3D Best practices 1

[TechnicalConsultant]

Hi all,

Our drawing office management have finally made the decision that more people within our business need to migrate to 3D. (Currently i would say less than half use 3D). I have been asked if there are any documents laying down a few "BEST PRACTICE GUIDLINES" and if not can i put something together over the next couple of weeks.

Does anything like this exist and if not has anyone gone through a similar excercise who could offer some advice on where to start.

Most of our work is machined components, fabricated sheet metal and some rather large assemblies.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[cowski]

Are you looking for best practices regarding modeling, drafting, assemblies, or document management? Or maybe all of the above?

 

[Shadowspawn]

Noyce,
Here's a can of worms... 3D "best practices" would largely be company specific based off user experience, product lines, how you utilize UG, etc. It get's complicated quickly and I doubt you could even get concensus on this board among the UG power users. This being said, I'd suggest Googl'n "Unigraphics + best practices" and reading some of the links. This should give a pretty good perspective to start from. UGS/EDS would also be a good place to search.
If your looking for specific tips from us, then let us know and we can post some pointers, but like I said it largely depends on how you guys utilize the software (product line(s), do you use sketcher?, UDF's?, free-forms?, rely on customizations (GRIP, UFUNC, macros, other) follow 'master-model' concepts, etc....).

Hope this helps...

SS

 

[looslib]

Best practices are very much company specific. We spent 4 hours one day just trying to come to consensus on how long the part number field should be in the documentation and PDM database. Each division used different lengths for different reasons though the company had an 8 digit specific part number.

I do have some old ones for UG and Pro/E that I could share.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

Many thanks for your replies, they're very much appreciated. I appreciate how hard it must be and the task ahead is sure to pose a few problems

Any help along the way will be great!

 

[spaceaero]

The simplest way to produce models is o use features such as blocks and cylinders, then use feature operations like grooves, pockets, chamfers, blends, tapers, etc....
These are simple, easy to learn, very effectiveeasy to manipulate and the basic functions of UG.

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

The most critical Best practice methods we need to get in place is for basic 3D modelling (Some freeform included) and and some rules on how we tackle assemblies. On average i would estimate our assemblies to contain around 600 components. At the moment we tend to break these down into sub-assemblies that are all placed together at a top level. We then use wave link geometry from the top level to include certain components at the sub-assembly level. This allows us to show, for example a component bolting to a mainframe in a sub-assembly drawing, even though the mainframe may not actually be part of that assembly.

If anyone has a UG best practice document put together that i could have a read through it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kirsten]

OK, here goes. This is what I used as a checklist in others' files:
1. No suppressed features
2. No Out-of-date features
3. No blanked objects
4. Sketches fully constrained
5. No “Fix” sketch constraints
6. Proper layers
7. Reference Sets assigned
8. Part attributes assigned
9. Item & file named per standard
10. Mating conditions applied
11. No dumb dimensions
12. Rev Blocks & notes associated to views
13. No unparameterized features
14. Scale expression linked to drawing views & matching title block scale (optional)
15. No faked parts lists
16. No suppressed components (assemblies)
17. Smart ID balloons
18. Smart ID callouts in drawing notes
19. No un-renamed part family on save-as to new part
20. Correct assembly structure
21. Component name matches item ID (usually)
22. Non-UG datasets not linked to previous revisions (TeamCenter)
23. Photo materials assigned (for components)(in a perfect world)
24. Solid density assigned, weight updated

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

Many thanks. This gives me a starting point and a list to work from. VERY much appreciated.

 

[ewh]

Good list Kirsten!
The only one I wouldn't use (in this company) is no. 13. We receive translated, lofted files from all sorts of systems, and there is no practical way to keep those surfaces parameterized. The best we can do is to add the imported file into an assy and wave link the surfaces we need. Of course, doing this, we have to violate no. 15, as we don't want the parent translated part to appear in our parts list (unless no. 15 refered to a completely fake pl, as opposed to an edited one). We do not use TeamCenter.
I would also add that it is a good practice to use layer catagories. This can help immensely when navigating a part that you are unfamiliar with.

 

[Xwheelguy]

After reading some old threads on bbsnotes, I feel it's worth mentioning that UGS advises against using more than one primitive in a single model file. I believe this was due to primitives being repositioned & causing havoc during update.

Personally, I wouldn't use any primitives at all, but that's just me.

Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.

http://www.enkei.com