In this blog article, I’d like to share a trick with Face Styles, that has proven handy for me over the years. I will start by showing, for those who may not be aware, how to create your own Face Styles(colors) for painting your models. Solid Edge contains a list of default Face Styles, but you can create your own custom Face Style when needed.

Create a face style with the Styles command

1.    Choose View→Style group→Styles.

2.    On the Style dialog box, in the Style Types box, click the Face Styles.

3.    Click the New button to open a dialog box based upon the style type you clicked.

4.    On the Name tab, in the Name box, type a name for the new style.

5.    To base the style on an existing style, click a style from the list in the Based On box.

6.    Click the other tabs on the dialog box and set the options that you wish to apply to the new style.

I will not go through the settings on each tab.Suffice it to say that you have numerous options, each being described in the Solid Edge Help documents. Instead I will show you a little trick, that I learned, on how to create a gradient Face Style, by using the Texture tab.  To do this, we must first create a gradient image.

Creating a gradient image

You can download a gradient image or create one yourself. A simple way to create one is to use Solid Edge and the Windows Snipping Tool. To do this, follow these steps:

1.     Open Solid Edge and create a new part file.

2.     In the new part file, Hide the base reference planes and the base coordinate system.

3.     Go to the View tab > Style group, and select the View Override command.

4.     On the Rendering tab, of the View Overrides dialog, make sure that the Textures option is checked.

5.     On the Background tab, of the View Overrides dialog, set up the desired gradient.

6.     Click OK to dismiss the View Overrides dialog. Your display screen is now the desired gradient.

7.     Now use the Windows Snipping Tool, or some other capture tool, to capture the gradient background into a jpeg file, as shown in the following image.

Note:If you don’t know how to use the Snipping Tool, it is explained in the following link:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/4027213/windows-10-open-snipping-tool-and-take-a-screenshot

8.     Save the image as a jpeg file. In this example I saved it as Red_Blue_gradient.jpg.

9.     You can now return your background to its original color, by using the View Override command again.

Using the Texture tab

In the next several steps you will create a custom Face Style.

1. Choose View→Style     group→Style.

2.    On the Style dialog box, in the Style Types box, click the Face Styles.

3.    Click the New button to open a dialog box.

4.    On the Name tab, in the Name box, type a name for the new style.In this example, I will use the name Red_Blue_grad.

5.    Select “(no style)” from the Based on: pull down menu.

6.    On the Texture tab, click Browse to select an image for the Texture.

7.     Locate and select the image that you just created.

8.    Click OK, to close the Face Style dialog.

9.    Click Close, to exit the Styles command.

Test your new Face Style

You can test your new face style on any part.In this example, I used the face of a simple block, and followed these steps:

1. Choose View→Style group→Part     Painter.

2. Select the new Face Style from     the Style: pull down menu.

3. Select Face from the Select:     pull down menu.

4. Select the face that I want to     paint, and observe the results.

Note: This approach could be used with any image file. For example, in the image below I used a Kaleidoscope image.

Note: Using this technique, with a very thin part, you can also create labels and tags.

I encourage you to explore and experiment with all the options in the Face Style dialogs. If you want to keep the Custom Face Style,you should add it to your templates. This can be done by creating it in the template file, or using the Style Organizer to copy it into your template file.The Style Organizer is found on the bottom left corner of the Style dialog, as shown below.

As always, if you have any issues with the Styles command, Designfusion customer scan email us at support@designfusion.com,or call our Tech line at 1-877-215-1883. If you are not a Designfusioncustomer, contact your reseller for support.

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