Arrangement in NX;how to set-up and use this tool.

[N3762B]

"ARRANGEMENT" feature in NX6.0.3.6, what is it, and how is it used?
I stumbled onto the "edit arrangements" icon and from the name I suppose it is a method of arranging assembly components in a specific way, naming the arrangement for reuse then...re-arranging to a new configuration and naming that, etc. I'm unfamiliar with the procedure and would like to know the steps required to create, use, and edit.

 

[JohnRBaker]

May I suggest that you go to...

Assemblies -> Arrangements...

...and when the dialog opens, hit the F1 key which will bring up the Help files for Arrangements. There should be sufficient information there to help get you started. If you have any specific questions after that, feel free to ask.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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

 

[N3762B]

Thanks for the quick response John...As you suggested I clicked ASSEMBLIES/COMPONENTS/ARRANGEMENTS...and a blank help screen opened.(?)

 

[joycejo]

Do you have the help docs loaded?



John Joyce
N.C. Programming Supervisor
Barnes Aerospace, Windsor CT
NX6.0.5.3

 

[N3762B]

We think that's the problem...we're checking. Thanks John

 

[MickyV007]

@ Mr John Baker, yes i have another question concerning arrangements. We haven't got the help docs for arragnement installed, could you please provide some help files for this. If we need to switch from using ref sets (see other post) to using arragment to make assemblies then i need some more info.
Can i get it from the GTAC site? i'm still confused after using ref sets for some years now to create assemblies and how to switch to arrangements?
Any help would be very appriciated!
Thanks.

Best regards,

Michäël.

NX4+TC9 / NX6+TC8Unified / NX7.5 native

 

[JohnRBaker]

I'm sorry, but our documentation is copyrighted material and therefore you really need to acquire and install the proper files so that you have legitimate access to the Help files. And yes, GTAC should be able to help you get access to the product download site where you can find the user Documentation (i.e. the 'Help' files).

Note that we have ONLY one version of the Help files which means that it covers ALL of NX, even the modules which you have not purchased (note that Arrangements comes as part of the basic Assembly license).

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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

 

[MickyV007]

i've just downloaded the documentation zip file from the GTAC server. but our system admin told me he installed this one already, how come there is no info on arragnements? what does this mean? that there is no help files for arragnements?

Best regards,

Michäël.

NX4+TC9 / NX6+TC8Unified / NX7.5 native

 

[JohnRBaker]

What version of the documentation did they download? I would hope that you're not trying to learn this using NX 4.0. I wouldn't try anything with less than NX 6.0 and preferably NX 7.5.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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

 

[MickyV007]

nx-ugdoc-4.0.0.zip.

Ok, we're currently using NX4, but planning to move over to NX7.5 (as our global buyers finaly come to an agreement with the Siemens people,pfff).
So you are saying that we should use the arragnement functionality as of version NX6.
Then it would be nice to have some documentation about it before we switch over, so we have some time to train ourself.
Is there more info about arragnements on the NX7.5 documentation file?

Best regards,

Michäël.

NX4+TC9 / NX6+TC8Unified / NX7.5 native

 

[teookie]

I've been following this arrangements/ref sets discussion with great interest. I hope it is OK if I jump in and ask a question.

I can't seem to get my sub assemblies to move to alternate positions when I change arrangements. Per the help file, all I have to do is move the components and then save the part file and their position will be remembered in the current arrangement. I have done this, but when I change active arrangement the parts are not moving back to their previous positions. What am I doing wrong?

And another question, can arrangements reposition components within sub assemblies? Or does it only operate "one level" down?

Thanks.

 

[JohnRBaker]

That should work, but without actually have the part files, it would be difficult to trouble-shoot blind.

As for the second issue, yes it's only 'one level down', however that does not mean that the sub-assembly could not also contain sub-assemblies each of with their own multiple arrangements. And technically, by using 'Override Position', one could drive the positions of lower level components.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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

 

[JohnRBaker]

As for the documentation issue, there is nothing preventing you from downloading the NX 7.5 documentation set ahead of installing NX 7.5 itself. If that can be arranged, I would review the arrangement details there rather than certainly NX 4.0 docs since the most recent versions are the most up-to-date with the most examples.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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

 

[cowski]

Arrangements work 1 level deep. I had a similar question a while back, see thread561-270862. Let's say you have arrangement A and you want to make arrangement B and have some components in a subassembly move as well: create arrangement B in the top level assembly and make it active, then create arrangement B in the subassembly and make it active. The arrangement used in the subassembly will change based on the top level arrangement used.

The search function isn't great right now (it is being worked on) but you should be able to find more threads on arrangements.

To create an arrangement:
1) In the arrangement dialog, create a new arrangement (or copy an existing one and rename it) and make it active.
2) Right click on a component of interest (in the graphics window or in the assembly navigator) go to 'properties' -> 'parameters' tab and change the 'arrangements' option from 'same position in all' to 'individually positioned'. Repeat for each component of interest.
3) Use the move component command to move the components to their arrangement specific location. If you use mating/assembly constraints you may have to make some of those arrangement specific so they update properly.

 

[teookie]

Thanks everyone. I actually found my answer earlier with a google search (go figure) in this thread:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=237186&page=78

but the site wouldn't let me post a reply...

Thanks.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Many of the older threads are 'closed' and Dave prefers that after a while, it's sometimes better to start a fresh thread if there are really new questions.

BTW, Dave and Doug are working on some new and better 'search' capabilities so perhaps it will be easier in the future to find references to issues which have already been run around the tree a few times ;-)

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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

 

[cowski]

It appears that a FAQ on reference sets and arrangements wouldn't hurt.