Colors of imported file - part versus body

[aaronh]

All,

I have step files that were generated from an outside source. I needed to import them and create a drawing to export dwg views. I was having difficulty getting the color wireframe to export to the dwg properly. The problem that I have encountered is that the colors of the parts are at the body level not part level. The part level color is whatever the default is for the part template that I choose (in this case grey, or gray if you prefer). The issue here is that the part level color overrides the body level color so the wireframe ends up being all grey. Is there a way to change the behavior of the import such that the color will be established at the part level instead? Alternatively, is there a batch process to copy the body color to the part level for all of the components? Manually addressing a handful of parts isn't terrible, but it's not practical when dealing with 10's, hundreds, or more of parts.

Thanks,
Aaron

p.s. I got a good look at the new "forum" at the old stomping ground, quickly realized it amounted to swymming upstream, and swam over here instead.

[Arthur NY]

In general the material/texture/color hierarchy goes in this order when it comes to a Part file...which is non negotiable....

Part
Body
Feature
Face

In this order whatever is applied to the Part will be overridden by the Body which is overridden by the Feature and finally whatever is applied to the Face will win.

Now if this is an Assembly there is an additional layer here which is that you can apply a material/texture/color that is only applied to the Part file IN the assembly or you can have it propagate and push down to the Part file. So where you are generating the drawing from will make a difference in terms of how the creation of the colors of the lines will appear.

My suggestion would be to strip all colors out of the file and then just apply it to the Part file and call it a day.

[aaronh]

Yeah, see that's the issue. When importing the step the colors that come across are established at the body level. The color that's in the default template overrides the body color that came from the step. I want to make 2D dwg files that maintain the imported colors. The components all have various colors that I want to keep as-is. I would need to either find a way to batch copy the body color to the part color for every component or better yet, have the import map the color to the part level rather than the body. Unfortunately, I think I am out of luck in that regard.

[SPerman]

Can't you use the layers in drafting to determine the wireframe color?