Arrays / Instances within sketcher

[michaelmould]

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to Unigraphics software, having converted from Solidworks with my change of jobs. I'm now using NX6, which on the whole is a much more complete piece of CAD software. However I do find the odd oversight.

The problem I am having at the moment is that i am creating a sketch to apply a graphical layout of LEDs on the front of a button. This is going to be made up from circular and linear arrays of LEDs.

Inside of sketcher, is there really no way of creating arrays of sketch components? If not, seems like this is an obvious trick missed. I'm resorting to creating lines and curves and using instance geometry, which works, but seems a bit over complicated.

Perhaps I've just missed something. Although if i haven't perhaps this could be considered for future releases.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[NXConsultants]

Mike,

Can you upload a picture of what you are hoping to achieve?

It sounds like you're halfway there by mentioning Instance Geometry - Without seeing your case we can't really advise..

The ability to array has been kept out of sketcher (to the best of my knowledge) to keep things simple, sketches can be hard to constrain - duplicating information inside the sketch will only make this worse.

 

[hudson888]

NX supports mirroring within the sketcher and instance geometry outside of the sketcher. Other forms of instancing within the sketcher are not currently supported, but most users find that they don't need that anyway. When you look into the instance geometry function I think you'll find it possibly more powerful and flexible that might otherwise be the case by just using the sketcher.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[JohnRBaker]

The ability to array sketch elements INSIDE the sketch itself will be fully supported in NX 7.5, available sometime early next year. At the moment, as has already been mentioned, if you sketch the element which needs to be arrayed, that can be done OUTSIDE the sketcher using Instance Geometry. In the end, the results are almost the same.

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.

 

[potrero]

John,
That's great news about array functionality within Sketcher. Thanks.

 

[michaelmould]

Thanks for your replies guys,

Thats great news about the sketcher update. I managed to do what i was trying to using Instance Geometry, just found it frustrating as the work process isn't as i'd have done it in Solidworks.

Its handy to be able to see the arrays and things in one place, so I can fine tune the design on the fly, rather than have to edit multiple features. If that makes sense!

Cheers,

Mike