Datum Axis Annoyance in NX 4.0.4.2.

[man2007]

I feel SEIMENS needs to fix these bugs.

1)Try this option, create an arc and select 'point on curve' option of Datum Axis, now when you click on the 'cycle solution' button 3-4 times you can see that the arrow has disappeared from the screen, it will again start appearing after couple of clicks. Or this may also happen that the screen arrow is showing normal direction but cue line tells that it is tangent direction or vice versa.

2) Click on inferred button on Datum Axis and select Coincident constraint and select screen point, then slect Perpendicular contraint and select Datum Axis, you can see that the screen arrow is showing parallel direction!! which is quite confusing.

I tried in 2-3 systems, but the bug remained consistent.

 

[JohnRBaker]

As for your first item, the only problem with NX 4 is that the status line is one condition out of sync with what vector direction the software is showing you that is being created and while it is true that we should have caught that, most users depend on the preview to verify whether they are getting the proper vector or not on the wording of that status line, and for the ones that you claim 'disappeared', all you would have to do is rotate your display and you would have seen exactly where the vector was pointing.

As for NX 5, we have replaced the cycle button with an explicit option where you indicate the desired result and the preview will show you what you will be getting if you accept it or you can change it until you are sure that you're getting your desired result. We have also removed the status line altogether since ALMOST no one paid any attention to it and besides now you can just look at the option that you've selected to know what condition you're creating.

As for your second item, I'm not sure what it is that you're talking about since I don't believe that you've provided enough details so as to clearly describe what it is that you're attempting to do or what the desired results are going to be.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

 

[hudson888]

Man,

I would like to see a part file for your second problem.

Best Regards

Hudson

 

[hudson888]

Man,

I tried to follow your explanation and made little sense of it but I can put a theory regarding elements of it that may well solve your problem. You talk about selecting the Perpendicular constraint followed by selecting a datum axis, while attempting to create a datum axis. Now it seems to me that you may be asking for the impossible because perpendicularity requires a plane which I don't know whether you're able to establish with the objects that you selected?

Not sure. Seems like you need a plane or something first.

Best Regards

Hudson

 

[man2007]

Let me explain 2nd point once again, because a part file will not serve the purpose in this case.

1)Click on Datum Axis command
2)Select coincident constraint from the dropdown list
3)Select a point (screen point or control point of the already created objects)
4)Select Perpendicularity constraint from the dropdown list.
5)Select an existing datum axis
6)Now see the Preview in the screen, it is showing a direction parallel to the selected Datum Axis!! which is wrong. But when you click OK button the datum axis will be created correctly.

My concern here is "The previw is wrong while creating datum axis". But while editing the datum axis it will show the correct direction.

 

[hudson888]

Man,

In NX-4.0.0.25 I re-tested and it does exactly as you described. I have to re-confirm for my own sense of sanity but under NX-4.0.4.2 or NX-5.0.4.1 it seemed that it wasn't possible to actually create a datum axis using this method. In NX-3 it works perfectly. I'll try again as it seems I must have been doing something wrong earlier.

Please what exact version are you using?

Best Regards

Hudson

 

[JohnRBaker]

In NX 6 the preview and the results match. It's also possible to create parallel or perpendicular to an existing referenced Datum Axis.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

 

[hudson888]

Man,

scratch my earlier reply you're using the same version as I according to the title of the thread, which I overlooked. I tried another machine using an earlier version of NX-4 and it worked as it did in NX-3 and NX-5 once I figured out what the task was and how to achieve it. Apart from that I can confirm that it is as you say in my installation of NX-4.0.4.2 also.

Best regards

Hudson

 

[phillpd]

In NX5 (and NX6), I can create parallel, but not perpendicular. I have to edit the datum axis to get to the perpendicular option.

Specialty Engineered Automation (SEA)

http://www.sea4ug.com

a UGS Foundation Partner

 

[JohnRBaker]

In NX 5 and NX 6 you can use either 'Point and Direction' or 'On Curve Vector' to define a Perpendicular Axis as long as the point selected does not lie on the axis of the referenced object (linear edge, line, datum axis, etc). As has been alluded to previously, if the point lies on the axis of the referenced direction, there are an infinite number of possible solutions and therefore it's considered indeterminate.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

 

[phillpd]

Okay, I was just going with the Inferred option.

Specialty Engineered Automation (SEA)

http://www.sea4ug.com

a UGS Foundation Partner

 

[JohnRBaker]

The 'Inferred' option is for simple and/or unambiguous conditions, which generally only require one or two picks at the most. For anything that may require a secondary reference, such as to determine a proper direction such as parallel or perpendicular, it's often better to just move directly to the explicit function.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

 

[hudson888]

The biggest change as I saw it was that the perpendicular method was a menu of icons prior to NX-5 whereas it is now expressed as a drop down list or two selections, (either parallel or perpendicular). Just a tip for people who may like me waste time looking for the familiar presentational aspects of the dialog.

For me at least it may also be a bit of an obscure case because it is a function that I rather rarely need to use, although I can quite see that people may rely upon it from time to time and so I agree that it is necessary. I find the creation of some of these datum features somewhat analogous with the curve creation in that there are a great many possibilities combined in dialogs that struggle to remain concise in their approach. Given that I rarely create other than simple datum axes it occurs to me that I'm comparing the pre/post NX-5 methods in something of a fresh light and thinking that the use of text and icon methods in the dialogs post NX-5 feels less consistent. What I noticed that I probably wanted was the circular direction icon (four quadrants) instead of just the reverse axis method.

Best Regards

Hudson

 

[JohnRBaker]

Hudson,

I've actually just opened a PR asking for more consistency between the Datum Axis and Datum Plane dialogs (I think the Datum Plane dialog options are more consistent and that the Datum Axis could have been done a little better).

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

 

[hudson888]

Thanks John,

What I wrote was just a gut feel when I was casting about trying to find what control there was replacing the old parallel icon. I should point out the the software works fine and does everything, and probably more for all I know, than the earlier versions did. It just struck me as an (almost), initial impression that I was looking for something that wasn't there and perhaps should have been. I always feel a little uncomfortable being negative about annoyances and probably went into more depth than I needed to having started out meaning just to say "Hey if you're a bit stuck and looking you'll find it here..."

.

Hudson