appearance click Adjust .
- Select the wire, using the Texture Manipulator, adjust the appearance to match your requirements.