associative part 3

[Michel1978]

Hi,
How can I get an associative copy of a part.
I want to have a copy of a part without all the features how its build up. In inventor called "derived part".
This gives you a small file but its still associative with the original.
Usefull when making different parts out of 1 mold i.e.

Michel

I use NX5.

 

[cowski]

Search the help files and this forum for 'wave linking' and 'promotion' (or 'promoted body').

 

[potrero]

As cowski mentioned, there are multiple other threads where this issue is discussed. But here are a couple suggestions to give you some ideas.

Create a new part, maybe call it "derived.prt". Add your original part as a component, to derived.prt. With derived.prt as the Work Part, do the following:
Insert > Associative Copy > WAVE Geometry Linker
Change the Type drop-down to Body (or whatever kind of entity you want...), then select what you want from the original.prt. This will create an associative copy of that geometry, in your derived.prt.

You should be aware of a couple pre-requisites:
-In NX6, there is a high degree of control over what is or isn't allowed for inter-part copying. This is accomplished through "Product Interface". This tool is accessed from your Assemblies icon set while in Modeling (or search for "Product Interface" with the Command Finder, then look at the help files with F1...) Make sure that either your Part Referencing Rules > Interpart Linking are set either to Allow Selection of Any Geometry or Expression, or else publish the geometry you want and set the Rule to Encourage or Restrict...
-Make sure that the original part's Reference Set (in the context of derived.prt) is either Entire Part or else actually includes the geometry you want to copy.

You probably already know this, but anyway, the "original" part in this example is technically called the "Master" part, in NX-speak ("Master Modeling")...

 

[ewh]

... after you create your part copy, change the reference set of the parent component to "empty" and you will be left with just the associative copy to do with as you please.

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]

 

[potrero]

By the way, you might be interested in knowing that you can very flexibly "break" or re-associate the linked body to the master part. For instance, if you wanted to document a mold at some point in time, you could create a WAVE linked body of the tool into a part as discussed earlier, and then dis-associate it (Edit the Linked Body feature and under Settings, un-check "Associative".) The WAVE linked body's icon in the Part Navigator will change to signify the broken link, and now, no updates will occur even if the master part changes.

If at some point in time, you want to RE-associate the body, you can simply edit (double click) the broken feature, then go and re-select the body from your master part. At this point you should be aware of a REALLY powerful tool: the Replacement Assistant. This allows you to match Faces and Edges of the old linked body, to the new associative one. Oftentimes if you follow this procedure, any downstream features that reference the old linked body will update correctly. Totally awesome.

 

[hudson888]

I wouldn't call it an associative copy of a part. It is sufficient that the question is asked in those terms because we assume the asker being unaware of the technology describes the first analogous concept that comes to mind.

As cowki explains its a new part. So a separate part is created. The original will be loaded to it as component. technically at this point you have an assembly. Technically when using assemblies you can reposition components wherever you like, and associative copies which you now make will be oriented according to how the component was last positioned.

There are two ways to create the associative geometry, they are Promotions and Wave linking. There is frequently conjecture about which is most appropriate to use under different circumstances. There is however some loose consensus that Promotions are generally best for machined weldments, while for most mold work and other applications people use wave linked geometry.

With promotions you may not remove the component from your assembly by any means, but the occurrence of the additional component as a double up on any part list you subsequently make in drafting will be managed not to occur.

With wave linked geometry the links can be broken and the component even removed from the assembly for convenience sake. Potrero is right to say that the links can easily be re-established but be mindful that if you remove the component from its original orientation you need to be able to put it back where it came from in order to do so. Using Absolute positioning is a reliable method, and I'm more inclined to suppression of such components than complete removal.

The wave associativity manager and de-tuning the frequency of automatic updates from the donor part are other good ways to save processing time when working on such models. While on the other hand partially loaded models may not automatically update when you expect them to.

Associativity adds complexity. I have hopefully plugged Michel into the correct jargon, and hope you'll find it easier to negotiate your way around this technology armed with the right keywords.

A last word would be to reassure you that although this sounds complex most NX users make use of it frequently or constantly, and once you familiarise yourself there is a consistent straightforward logic to using it.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[potrero]

hudson, good point about the risk of moving the master model. I guess that I almost always use absolute positioning (and Fix constraint) to keep the master model exactly where it should be.

Regarding the "doubling up" issue in part lists, you can add a Part Attribute "PLIST_IGNORE_MEMBER" to the master model, and it will not appear in the part list.

 

[hudson888]

potrero,

Good point! that attribute actually takes the place of manipulating the parts list levels, which is another way to achieve the same thing. You have to assign that attribute at the assembly level not to the master model, or in most cases the drawing part file not the component. The problem is that once assigned the attribute stops the editing of levels by the selection method supported under edit levels from working as it otherwise should.

The concepts and ability to work with attributes appropriately at different levels is another reasonably lengthy explanation. Using the Edit levels function of the part list is straightforward and covered in the documentation if asked I would advise along those lines.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[Michel1978]

Thanks for all the response and help at first.

I've played a little with WAVE and promote and they seem to be quite similar.
I know now what I did wrong. I didn't hide the original. So that gave me problems when making holes, Because there were actually 2 parts.
But EWH, you said make the original reference set empty. Isn't that the same as hiding the original?


I use NX5.

 

[hudson888]

Yes making the reference set empty is the same as hiding the original. I can already surmise form your post that you're using wave linking, because you don't get double ups with promotions. Something else I'm now reminded to inform you of, perhaps just a bit too late.

A lot also has to do with how you load reference sets, whether you use partial loading or not in your load options and how you set the geometry to update in terms of whether changes made to the original part are reflected by automatic updates to the linked geometry in your new part.

Once you get the hand of that another way to operate may be to try suppressing components that are really just there for the links. It is not always the best understood or even most appropriate way to operate but it remains yet another way to hide doubles up.

Jumping the gun a bit for your next project perhaps wave linking also supports linked mirrored geometry. Something that for many of us comes in handy very frequently.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[ewh]

Unless I need to reference the parent part for some reason, I prefer to use reference sets when editing a linked body. Less confusing for me;-)

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]

 

[hudson888]

ewh,

I simply find that with very big assemblies I load the REP reference set by default so the lightweight faceted bodies are all that load. Then if I need to load geometry I usually load the lot. Having that extra level of filtering by way of suppressed components allows me to keep the linked data close and the tree apparently smaller when I'm super keen to only update selectively.

Each to his own as always, but there's a method to my madness I reasoned to mention it since it often serves me quite well. In terms of addressing the larger how's and whys some sites I have been working with don't have the advanced wave license so they can't control freezing and unfreezing linked geometry. Using suppression like this creates something that approximates pseudo freezing.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum