Assembly Component management 2

[Nick Green]

I am investigating whether it is possible in NX to get the same functionality that we currently get in Inventor from the use of Levels of Detail (LoD).
So each assembly can have a number of LoDs assigned to it which control what components or sub-assemblies are active or suppressed.
As a basic example, every assembly has 2 LoDs called Master (everything active) & Detail Suppressed (all minor components are suppressed). Where an assembly has a sub-assembly, the sub-assembly Detail Suppressed LoD can be called up.
This means that when a top level assembly is opened up in its Detail Suppressed LoD, all minor components at all levels of the assembly are suppressed. There is the additional functionality that lets different LoDs to be selected; so it is possible to see the detailed interaction between 2 sub-assemblies without changing the display anywhere else.
I can get some similar functionality by using layers but unlike Inventor I can't see how I can easily change a sub-assembly to Master without affecting the whole group.
Can anyone give me some pointers as to what I need to do?

Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK

 

[Dave K]

Have you looked at reference sets?

-Dave

NX 9, Teamcenter 10

 

[ewh]

... or arrangements?

"Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively."
-Dalai Lama XIV

 

[Nick Green]

I can call up a reference set in a 2 tier assembly but I can't see how you can call up a reference set of a sub-assembly with a reference set in the layer above.
So, as an example, I've got a 3 tier assembly and the bottom level has a step made with steel grating and also a simplified block model of the grating.
I have created a reference set in the bottom level called Grating Hidden.
I have also created a grating set in the middle level called Grating Hidden
Now in the middle level I can right click on the bottom level and Replace Reference Set to Grating Hidden but I can't see a way to get the bottom level Grating Hidden be called up by the middle level Grating Hidden.
Seems to be stuck on single level operation.

Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK

 

[Nick Green]

How do you define visibility of components in arrangements? I can control position that way but not visibility.

Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK

 

[Ehaviv]

If you design your refsets for what you
want to see on the top level you need
only to right click the component on
The top level and choose the refset you designed

Comp top refset xxx
Comp under it refset yyy
Comp under it refset zzz
So if you choose refset xxx
You see refset yyy which see refset xxx

 

[Nick Green]

So how, using your example, do I define refset xx to call up refset yy which in turn calls up refset zz?

Also, when in an assembly, how do I know what has is going to be displayed in a Reference Set?

Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK

 

[Ehaviv]

Here atached my example

To see the refsets expand comp_b and right click comp_a to see its refsets

 

[cmacca]

If you are just controlling if components are suppressed or not then use arrangements. Right click on the component you what to suppress in the assembly navigator and select suppression. The dialog box will list the arrangements you have and you can choose to supress this component in any arrangement you have defined and even arrangements at different levels.

Best not to define reference sets at the assembly level that hide components, they should be defined at the part level. Reference sets are good if you what to show a component represented in two different ways e.g a component part with many holes could have two reference sets, one called detailed that shows the holes and one called simple that does not show the holes.

NX 9.0.3.4 mp12, TC 10.1

 

[Nick Green]

The arrangement is fine on a single level but I don't seem to be able to call up an arrangement to be used in an arrangement at a higher level.

I am trying to find a suitable solution for top level models that are likely to be in the order of 250k components which are parts of assemblies that have large numbers of layers and are significantly intertwined.
Creating arrangements for every assembly level is not a viable solution in the design process as it will significantly increase the workload.

What I need is a solution that is as good if not better than the Levels of Detail functionality that we are currently using in Inventor. This allows us to have a Detail Suppressed 'arrangement' to be created for every level of an assembly with higher levels calling on the Detail Suppressed arrangement of lower levels so there is no requirement for the high level 'arrangements' to be edited when the lower levels are changed.

Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK

 

[SS88]

With Arrangements I was able to create an assembly where the top level arrangement drives the sub-assembly arrangements as well. From there on the sub-assembly specific arrangement suppresses or unsuppresses the components in the specific sub-assy. Before I explain anything more could you verify this was what you were aiming to do?

See the pic for clarification. DET for details, DETSUP for details suppressed.

http://files.engineering.com/getfil...-41e1-9f40-1ed104756490&file=arrangements.jpg

 

[Nick Green]

That is exactly what I am trying to do, I had already tried Arrangements for positional variations but hadn't worked out how to suppress components as well.

Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK

 

[SS88]

Workflow in this is like guiding a wise blind man, you must be specific and show and tell everything to make it work. Leap over one step and forget to mention about it and all will fail.

Creating arrangements with the same name in the top level and all sub-assys won't make it work alone. When you change the top level arrangement, you have to change the sub-assy arrangement as well. Now when you have once shown which sub-assy arrangement should be used in which top level arrangement, NX will remember it next time.

Component suppression should be done by the sub-assy and not by the top level to avoid the update/maintenance issue you mentioned earlier.

I might be able to help if you need assistance in making an example assembly with this method.

 

[PSI-CAD]

Hi,
You can also try using saving your assembly as bookmark.
Then opening bookmark instead of part

Regards
Didier Psaltopoulos

http://www.psi-cad.fr