Another *.STEP file export query

[TomLoughlin]

Morning all,

I'm having trouble exporting assembly structure and part numbers from a Teamcenter managed assembly to send to a supplier. If memory serves me correctly, in previous versions of NX, when you file/open a step file, it came in as bodies, whereas if you opened a blank model, and file/import the structure and filenames would come in. This doesn't seem to be the case in NX9 unless I'm missing something.

I can't see any detailled options either on the step import or export, and I've tried 203 and 214 types

One last question, is that the supplier would like the descriptions as the STEP - I don't think this would be possible, so have prepped them to recieve an excel document exported from structure manager within Teamcenter.

Oh, and I'm working in NX9.0, managed by Teamcenter 9.

Thanks

Tom

Contract Mechanical Design Engineer.

 

[Toost]

You will only see the option to pick other file types when running Native, Under Teamcenter there is a bit of overhead to care for, a new part file will have to have a new Item / Item revision created. ( -depending on how your Teamcenter is setup)
This makes importing things a bit more difficult , say you open a single step file which is an assembly , all the components needs to have Items/ item revisions etc etc created.

We ( "my" company ) have the rule to always do the import in native mode since you never know what the import will produce.
We had one case where a guy imported a step assembly, he then ticked the "flatten Assembly" option( which converts all the components into bodies in one partfile) the problem was that NX, before converting the component->body, produced all the separate partfiles. These separate partfiles stays as partfiles under Teamcenter Named References. this single item got very big/heavy.

Your memory regarding assembly/ multiple bodies is somewhat correct, correct when working with parasolid files but incorrect when Step. ( Step depends on the settings.)

Regards,
Tomas

 

[TomLoughlin]

Thanks Tomas for the reply - my question was more about exporting than importing, but eventually, it seemed to have the desired effect - I tried this morning and it worked with nothing else having changed - so I guess there may have been an update to the system over the weekend.

Regards

Tom

Contract Mechanical Design Engineer.

 

[TomLoughlin]

No suggestions?

The whole process seems very hit and miss - all I'm after is an assembly file structure and part numbers to be exported with the STEP, rather than dumb bodies.

Contract Mechanical Design Engineer.

 

[cowski]

A few years ago I was involved in a project that required exporting a lot of assemblies to step files. The way I remember it, if we used the Data to export -> entire part option, the assembly structure was saved in the step file; if we used Data to export -> selected objects option, the selected bodies were saved to a single file (no assembly structure).

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[TomLoughlin]

Cowski, that looks to be it!

Thank you very much

Contract Mechanical Design Engineer.