Decals may be sticky, but their application within PhotoWorks doesn't have to be!
SolidWorks users have benefited for years from the various add-in products provided with SolidWorks Professional and Premium levels of their product. If you have ever played around with some of them, you may have used their photorealistic rendering add-in entitled "PhotoWorks." This add-in allows the user to take their designs and (potentially) make near-realistic images suitable for the web, catalogues, or print.
 One aspect of PhotoWorks that I use frequently is "decals." Simply put, a decal is any image file that one wishes to use as a label or "sticker" on their model. Classic examples include bar codes, warning labels, and screen shots but decals can be used for textures and fake light sources. Here is an example of an image taken from a manufacturer's website and applied to my design.
The "sticky" part of decals is WHEN they should be applied and then, HOW they should be applied. Even more stickier, is the case when more than one decal needs to be applied to the same part. What should you do? Let's look at the example of a frame consisting of three identical sub-assemblies containing three identical panel boards. Different "posters" need to be used for each panel board but only top-level assembly will be used for the finished rendering.
When applying a decal, just as when applying a material/appearance, there is a hierarchy to the selection and application. For example, if I were in the top-level assembly and I inserted a new decal, when I select the face of the panel board I can choose to apply this at the part or the component level.
Part? Component? What's the difference?
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