More about the Deactivate Command

There are a few things that you need to know when deactivating elements.

Related Topics
Deactivating Elements

Deactivation Modes

There are two deactivation modes:

Copy Mode

The deactivation is performed on the modification operation of the feature (providing a modification of a feature of same dimension). When deactivated, the result of the feature is identical to its main input (that is the modified element) and thus can be selected and highlighted.

Here are the features concerned by this mode:


  • Projection
  • Curve Smooth
  • Blend (with Trim option only)
  • Corner (with Trim option only)
  • Shape Fillet (with Trim option only)
  • Connect Curve (with Trim option only)
  • Parallel Curve
  • Offset
  • Variable Offset
  • Rough Offset
  • 3D Curve Offset
  • Split (on the Element to cut)
  • Trim (on the Trimmed elements)
  • All transformations in creation and modification modes
  • Sweep (tangent sweeps with Trim option)
  • Surface Extrapolation (with Assemble Result option only)
  • Curve Extrapolation (with Assemble Result option only)
  • Join (copy of the first element)
  • Healing (copy of the first element)
  • Combine
  • Invert
  • Near
  • Develop
  • Wrap Curve
  • Wrap Surface
  • Bump
  • Shape Morphing
  • Diabolo

Destructive Mode

The deactivation makes the feature unusable. When selected, the feature cannot be seen in the 3D area.

Here are the features concerned by this mode:


  • Line
  • Plane
  • Circle
  • Reflect Line
  • Spiral
  • Spline
  • Helix
  • Intersection
  • Extrude
  • Revolution
  • Cylinder
  • Sweep (except tangent sweeps with trim option)
  • Multi-Sections Surface

If the following features are aggregated under an ordered geometrical set, they are concerned by destructive mode:

  • Projection
  • Parallel Curve
  • Offset
  • Variable Offset
  • Rough Offset
  • 3D Curve Offset
  • All Transformations
  • Combine
  • Develop

Miscellaneous

This sub-topic provides miscellaneous additional information when deactivating elements.


  • When elements are imported using multi-part links (external references) or using a Copy-Paste As result with link, the deactivation concerns the link, not the feature. As a consequence, the feature can still be selected. Moreover, the Deactivate command is not available through the contextual menu. Use the Edit > Links and Relations menu bar item instead. For more information, refer to Infrastructure User's Guide : Editing Links and Relations.
  • To re-activate the elements, right-click their name in the specification tree and select xxx.object > Activate.
  • It is not possible to deactivate datum elements as they do not have an history. Indeed, a deactivation would destroy their geometry and a reactivation would therefore be impossible.
  • When the activation of a geometric feature is already piloted by a knowledge formula, it is not possible to activate or deactivate it using the contextual command.