Linked body versus promotion

Actually, due to some changes made awhile back, they are not as different as they used to be and so it pretty much left to personal preferences or legacy work-flow requirements. However that being said, if we were mentoring a new user we would recommend that they use WAVE linking only as it is technically based on a more modern architecture and we have more tools available to define, edit and manage WAVE linked objects than we do Promotions.


John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

The case where we want people to use promotions is for weldments with post machining operations like line bored holes etc.

The way it works that was as I understood it different than wave is that the promoted parts added to the parts list can still have a balloon reference attached to them without any problems. If that has somehow changed then I'm not aware of how to get the same result using wave linked bodies.

We had a bif discussion about this on the forum recently if you care to test the restored searching tools. How and what you do may depend on the companies purchasing and part numbering systems.

best regards

Hudson

We did debate this in quite some depth recently and again, it's all down to the way your doing business. The way work for example suits WAVE linking parts in order to have more control over part numbering ( different part numbers for the post machine/pre-machined part) but other companies may not be affected in the same way and be fine working with promotions. But we use WAVE and it works excellently for us. Have a read of the following topic (Find Component and ANT columns) dated 21st March.

regards

Simon

Thanks, everyone, for the input.

I had done a search using the forum search function but it returned no topics for "promotion" or "promotions". I didn't try using the Google search function, seems it alway returns a lot of useless info when I use it with other sites. Works pretty well here, though.

Overall, what I've seen leads me back to the old adage "Careful what you ask for, you just might get it". That is, I'm the only one using promotions (just seems easier and gets the job done) but, apparently, I'm wrong. Not absolutely wrong, just not absolutely right and in the minority.

I guess I'll have to give in now.

We use both "promotions" and "linked bodies" at the company that I work for too.

It is up to the designer at what he wants to use, but I tend to use promotions more because that way I do not need to access a WAVE license.

You don't need a WAVE license when you're creating WAVE links. You only need a WAVE license if you intend to perform tasks or operation that go beyond the normal creation, editing and updating of the WAVE links.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

There is an option to convert Promotions to WAVE geometry links, so I would use WAVE Geometry Links not promotions. Even if fundamentally there is no difference anymore. Promotions are out.

-Dave Tolsma

If your using WAVE links or promotions I have to assume that your doing so in the contaxt of an assembly. With that said, the difference between WAVE and promotions is this.

WAVE
Pro - You need not load the component parts to see your part in the assembly.
Con - You will see the component from which the link came and the WAVE linked body that has been somehow modified. This can be managed with refernce sets, but can get confusing for some folks.

Promotion
Pro - You do not see the original body just the end item body
Con - The assembly component must be loaded to see your part in the assembly.

I personally lean to WAVE links. Might be because of bad memories from the old promotions back in V8-9.

You missed some important points that are most instructive as to how we would chose between the two.

The other con of wave links is that you have to take extra steps to excise them from parts lists on occasion where they should not be included.

The extra pro for wave links is that they can exist across unconnected levels of assemblies and be managed by the associativity manager broken and re-linked etc all of which offers flexibility not supported by promotions.

You're right in historical terms that promotions existed prior to wave links, and when wave links came along they were in most senses superior and promotions were really on their way to being supported only as a legacy thing. Latterly I gather that the software has been updated and the functionality becomes technically so close that the argument in some cases is moot.

We use promotions for weldment assemblies and/or with post weldment machining, period. It just makes sense to use them in that situation. In all other cases we err on the side of wave because you never know when you'll need that extra flexibility.

Cheers

Hudson