Component Groups

[DLH81]

I'm just starting to mess around with creating component groups in order to make large assemblies more manageable.

I have an assembly that has about 1500 fasteners in it, so I had the idea to create a component group of all fasteners so that I can toggle them on and off all at once. I also wanted to be able to close all those parts, then save a bookmark to make the assembly quicker to load the next time. However, when I right click on my fastener component group, and select components - close - part, the parts do not appear to be closed. In the assembly nav they are all greyed out, but the box is still checked. When I load my bookmark I also notice that those fasteners are showing up as loading in the status bar although they do not appear on the screen when the assembly finishes loading.

Anyone know what is going on here?

 

[DLH81]

Sorry, forgot to mention I'm running NX8 and TC8.

 

[JohnRBaker]

I just tested this and it's working fine in NX 8.0.3.4. When you open the Bookmark if the grayed-out Components do NOT have a checkmark in the grayed-out box next to them, they are NOT loaded, even if there is or is NOT a checkmark in the box next to the Component Group item. Now clicking in the box next to the Component Group item WILL cause the Components in the Group to be loaded, so don't mess with it if you don't want to load them.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
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To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[DLH81]

Ok, seems to be working now. Not sure why I had an issue before. Operator error most likely!

As a follow on question, I notice when I right click on the component group - components - open, there are 3 options: Component, component fully and start part. What are the differences of these options?

Similarly for the close option there is part and part (modified). Why the 2 options?

Thanks for the help

 

[JohnRBaker]

Well, I can cover most of these.

The Component Open options, at least the first two, 'Component' and 'Component Fully', are the same as when you set the Load Options to either open Compoment Fully or not. When it's using the non-Fully option, only the geometric model is loaded but none of the non-geometric data, like the parametric structure and some other data not needed for most things that you do in the context of an assembly. As for the 'Start Part', I think it's related to using WAVE linked Assembly 'control structures', but I'll have to get some more details to fully explain how you would use this option.

As for the Component Close options, basically the normal 'Close Part' option will close all non-modified Components and leave the modified ones open even if they were members of the Component Group. The 'Close Part (Modified)' will force the closing of all Components, modified or otherwise.

Anyway, I'll try to get more details and get back to you if anything I learn changes my comments.

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.