Shift 'C' is a great shortcut to collapse the Feature Manager tree. But is there a single command to do the opposite and EXPAND the complete FM tree?
TIA
Maurice
Shift 'C' is a great shortcut to collapse the Feature Manager tree. But is there a single command to do the opposite and EXPAND the complete FM tree?
TIA
Maurice
Mine doesn't collapse, it scrolls down.
You can write a macro to do it.
Just curious, why would you want to collapse the feature manager?
Scott,
I believe Maurice is reffering to i.e. an assembly a few levels deep. If you click the "+" next to the sub assys it expands to show either another sub assy or the parts to that assy ect. Say you expand all these out but then hit SHIFT + "C", it collapses everything back up to the main assemblys within the master assy. Is there a way to do the opposite? (expand everything out)
Im curious also....
Ok Nick, now that makes sense. I can understand why one would want to
have a hotkey to bring the expanded assemblies back in. But, I still
stand on that a macro through API is probably the best bet.
Ctrl + Shift + C is the key but don't know why it doesn't work for me
Doesnt work for me either...
Did you add that key combination? The Expand/Collapse on my system (SW2011-SP2) was blank.
Also, I just did a reset to factory default on the keyboard shortcuts and the Expand/Collapse was no longer available. That may be why the shortcut doesn't work.
That hotkey is active when you are in an assy and you are inside a command which exposes the tree that is inside the graphics area. That hotkey will then collapse or expand down that tree. But it does not totally expand it as the OP here was asking about - it basically drops it to open it, or collapses it to close it up to one line. The default should be "c" when you are in an assy.
WT
One possible opposite would be selecting the top of the tree and hitting the asterisk key *
I think that definitely answers the question....good information Jason
What happens to the FM when you do that? It does nothing on my system.
Everything with a "+" to the left of it in the tree becomes a "-" down to the very bottom level. Everything is expanded.
That's what the OP was asking for, but I still question why. I just did it to see how long it would take on this assy I have open and probably took 20 seconds to open all of it. Yikes!
WT
Hmmm ... I guess that's another de-hancement in SW2011 ... or maybe just my system.
Is the * key working as an "Expand All" shortcut for anyone else using SW2011?
Kelvin, stupid question but you are using the * on the number pad rather than the one above the "8" key correct?
Doh!
Obviously not a stupid question at all. Thank you.
haha
YES, thanks Jason, that's got it!:-
Top of the tree and hit asterisk *
Maurice
Just for interest, why do you need to expand everything in the FM?
Kelvin and Wayne-
I sometimes find I want to open the FM tree of an assembly to view all sub assemblies and components. Using * is overkill as it opens EVERYTHING but at least it can be easily closed again. I haven't used the * command in anger yet, just tried it to see what happens.
So I suppose a more accurate request would be, is there a single hotkey to open the Assembly tree to show all sub-assemblies and parts?
Maurice
Not that I know of.
But let's think about how it should operate in an assy in the case that this sounds reasonable. If you hit the button, then every item would be expanded to expose the first level. What about the items that were already expanded past that point? Should they remain where they already sit, or should they actually be collapsed to the first level to match all the others? Then if you hit the button again, everything goes a level deeper. But never open features of parts - only expand assy's? Each button press goes a level deeper until the end.
Then what about in a part file? Same process? Only in this case go all the way to the bottom of everything if you hit the button enough times?
Thoughts?
WT
Hi Wayne-
I suppose everyone's desires for this type of hotkey command would be different depending on how they use SW. Our assemblies are comparatively small, usually 3-4 sub assemblies with 10-20 components per assembly. So I would be happy to press the button and have the tree expand to show all sub-assemblies parts only (not features of parts). This wouldn't be practical for large assemblies with thousands of components.
I haven't thought in detail how this command could work to be practical in all situations.
Maurice
I specifically sought out this capability because I have a LocalCirPattern that isn't 'expanding' for me anymore. This feature was fine this morning and several weeks ago and all the time in between, but now it isn't showing the components that are supposedly patterned, and when I click the + (looks more like a little triangle now) it just makes the + disappear and makes it so I cannot 'expand' that LocalCirPattern. SO I was hoping that this * trick would work, but sadly, it did not.
Either way -- I'm glad this question was asked!
Just a piece of info for the record here. The Shift-C hotkey to collapse the tree only works in the primary pane, not the secondary pane. What I mean by this is if you split your tree by dragging the bar down form the top, the lower pane is the primary and the upper is the secondary. For some reason the hotkey only works in the one. That's why I generally have my feature tree on the lower one and configs on the top. My features/assy parts are generally a deeper list than the list of configs. Sometimes people are confused as to why the hotkey works some of the time and not other times - different panes. You also can't have anything selected at the time.
WT
I am using SW2010 SP4.
I have the above descibed functionality working in a Part File and a Drawing File as well. The "C" hotkey to toggle the expansion of the secondary (graphics area) feature tree is listed somewhere in the SW help file - just happened to trip across it the other day.
Thats odd, well at least the astrisk key works in both, and RMB collapse.
The Ctrl C works opn mine to collapse and the asterisk works to
expand on mine.
If you just want to see the structure of the assembly you can view it by going to file-find references, you can view it in two ways, one is Nested view, the other is Flat view.
Hi Jason-
Yes, this is useful for having a quick look at the structure (have you seen Treehouse 2?), but having this layout at the touch of a button in the FM tree would allow quick and direct access to a part in the FM tree.
Maurice
Press ctrl + T !!!
worked for me, assuming we are having the same problem!!
Hi Josh-
Yes the "CTRL+T" expands the FM but it does it in a 'flat' appearance. Using "CTRL+*" expands the FM and keeps everything indented which is easier for me to follow, especially in assemblies.
Also, "CTRL+T" only seems to work in parts whereas "CTRL+*" and "CTRL+C" works in parts, drawing and assemblies.
Its good to know about though!
Maurice
I think this is a great tip, the Shift + C, as well as the * to expand the tree.
As a drawing checker, I constantly go through the part, assembly and drawing files of my co workers. The * trick is going to be very helpful, so that I can easily see whether or not every feature in a part file has a fully defined sketch.
Thanks!
Steve,
You can also use the filter capability at the top of the feature tree to show under defined sketches. Just type in "(-)" minus the quotes of course. If the part is complex, your eyes will appreciate the filtered results instead of having to scan each line.
I wonder what happens if you turned on the option to force Fully Defined Sketches on your machine, and then did a forced rebuild (ctrl + Q). That should make under defined sketches very easy to spot. You may have a feature tree that looks more like an apple tree!
I take back what I said about the filter. It USED to filter under-defined sketches with a dash in parentheses, it no longer seems to work like that in 2016.
If you have a number pad on your keyboard, use "+" or "-".
One possible opposite would be selecting the top of the tree and hitting the asterisk key *