I am working on an addin that helps define steps for building an assembly.  I have a property manager page up with various controls.  While the page is active, I'd like to be able to programmatically show, hide, and make components transparent.  When the page closes, everything should go back to the way it was.  Currently I can't do with without modifying the assembly's configuration and/or display state. 

The Mates wizard does a similar thing.  When you select something to mate, the source component is transparent while you select the other part to mate.  That transparency is only temporary and the part is opaque again afterwards.  This is what I'd like to achieve.  Can you help me find the proper APIs for that?  Thanks!