Visual Components' Community

 In order to change the color of a part the script for the workstation needs to be modified:
Add the following lines to the code

    part.NodeMaterial = comp.Material
    part.MaterialInheritance = VC_MATERIAL_FORCE_INHERIT_NODE

”part” is handle to part
”comp” is the component where this script resides

The method works for all the material which are defined for the workstations. Further information can be found in the VC_Node reference guide for python.

If other materials or colors should be used, it is required to add a new color-parameter, which will be used then to assign certain colors.

The Python script mentioned above only works for changing Node material, not geometry features. Changing the material of a geometry feature is very computationally expensive, and not recommended, as it need to rebuild the entire node tree structure every time is updated. Changing the node material is very fast and simple, using the VC_MATERIAL_FORCE_INHERIT_NODE.

For example, let’s say you want to create a status light for a machine:

-          Green – On or working

-          Yellow or Orange - Warning

-          Red – System failure or error

The best practice on modeling this light system would be to split the geometries into links, so that all geometries would be on its own link, as it is shown in the picture.

Sometimes for the node to be rendered again, you would need to execute the update command on the node.