How to unhide all hidden components in SolidWorks?

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Working in a complex SolidWorks assembly often means hiding components so you can see what you’re doing while adding mates, checking clearances, or editing features. The problem comes later, when you need everything back and can’t remember what you hid or where it lives in the FeatureManager tree.

This guide walks through several reliable ways to unhide hidden components in a SolidWorks assembly, from “show everything” methods to more targeted tools. The screenshots use a lathe chuck assembly, but the same techniques apply to any assembly.

Hidden vs. suppressed components (important distinction)

Before trying to unhide components, it’s worth understanding the difference between hidden and suppressed:

Hidden components are simply not displayed. They are still loaded into memory and continue to participate in mates, mass properties, collision detection, BOMs, and most calculations. You’re only turning off their graphics.
Suppressed components are effectively removed from the model solve. They don’t show up in mass properties, collision detection, or most calculations, and they won’t appear in Show Hidden Components. To bring them back, you must Unsuppress them, not just “show” them.

If a part refuses to appear even after using the methods below, check whether it is suppressed rather than just hidden.

Example: lathe chuck assembly with hidden components

We’ll use the lathe chuck assembly shown below. In the FeatureManager design tree on the left, some components are hidden to make it easier to apply mates and inspect internal geometry.

Image 1: Hid Components

Method 1 – Use the Display Pane (eye icon) to show all components

The quickest way to show every hidden component in an assembly is via the Display Pane, using the column with the eye icon (or glasses icon in some versions). This controls visibility for each component line in the FeatureManager design tree.

Step-by-step

Open your assembly and make sure the FeatureManager design tree is visible on the left.
At the top-right of the tree, click the small arrow/chevron to expand the Display Pane if it isn’t already visible. You should now see extra columns next to each component (for visibility, display style, appearance, transparency, etc.).
Move your mouse inside the FeatureManager tree and press Ctrl + A to select all components.
Alternatively, click the first component in the list, then Shift-click the last to select the entire range.
With all components selected:
- Right-click one of the highlighted components and choose
  Show/Hide > Show Components, or
- Click in the eye column for one of the selected components to toggle them all to the shown state.
The graphics area updates and all previously hidden components become visible.

In the example below, we select all components in the tree and then use the eye icon to show them:

Image 2: Selection of all Components

Image 3: All Parts Visible

This method is ideal when you truly want to “reset” the assembly so that every component is visible again.

Variant: use “Show with Dependents” on the top-level assembly

Another powerful option is the Show with Dependents command, which can reveal hidden components several levels down inside subassemblies in a single step.

In the FeatureManager tree, right-click the top-level assembly.
Choose Show with Dependents.
SolidWorks traverses the assembly structure and shows the selected component and all of its dependent components and subcomponents, even if they were buried multiple levels deep.

This is particularly useful when you have hidden items in nested subassemblies and don’t want to expand every level in the tree.

Method 2 – Use “Show Hidden Components” from the graphics area

If you’re not sure which components are hidden or where they are in the tree, the Show Hidden Components tool is very efficient. It temporarily flips the view so that:

All currently visible components are hidden, and
All hidden components are shown, usually in a simplified display style.

Step-by-step

In the graphics area (not on a component), right-click an empty region and select Show Hidden Components.
Alternatively, you can click Show Hidden Components on the Assembly toolbar or in the Heads-Up View toolbar if you’ve added the button there.
SolidWorks enters a “show hidden” state. The components that were previously hidden are now visible; the ones that were visible are temporarily removed from view.
Click on each component you want to bring back to the normal assembly view. You can also drag a selection window around groups of components to select several at once.
When you’re done, click Exit Show-Hidden in the dialog (or press Esc).
The components you selected remain shown; any hidden components you didn’t select stay hidden.

Keep in mind:

Suppressed parts and subassemblies do not appear in this mode. If something still won’t show up, check whether it is suppressed.
You can use this tool together with window selection or Ctrl+A to quickly make all previously hidden components visible again.

Method 3 – Keyboard shortcuts (Tab / Shift+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab)

For day-to-day work, keyboard shortcuts are often the fastest way to hide or show a few components while focusing on a specific area of the assembly.

Tab: while your mouse cursor is hovering over a component, press Tab to hide that component.
Shift + Tab: hover over the location of a hidden component and press Shift + Tab to show it again.
Ctrl + Shift + Tab: temporarily display all hidden components as transparent while you hold the keys. Click the ones you want to show permanently; when you release the keys, your selected components stay visible and the rest revert to hidden.

These shortcuts are excellent when:

You only hid a handful of components and remember roughly where they were.
You don’t want to open the Display Pane or use the Show Hidden Components dialog.

Method 4 – Use “Isolate” when you only want a few parts visible

While Isolate is more about hiding than showing, it’s worth mentioning because it’s often used in the same workflow. Isolate lets you focus on a small set of components without permanently losing track of what’s hidden.

Select one or more components in the graphics area or FeatureManager tree.
Right-click and choose Isolate.
SolidWorks hides (or ghosts) all other components and keeps only your selected components clearly visible so that you can work on mates, dimensions, or features.
When you’re finished, click Exit Isolate in the confirmation corner to restore the previous display state.

If you accidentally hide additional components while using Isolate, you can still recover them later with the Display Pane or the Show Hidden Components tool described earlier.

Troubleshooting: a component still won’t appear

If a part remains invisible even after using the methods above, run through this quick checklist:

Is the component suppressed?
In the FeatureManager tree, suppressed components are usually grayed out with a different icon. Right-click and choose Unsuppress (or Unsuppress with Dependents) to bring them back into the assembly solve.
Is it hidden inside a subassembly?
If the component is part of a subassembly, that subassembly may have its own hidden/display state. Expand the subassembly in the tree or open it in its own window and repeat the unhide process there.
Are you in the correct configuration or display state?
Components can be hidden or suppressed in specific configurations or display states. Switch configurations/display states to see whether the component appears in another one.
Is there a section view, display clipping, or envelope hiding it?
Section views, model clipping, or envelope components can make parts appear missing even if they are technically shown. Temporarily disable section views or clipping to verify.
Are you actually in a drawing view?
In drawings, component visibility is controlled per view. If parts are missing from a drawing view, right-click the view, choose Properties, then use the Hide/Show Components tab to remove components from the hidden list so they appear again.

Summary

To quickly unhide all (or most) hidden components in a SolidWorks assembly:

Use the Display Pane eye column with all components selected to force every component to be shown.
Use Show Hidden Components from the graphics area to flip the view, then select which hidden parts you want to keep.
Use Show with Dependents on the top-level assembly to reveal hidden components deep inside subassemblies.
Use Tab / Shift+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab when you just need to bring back a few hidden parts quickly.

Once you get used to these tools, hiding components for clarity becomes low-risk: no matter how many parts you hide along the way, you can always restore them without hunting through the tree one by one.