Using the Model Explorer

Release Notes

This section reflects additions or changes that apply to Enventive Concept v4.2 and later. We strongly recommend upgrading to the most current version of Concept to take advantage of new features and bug fixes. If you are running an earlier version of the software, please open the Online Help for your version using the Enventive Concept Help menu.

Concept v4.2 added DOF display to the Model Explorer tree.

Concept v5 added visual indicators for DOF information to the Model Explorer tree.

The Model Explorer lists all the model files that you open during your Concept session.

By default, the Model Explorer is shown at the top left side of the Concept workspace. You can move the view to another area in the Concept window or un-dock it and use it outside of the Concept window, as described in Moving views.

Model instance display

Although it is not a file browser, the structure of the Model Explorer tree is similar: each item in the tree is indented under the item that contains it. Also similar to a file browser, you can show or hide the contents of an item by clicking on its expand/collapse icon.

Any model instances that have been loaded into the assembly are shown indented underneath the assembly in the Model Explorer's file list.

Nested assemblies (where an assembly that contains instances is loaded as an instance into another assembly) are shown as indented under the assembly that contains them. The illustration below shows a top-level assembly that contains one model instance, "Assembly_engine," which in turn contains four model instances. See Loading assemblies as model instances for more information about model instances.

DOF display

The Model Explorer provides information about Degrees of Freedom (DOF) associated with an assembly model:

The DOF for the top-level assembly and its instances are shown in brackets to the left of the model name. In the illustration below, the top-level assembly has 1 DOF, and the Piston instance has 4 DOF. The DOF shown for the instance is the number of DOF inside the master model for that instance.

Model instances that are not fully constrained within the assembly are preceded by an orange arrow in the Model Explorer tree, as shown for the Piston instance in the illustration below. (This instance is not fully constrained within the assembly, which is resulting in the 1 DOF for the assembly.)
Model instances that are fully constrained within the assembly are preceded by a black dot in the Model Explorer tree, as shown for the Cylinder and Counterweight instances in the illustration below.

File information display

As shown below, hovering over a file displays information about the file, including:

The full path to the model file
The file ID (useful for support purposes)
Last build the model was saved in (useful for support purposes)
Whether the file needs to be saved
Whether the file needs to be reloaded
Whether the file is open for In-Place Edit (Is Active)
Scale factor