Active Component
Updated v2.3.8At a glance
- One component is active at a time — marked with a filled radio in the browser
- Click the radio (or the row) to activate; only one active at any depth
- New Sketch drops straight into the active component
- The active part is remembered with your file; new components auto-activate
When a file holds more than one part, one component is always the active one — the part new sketches belong to. It's marked with a filled radio button right next to the component's eye icon in the browser tree, and its row stays highlighted, so the part you're working in is never in doubt.
Setting the active component
Click the radio next to any component — or anywhere on its row — to make it active. Only one component is ever active at a time, at any depth of a nested assembly: activating a part deactivates whatever was active before. This replaces the old highlight that flashed when you clicked a component and vanished the moment you clicked away.
Creating a new component makes it active automatically, and if you delete the active part JetCad3 hands off to the next sensible one (its parent, a sibling, or the first top-level component). The active component is saved with your file, so it's still active when you reopen the project.
New sketches follow it
Starting a sketch drops it straight into the active component. Pick the part you want to work in, begin a sketch on an origin plane, and it lands in that part — no separate "which component?" step, and no surprise sketches ending up in the wrong part. Sketching directly on an existing face still uses that face's own part, exactly as before.