Arrangements 1

[rg006]

Ok, Im an idiot...
Now, how do arrangements work? I have read the documentation and created two arrangements for an assembly. When I change an attribute or an expression, it changes in both arrangements? How do you vary the expressions in one arrangement without the other arrangement changing? NX4
Thanks,
Rick

 

[rg006]

Well, to expand my scope... I am trying to use an assembly inside of two other assemblies, but I need a mating condition (expression) to be different in each one. If I change it in one assembly, it saves the change and the change shows up in the other assembly the next time I open it. My idea is to make two arrangements and use arrangement 1 for assembly one and arrangement 2 for assembly 2. Any help would be awsome.
Thanks,
Rick

 

[hudson888]

You should be able to make certain mating conditions arrangement specific one you have created more than one arrangement in the assembly.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[SiW979]

To expand on what hudson eludes to, when you are in an arrangement, apply the mating conditions you want, but once they are all applied, right click on each of the mating conditions and select arrangement specific. Now when you change to the next arrangement you, go back into mating conditions and notice that the other mating conditions that you applied will be suppressed alloing you to add more, but remember to maike them arrangement specific.

Best regards

Simon NX4.0.4.2 MP10 - TCEng 9.1.3.6.c - (NX6.0.3.6 MP2 native)

http://www.jcb.com

Life shouldn't be measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of times when it's taken away...

 

[hudson888]

Simon is right, but the only thing that I really alluded to was that until you create a second arrangement the option to make mating conditions isn't offer to you. At either stage you're more than welcome to hit F1 to access the documentation help files, but in this case it is a little hard to get even to that point without the prerequisite two or more arrangements.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[rg006]

Hello Hudson and JBC,
The part I am using is an existing part file from our parent company. It uses an expression to control a mating distance. If I change the mating condition directly (which I may just have to) then I believe everything will work fine. However, is there any way to still use the expression to control the mating distance and have the expression value change based on which part assembly it will be used in? Each part assembly has an expression set with the required distance value. For example, if I open assembly A then the mating condition will be read from the master set by the smaller assembly part's expression and it will update the mating condition to be the correct distance. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Rick

 

[SiW979]

Rick

I'm not aware of anyway of doing that, but that's not to say it can't be done. Basically you are looking for a way to control an expression value based on which assembly is open? Hmmm, tricky one, sorry. :-(

Best regards

Simon NX4.0.4.2 MP10 - TCEng 9.1.3.6.c - (NX6.0.3.6 MP2 native)

http://www.jcb.com

Life shouldn't be measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of times when it's taken away...

 

[JohnRBaker]

You could use an 'Interpart Expression' from the Assembly linked to the sub-assembly (with the mating expression) so that each Assembly that it was used in could directly control the value of the mating expression. Of course, if this were to be the ONLY change required when this sub-assembly was used in an Assembly, you wouldn't need to create any Arrangements at all since each Assembly would be in control of the sub-assembly which it contained.

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.

 

[rg006]

John,
Currently, this is the way the part is set up, the interpart link uses the set number of the assembly you create it in. The problem is that if I now open the assembly in another master, the interpart link is still set to the other master and does not update. Is there a way to make it master independent so that it will update to whatever master it is opened in?
Thanks,
Rick

 

[JohnRBaker]

Create the Interpart Expression in the ASSEMBLY so that it OVERRIDES the distance Expression in the Sub-Assembly. To see what I mean, unzip the attached file and you will find a single sub-assembly and 3 different assemblies where this sub-assembly is used, and in each case the distance between the two components in the Sub-Assembly is different based on an Interpart Expression in the Assembly which is overriding the distance expression in the Sub-Assembly.

Try this with 'Assembly-1.prt', 'Assembly-2.prt' and 'Assembly-3.prt'.

Note that you can ONLY have one Assembly open at a time in the same session and that if you have more than one copy of the sub-assembly in the same assembly, they will ALL have the same offset. Note that this scheme was as close as we came to 'Arrangements' before they were actually implemented and while most of the time Arrangements has obsoleted the need to take this approach, it still works and there could still be times where it might be the solutions needed.

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.

 

[rg006]

John,
"Did you ever know that your my hero..."
but seriously, thanks, that's exactly what I needed!
Have a star!
Rick

 

[hudson888]

You can also get an arrangement in the parent to select for the use of an arrangement in its sub assembly. With arrangement specific mating conditions then you can if necessary have two similar ones each specific to a different arrangement so that they use different set values. If those values are also driven by interpart expressions then it is likely that you've just about reached the heights of available complexity.

One thing that might not have been mentioned here (but should be in the documentation) is that you can have either different arrangement specific values for distance or angular mating conditions, or you can have arrangement specific suppression of certain mating conditions, so that a component is mated completely differently depending upon which arrangement is used.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[rg006]

Thanks Hudson,
I will have to remember that for later. I had tried to play around with different mating conditions (values) and from what I could tell, it seemed to work good.