Automatic update of tabular note

[bb1982]

Good evening to all members of this wonderful forum!
I'm a mechanical engineer, I work for a centrifugal pump manufacturer and it's my first thread and my first post.

Now I come immediately to my question: I have a drafting with several tabular notes which are linked to the internal spreadsheet (which takes data from expressions), and now I'm wondering whether it would be possible to get an automated update as soon as I refresh the expression list by loading a new .exp file.

For the time being, the only way I found to refresh the tables is to double-click on one of the cells, let the spreadsheet open and then close it allowing for the table update. This process works but it's very very slow...Furthermore, I would like to control manually the update, since it's incredibly bothering to wait for the spredsheet to update whenever I change a table property or simply the width of a column.

Thanks in advance to everybody who will pay attention to this message or will have any useful tip!

P.S. I'm using UG/NX 7.5 and MS Excel 2007.

 

[JohnRBaker]

I'm a little confused here. You say you have an INTERNAL spreadsheet which takes data from expressions. Are you by any chance talking about the 'spreadsheet' which comes up when you select the Tabular Note object, press MB3 and select the 'Edit Using Spreadsheet' option? If so, you are not really linking anything to a 'spreadsheet'. The key words here were that the option you used stated that your going to "Edit Using...". Once you close the 'spreadsheet' and tabular note updates, there is NO spreadsheet. It's GONE! It was only being 'used' as a user interface tool to make it easy to edit what could be a large table.

Now irrespective of what you think is happening, there still may be problems with getting the tables to update after you've edited your expression values. Rather than doing what you're doing, tyr this. Leave Drafting and switch to Modeling. Now go to...

Tools -> Update -> Update for External Change

...and then go back to Drafting.

Now just so you know that there actually is a way to link a part file to an EXTERNAL spreadsheet which can be used to perform your typical spreadsheet operations on Expressions and pass the results back to NX, but this is done using KF routines inside the Expression editor available under the Function f(x) button at the bottom, on the left, of the Expression editor dialog.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

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

 

[bb1982]

Hello John,

Thank you for your quick answer and for your suggestion.
I try to better summarize my situation:

- I have a .prt file with many parameters
- Then I go to Tools -> Spreadsheet and here I use the parameters by using the function "EXPRVAL" and prepare a table for the drafting
- Now I enter the drafting, insert a Tabular note and select Import -> Spreadsheet after right-clicking on a cell: now I'm asked to select a part file from which the spreadsheet has to be taken, the number of the sheet I want to use and also the range I want to consider in my table.

In this way I have what I want,but my question concerned only the updating of a so created table, since right now I can do this by only editing one cell of the table (right click -> edit and the internal spreadsheet open and updates).

 

[JohnRBaker]

Have you tried the Update 'trick' I suggested?

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

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

 

[bb1982]

Still not... I have to wait until Monday morning

But there are two other points:

In the same drafting (actually a PARENT file) I have a Linked sketch and some dimension and annotation placed on it. When I modify the CHILD part file from which the linked sketch is taken, all dimension and annotations retain the correct associativity but I have to suppress and unsuppress the Linked sketch in Modeling in order to get a proper visualization of the dimensions, while a simple 'update' of the sheet is enough for updating the sketch.

Last point, I am wondering whether it could be possible to make the same procedure I explained in my previous post but with a spreadsheet taken from another loaded prt file.

 

[bb1982]

Hi John,

I tried your trick but actually it didn't work... I still have to update manually each table by entering and exiting the spreadsheet.
It takes really a lot of time!
However, the most annoyng problem is that I have to suppress and unsuppress the linked sketch in order to update the placement of the dimensions on the drawing.
Does somebody have a possible solution to this?

Thanks all!

 

[JohnRBaker]

I would get the GTAC people to look at it since if they can reproduce it they will forward it on to the developers to look at it.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

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