Automatic Update Structure

Simon,

Basically when you're assembly gets huge the Automatic Update function becomes unwieldy and I know of no way around that. Except managing things so that you can carve the task up into workable chunks by structuring your assemblies so that they're reasonably modular. It is the very top level of such assemblies that always suffers when you reach the point when you simply cannot open the entire structure no matter what the reference set is in one hit.

The best way I know of working on such a task is to set the default reference sets to empty in the load options so that the tree is opened but the parts are not. If you have defined reference sets in assemblies you may suffer a little because of that in this case, but the consequences are minor. With that setting in place you may be able to open more components in much less time saving the assembly structures as you go.

If you then suffer from an inability to open a well organised top assembly only then my advice is to structure it using modules than don't ever change then create a macro to open and save one module at a time with empty reference sets. That way a huge assembly could often be updated using a moderately powerful machine within a reasonably short amount of time.

For your product and other similar ones I've worked with I'd load an assembly with an simplified engine and break down the engine internals using a side assembly as a practical consideration simply because a point of complexity occurs below which different users are differently interested in that level of detail. We tend to use layouts for some of that kind of product analysis.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

We have seen similar issues. One thing you can try is to use the Update Structure, using the number of levels option. However, in NX4 we have found that this does not always give the correct result, although "all levels" does. There are issues with parts that do not have a BoM at version A but do at version B as well.

Thanks for you posts guys, it is very difficult to sort, the problem being is that nobody really understood how what and update structure worked back in the day and consequently now we have 150+ machine master assemblies that are we and truly out of date which in turn means that masses of the functionality of NX such as proximity filtering etc is no use to us what so ever. I'm going to try the empty reference set thing that you suggested Hudson and see how we go. I let you know the results. We also have got Siemens directly involved with it as it is one of the top concerns on our list.

Best regards

Simon (NX4.0.4.2 MP9 - TCEng 9.1.3.6.c)


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