Can You Flip Text in Drafting? 1

[Kenja824]

When working on templates, numbers for RH spots have to be reversed so they can read the number from the backside of the mylar (Film) paper.

Currently, the only way we know of to reverse text is to place it inside a view, flip it, and extract it back out of the view. General Motors has a button that moves objects from the drawing to the view and back. However, it would take forever to do this to ever spot number, so we do it once, then copy the text to every spot and manually edit the number to the correct number. Which still takes a bit of time.

Is there any way in drafting, to flip text so it is backward? If so, is there a way to flip multiple texts without them moving out of position?

If yes on either of those... how?

Ken

http://www.OneGodLogic.com

My brain is like a sponge. A sopping wet sponge. When I use it, I seem to lose more than I soak in.

 

[Toost]

If I understand this correctly , You create a drawing over vehicle body spot-welds ( I guess) and those spot welds are symmetrical L /R but differently numbered L/R.
then you only create/print one drawing ( on a transparent film) which applies to both sides, and the right hand side is read from the backside of this film.
The RH numbers should then be readable from the backside.

How do you flip a view ?
Is the note still a note after this maneuver or has it become "curves" ?

I tried exporting some text to CGM format, with the option Text to polylines, then re-import the CGM curves + Edit translate mirror but since this no longer is a note, it's not especially effective.
I then noted that the old "Unigraphics type fonts" are "reasonable" on this but a font such as "Arial" becomes an absurd amount of lines.
I tried to no success to mirror a note.

Regards,
Tomas


Never try to teach a pig to sing. I wastes your time and it annoys the pig.

 

[cowski]

A similar question was asked recently on the Siemens community forum:

https://community.sw.siemens.com/s/...Q/how-to-mirror-flip-the-text-in-nx-drafting-

The link above shows a method for flipping the notes, but I don't think it is any better/faster than what you are currently doing.

The old transform command had a "mirror about line" option that would probably be the most straightforward way to flip text. However, that option has been removed in newer versions of NX. I think that you can get it back by tinkering with environment variables, but I don't remember the variable name.

I found the variable and enabled it. However, it appears that the "mirror about line" no longer affects note objects. I tested in NX1919 and NX1980, the mirror operation did not flip the text (either true type font or NX font type notes).

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[Kenja824]

Toost

Your first part sounds pretty dead nut on.
We dont need to flip views. Our views are line extractions of the faces of the bodies. For instance the flange at the bottom of a door is typically the same on both sides of the car. Or exact opposites rather. We extract the edges of the outside and any important features for helping someone locate where they are. Then we place the spots and their ID numbers. If they are LH SHN/RH OPP, we place the RH number right below the LH number, but flipped so it can be read from the other side.

The purpose of these templates of faces where we weld the parts is that we will then cut them out of the sheets and punch holes at each weld spot. Then at the plants, when they are programing the robots to weld the correct locations, they will lay these templates on the parts and use a paint marker to mark the trial parts at all weld spot locations. That way they can make sure the programming is correct and the robot hits the right location to weld. ... For templates that are RH opposite, they can use the same template by just flipping it over.

Yes the note stays a note. GM has a tool that allows us to transfer lines and notes and such into the expanded view. Once it is in the view, we can exand into the view and flip it around just like in modelling. We flip it 180° and then transfer it back out of the drawing. It is still a note. It just reads backwards.

Currently we do this to only one note and then copy it to all the other spots and manually change the text to the correct number. This allows for human error as well as takes a lot more time to manually change the texts.

Ken

http://www.OneGodLogic.com

My brain is like a sponge. A sopping wet sponge. When I use it, I seem to lose more than I soak in.

 

[Kenja824]

cowski

Thanks for that info. I dont know anything about how environment variables work, but I will look into it and talk to IT if needed and see what can be done.

Ken

http://www.OneGodLogic.com

My brain is like a sponge. A sopping wet sponge. When I use it, I seem to lose more than I soak in.

 

[Kenja824]

Thanks for looking into that for me cowski.

Kind of surprises me there seems to be no simple way to flip text. Hard to believe we are the only ones who ever need it.

My guess is that if it cant be done in NX, then a journal cant be written to do it huh? lol

Another thought I had is to label the RH spots as normal. Then place a standard reverses note next to each one. Then get a journal that would allow me to just select a good number, then select a reversed note and it would automatically change the text of the reversed note to the same as the first note selected. IF this was set up on some kind of continuous loop, we could just click a good number, click a reversed note, click a good number, click a reversed note, etc... until we were done and hit OK. It would still speed things up considerably from typing each number out, and take away a lot of human error in typos. Is that something hard to do in journal?

Ken

http://www.OneGodLogic.com

My brain is like a sponge. A sopping wet sponge. When I use it, I seem to lose more than I soak in.

 

[Crocostimpy]

Not sure if this would work any better for you or even save you any time.

If you have actual geometry for the drawing the Text command (under Curves tab) creates curves from whatever you type. You can change the size, font, etc.
While you can't reverse the text in the feature itself, you can Mirror Geometry to get the reversed text. It's associative so you can modify the text. Put the reversed ones on a layer or in a reference set to show on your drawing.

You could also Remove Parameters on both and just end up with dumb text, but then you won't have the history hanging around taking up space.

Mike

 

[cowski]

I had time to look into this today. As it turns out, this is one of those situations where it is easier to accomplish in the API rather than in interactive NX. Try the code at this link; it will work with note and label objects. If any objects are preselected it will work on those objects; if there are no notes/labels preselected, it will prompt the user to select one. It should work with notes that live on the drawing sheet (not those contained within a drafting view). I didn't do extensive testing, please respond in this thread if you run into an issue.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[Kenja824]

Thanks for replying Crocostimpy, but cowski's journal works perfect.

cowski;

Thank you very much. It did work perfect. The amount of time we spend manually editing text that is already reversed is ridiculous. This will save us a lot of time and tedious work.

Ken

http://www.OneGodLogic.com

My brain is like a sponge. A sopping wet sponge. When I use it, I seem to lose more than I soak in.