Transparent Parts in Autodesk Inventor 2016 Drawings - It's New!

This weekend, I finally had an opportunity to start truly testing out my new install of Autodesk Inventor 2016.

And there is a ton of new features out there.  A great list was compiled by Design and Motion in their post here.

But in my post here, I thought I'd delve into just one of the features a little more deeply.

The feature I chose first was creating transparent parts in a drawing.

It's a very common thing.  An assembly contains components that are made out of some sort of clear material.  Glass, Lexan, so on.

For my example.  I've created a representation of an aircraft window.

The sample file

It's not a perfectly engineered design, but it does show the new functionality nicely.

In versions previous to Inventor 2016, the only way to show the part as transparent was to render the view, which while effective, wasn't always desirable.

Rendered views on a drawing

However, if you turn off rendering, the part now looks like a solid plate, and nothing like the clear glass it's supposed to represent.

Now the window looks like a hatch!

But now Inventor 2016 offers a new option.  The ability to show a component as transparent.

The first step to make the window transparent is to change your selection filter to Select Part Priority.

Switching selection priority

Now, select the part you want to make transparent, in this case, it's the window, and choose the Transparent option.

Making a component transparent. 

The view will recalculate, and now the edges behind the part will appear as they would if the part were transparent.

The isometric view is now transparent

And if you need to, you can choose which views have transparency!  It doesn't have to be all or nothing!

Both views transparent!

So as upgrade time begins this spring, take a look at the new transparency setting in Inventor 2016!  It could be one of those small things that makes life much easier!

And below, here's a video showing the same functionality!  Enjoy!