How do I check what material is applied?

sean_trainor1988

When I am working on a part, how do I know if a material has already been applied, or what material has been applied?

martin_kopplow

Hi Sean, I understand, though you don't need to dig very deep for this. Just a click on the BOM Tab on the right and one pulldown menu and you get an overview over all your parts and their materials. It even shows "--None--" if you assigned none to a part. Once the column is added, it is even but one single mouse click and just as top level as looking it up in the tree.

What I actually miss in that context is being able to assign materials from within the BOM table, ideally by multi-selecting parts there and then bulk-assigning materials to all of them. This could be quite helpful for larger assemblies.

martin_kopplow

sean_trainor1988

Thanks, Martin. I wondered if there was somewhere more top-level to get this info without needing to go into properties or BOM tables. For example, in Solidworks and other CAD packages, the material is easily seen in the design tree.

I've also just noticed that if I go to apply a material to a part which already has a material applied, it will show me the current material there. 

martin_kopplow

Hi Sean, I understand, though you don't need to dig very deep for this. Just a click on the BOM Tab on the right and one pulldown menu and you get an overview over all your parts and their materials. It even shows "--None--" if you assigned none to a part. Once the column is added, it is even but one single mouse click and just as top level as looking it up in the tree.

What I actually miss in that context is being able to assign materials from within the BOM table, ideally by multi-selecting parts there and then bulk-assigning materials to all of them. This could be quite helpful for larger assemblies.

steven_van_luchene848

Hi, posted the same question at allmost the same time for appearances. . indeed, multi selecting/assigning in assembly  would come in handy. Is there allready a feature request to vote up? 

martin_kopplow

Hi, yes that would make sense for many part properties indeed. In my old CAD, where this was possible for almost all part properties, I used this method quite a lot. That way, I did not have to fill in a single field in the drawing title block when drawings were finally created. Also, there are these situations, when materials have to be changed for reasons of availablity or cost later in the process, often for a large number of parts. A list (especially when connected to a spread sheet) is pretty fast to edit, while going through individual parts to change their materials, is a tedious job. This has an impact on revisions, of course, but still, having one place to get an overview and also make changes is quite appealing.