How to have multiple copies of the same component all with different colours in Solidworks?

Question

Regarding Solidworks 2014 (SP2)...

In an assembly I have three identical copies of a single transparent acrylic component.

How may I give them different colours? When I change the colour of the first one to green (material...edit) they all become green even though only the first one is selected.

Clearly this change is getting pushed all the way back to the .sldprt file, but I only want this to happen at the assembly:component instance level.

I have tried to do this using a design table in the .sldprt file but I cannot figure out how to configure the columns. Also I couldn't persuade the appearance manager to understand what I want as the "copy/paste Appearance" features seem to overwrite the Appearance rather than adding new ones.

Edit: @SBarry's suggestion worked a treat...

Answer 1

Couple of ways you could do it, but this method is pretty easy:

1) Go to the DisplayManager (Appearances) tab - 4th tab in the Feature Manager area (left side of the screen).

2) Search for the appearance that matches your plastic material. It might say "polycarbonate plastic"

3) Right click the appearance and click "Copy Appearance"

4) Go back to the Feature Manager (your tree listing all the parts)

5) Select the individual components you want to be a specific color from your feature tree by CTRL + clicking the name of each component

6) Right click your selection and click "Paste Appearance"

7) Go back to the Appearances tab, right click & edit the new appearance to be the color you want. It should maintain transparency & general material appearance