Automatic User Expression relationships between Model and Drafting

[SkrydlakA]

I'm wondering if there's a way to automatically generate dimensional relationships (via User Expressions) between a drawing and it's child/model, so you could create a note similar to the following example:

You are in a company that makes thousands of different size bars. All your NX models are made via Teamcenter from a template that uses User Expressions titled "Length", "Width" and "Height". My goal is to create a Drawing template that when generated, has a note similar to:

Relavent Dims:
Length= <X2.2@Length>in
Width= <X2.2@Width>in
Height= <X1.2Height>in

Which would display on the Drawing Sheet as:

Relavent Dims:
Length= 3.00in
Width= 10.25in
Height= 3.13in

I know how to export/import lists of expressions, but those are not "live" as in, if you change the model, you have to remember to re-export/import the list. I want the dims/note/drawing to update automatically with the model, and generate the relationships automatically when you create a new Drawing from template. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm happy to clarify any ambiguity in my requirements.

Thanks,
--Alex
NX 7.5.4.4
Teamcenter 2007

 

[JohnRBaker]

This has been covered dozens of times here and on other web-forums.

When creating a note, in the text editor dialog there's a section titled 'Text Input'. In this section expand the 'Symbols' list and then select the 'Category' option named 'Relationships'. You will now be able to select an Expression to link the value into the note. One caveat, if you're working in the Master Model mode you will have to also use the 'Link to Part' option in this new dialog so that you are actually linking to the Expressions in the 'Master Model' part file being referenced by the Drawing file.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

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

 

[SkrydlakA]

Hi John,

I know how to generate the note/relationships manually via relationsips (I probably learned how to from the forums you've written in ). My goal is to create a drawing template such that when I create a "bar" drawing from that template, it automatically creates those relationships and fills in the note. So in essence, all you have to do is select new, pick your drawing template, add a view or two, and print, and you can hand it to your machinist. Particular to my situation is the case of gears. We create the gear models from a template with user expressions addendum, major, minor etc, and most of our design guys fill in the gear data manually (don't even bother with relationships). I'd like to take that step out of the picture.

 

[daluigi]

It looks to me that you should customize the drawing creation with a homemade NXOpen tool that would pick the right template, create the needed view and place the right note with links to any of needed expressions automatically.
Not a big deal for NXOpen programing.

 

[SkrydlakA]

daluigi,

NXOpen might be an option, although it looks like a lot of coding is involved and I've only written in MATLAB and Excel (not really programming). I've also attempted writing a Macro (and Journals per John's recommendation, but to no avail) to link expressions and had limited success/stability in doing so. My concern is that our design engineers are not programmers, and any extra steps involved in changing "behind the scenes functionality" by them would accomplish nothing - something about old dogs and new tricks. I need to subtract the step where they manually input the data, and not add any more, otherwise they probably won't change anything.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Could you provide a simple, nonproprietary example of a representative 'family' part and the final Drawing, with the notes formatted as desired?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

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

 

[kapmnit123]

Hi Alex,
One way out could be:-
(1) Create the table of notes (taking references from expressions) (in my case i tried having a table with threee Rows and two columns.The first row contained Parmaters name let us say Length,Width and Height in my case and the second column contain their respective values)then SAVE AS A TEMPLATE. (i have attached the snapshot of the template i used.)
(2) When you have a part containing expressions with the same name and you create a drawing.Just drag and drop the saved table template from the resource bar.You will see that the table gets updated automatically.

I found that this approach worked well initially (please test it in your case)...since it created dupliacte expressions in the part file....so in order to avoid this i created a dfa (you can keep this dfa embeeded in your model file) which automatically created part attributes based on the expression values of a part file.These part attributes serve as a relationship parameter for the TABLE TEMPLATE saved by you in the first method.

Second way can be (i have not tried it yet)
Create the drafting template (with the table template and dfa embedded in the part file) and then when you create a drawing of a part (which contains expressions with the same name) just pull in this template and it should automatically update.(i am talking about the stand-alone drafting approach only and not master model approach as of now).

Regards
Kapil Sharma

 

[SkrydlakA]

When you create a new drawing from the part, the drawing points to the part and makes some sort of relationship, I would think that there would be a way to use that relationship to automatically link all the expressions to from the Model(child) to the Drawing(parent).
Basically, have the "Bar" text in the user expression formulae change to whatever the model is called (and build the corresponding link to the model) when a new drawing is created.

This model was created outside of Teamcenter. In Teamcenter, there's an Item that contains Revisions, which contain a UGMASTER(model) and a UGPART(drawing).

http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=7856ec83-1985-41fe-a1b2-11b45eeb89dc&file=Bar.prt

http://files.engineering.com/getfil...8c9d-4161-bd16-73ac832331af&file=bar_dwg1.prt

http://files.engineering.com/getfil...c4f-4945-bc57-471aa51f2bf5&file=Bar__MODEL.jt

 

[SkrydlakA]

Kapil,

By stand-alone, do you mean that you just switch from Modeling to Drafting to get from your model to your drawing (with regard to the first portion of your post)? I'm guessing the table concept will work for this, but in the "Master-model" approach you need to link the drawing to the name of the model. If the name of the model changes, the relationships in the drawing template need to update/change with it.

 

[kapmnit123]

Hi Alex,
Sorry for a late reply.Yes by stand-alone i meant the same.In case a part template is used (where the default expressions are already there) i hope it may work with the master-model concept too.(the only catch is that the child model needs to reference the interpart expressions values automatically from the main parent part.
I guess (apologies for running a wild guess though)this may still be doabale using KF.
My current way of doing it is in this way...
Use the drafting template (which contains the dfa code) for the master model.The dfa will help in creating expressions with the same name and value in the child part (where the drafting will be created) as in the parent part.So when you pull in the template the columns will be of correct value (my KF knowledge has been a bit rusty so i stuck somewhere in the middle.If in case you find this approach worthwhile do ask for some KF /Open coding help from some expert.)
Thanks and Best Regards
Kapil Sharma

 

[kapmnit123]

Hi Alex,
This is what i was talking about (took me long to customize the approach for Master Model scenario). Find attached a ppt herewith.(step by step methodology followed)
I am not attaching the dfa however at this point of time.
Hope this was what you were talking about.
Best Regards
Kapil Sharma