Coordinate points data in drafting from specified WCS

[PatilR]

Need Coordinate points data from a specified WCS (i.e. not from Absolute Coordinate system) in drafting as table if possible Parametric values of a pointset created in model

Thanks

 

[JohnRBaker]

When working on the face of a Drawing there is real 3D concept like a WCS. Any point 'measured' on the face of the Drawing will be in Drawing space as if you were using a ruler on a paper Drawing. What you need to do is leave Drafting, establish you frame-of-reference, capture the coordinates of the points of interest, record them in a spreadsheet and then when back on the drawing, create a table with values in the fields inherited from the spreadsheet file.

As for getting the point coordinate data into a spreadsheet, there have been several programs/journals posted here over the years that can help you with that task (I've even got a couple of GRIP programs that help do this if you can execute GRIP on your system). Note that this will result in a non-associative relationship between the points and the values in the table. If you wish associative results, while that's possible, it will require a bit more work but it could be done, depending of course on the number of points involved. If it's only a few, no more than 10 or 20, it wouldn't take all that long to set-up, maybe an hours worth of work, which if associativity is not important and you have many more points than say 10 or 20, then the separate program to extract the data via a spreadsheet would be the more productive solution and it could be done in a matter of minutes.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
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[JohnRBaker]

Sorry but the first sentence of my post above should have read "When working on the face of a Drawing there is NO real 3D concept like a WCS."

Sorry if that confused anyone but I thought I should correct this omission before it did.

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

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

 

[PatilR]

Thank you John

Yes, I have seen couple of GRIP programs/Journals, but all of them measuring the coordinate points from Absolute Origin.

I want to select from where I want to measure the coordinates.

I am having about 150 points, and ready to spend 2-3 hrs if its possible to get parametric values

 

[JohnRBaker]

I wouldn't even try to parametrically link 150 points!

Attached is a GRIP program that will write the X,Y,Z coordinates of up to 1,000 points in a comma-delimited text file which will make it easy to load them into a spreadsheet. Read the header of the .grs file for instructions on how to run the program.

After you download the attached file, edit the file extension from .zipper to .zip before attempting to extract the program files.

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

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

 

[PatilR]

Thanks Again John,


In the program the coordinate values are given from Absolute, but I want to make (0,0,0) at some other point or WCS.
From that point or WCS I need coordinates.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Just set the WCS to where you want it and run the program. The points are relative to the origin of the WCS, NOT absolute. And remember that a Datum CSYS is NOT the WCS.

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

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

 

[ChrisAbbott]

You can create an NX spreadsheet that has associative cell values listing the XYZ coordinates of any number of points. Equally you could do the same for the "point" at the origin of a datum CSYS that you could then move around as if it were a WCS of sorts. A bit of subtraction on the spreadsheet and you'd have your live values which you can output to a Tabular Note on a drawing.

Is that the sort of thing you're after?

Chris Abbott
TEAM Engineering

http://www.team-eng.com

 

[PatilR]

Thank you John/Chris

@john
When I am running the program in Modeling its giving the values from WCS and if I am running it in drafting mode Values are comming from absolute.
and as I created pointset values are not in sequence (order like pt1, pt2,...)those are shuffled
@Chris
I dont know the values to create spreadsheet. just I am creating pointset using curve equally spaced 150 points.

 

[ChrisAbbott]

Assuming pre-NX9:

- Change selection filter to "Point" (this is important. Point feature =/= point geometry)
- Select one of the points, right-click > Properties
- General tab > Change name to POINT1
- Click OK
- Tools > Spreadsheet
- Select cells A1 to C1
- Type =POINT("POINT1")
- Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to populate the array
- You should have XYZ values for the position of that point - associative. If you change the point location, it changes the values in the spreadsheet

Do the same for all other points (POINT2, POINT3...) and the point at the origin of a Datum CSYS which you can move around. In the spreadsheet, do the subtraction of XYZ values from the datum CSYS.

Chris Abbott
TEAM Engineering

http://www.team-eng.com

 

[cowski]

Using the method described by Chris, you may need to run the "update for external change" command to update the tabular note if/when the points move.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

As I stated in my first response, there is NO concept of a WCS in Drafting. You have to run this in Modeling to get the true 3D point data.

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

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

 

[PatilR]

I am using NX8.5

 

[PatilR]

And i dont know the values to create the points.
I need to divide the curve into 150 points and the curve is variable

 

[JohnRBaker]

I just assumed that you already had points in your file. You never mentioned that you needed help CREATING them. You only asked about getting the coordinate data, as if the points were already there.

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

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

 

[PatilR]

Yes John,

I am creating points by pointset using along curve equal parameter
start % as 0
End % as 100
Number of points 150

If the model updates (i.e. curve length varies ) points will be updating, so that I asked xyz coordinates

 

[JohnRBaker]

With NX 8.5 your only solution would have to be a custom NX Open application to collect the coordinate data and have it update after any changes. However, with NX 9.0 you could at least get a series of expressions (a minimum of 150) which would assiciativily collect the coordinate data of the points (you'd still have to create the 150 'Measure Point' features but that could be automated using a Journal). Now you'd still need to do a fair amount of work to get that point data into tables on your Drawing but it could be done.

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

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

 

[PatilR]

HI John,

Is it possible to make some changes in your grip program like
1) It should ask the file name while saving .dat
2) Is it possible directly to save as .txt (should ask the file name before saving)

 

[JohnRBaker]

You can't bring-up the normal Windows Explorer save-as dialog using GRIP. The best that could be done is to ask the user to type in a text string that is to be used as the name of the file. And yes, I think the file extension can be .txt instead of .dat.

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

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

 

[PatilR]

Thank you John,

As I don't know much about GRIP program, is it possible to you to make changes as suggested and attach it again.


Regards
Patil