What determines the preview image in the documents overview (and why does it show hidden entities)?

øyvind_kaurstad

In the document overview page there is a preview pane to the right (by clicking the circular info button).
This pane contains a preview image of the document, but what determines where this image is taken from? A document can have many part studios and assemblies, and I've seen no way to explicitly set which one should be used for the preview. It looks like it might be the last tab that had some edit done to it?

And also, when this preview shows a part studio that has a part with a helix in it, the helix will frequently (but not always) show in the preview, even if it is hidden in the actual part studio. This is slightly annoying, since it looks weird. Of course it isn't a real problem as such, it's just a visual flaw.

jakeramsley

You are correct that it is the last tab to have an edit done to it is used as the preview thumbnail.

øyvind_kaurstad

jakeramsley said:

You are correct that it is the last tab to have an edit done to it is used as the preview thumbnail.

Ok, that's OK.
But what about hidden entities showing in the thumbnail? Here I extruded a circle as a solid, then I extruded again as a surface, and on the surface I added a helix. Then both the surface and the helix were hidden (in the part studio). However, the thumbnail shows the helix (see attached screenshot).

jakeramsley

øyvind_kaurstad said:

Ok, that's OK.
But what about hidden entities showing in the thumbnail? Here I extruded a circle as a solid, then I extruded again as a surface, and on the surface I added a helix. Then both the surface and the helix were hidden (in the part studio). However, the thumbnail shows the helix (see attached screenshot).

This is an issue that I've added you to a ticket for.  Thumbnails of tabs should respect the visibility state of items in them.

brett_sutton

It would be much nicer if you could designate the tab that is used as the thumbnail.

Narayan_K

Yes, it is good to have custom oriented preview system.

keith_waggoner

I would also prefer to be able to designate the tab that is used in the thumbnail.

lni64

I'd prefer to be able to completely fix the thumbnail somehow. Currently the thumbnails change with each editing which makes it difficult to identify a document at one glance (which somehow is the very purpose of a thumbnail).

brucebartlett

I don't like the thumbnails coming up as drawings or jpg images. I'd prefer some way to specify the tab for the thumbnail. I never remember to return to a tab so that is the thumb.