Default settings in tool dialogs

[BOPdesigner]

Is there a place in customer defaults or elsewhere to set what default selections you want for some of the basic command dialogs? For example, in the Extrude tools dialog box:
1) I would like to set Unite to be my default Boolean setting?

This next one may not be a default but it is certainly annoying:

2) When I want to subtract a profile from an existing solid, 100% of the time I have to flip the direction of the extrusion that will be doing the cutting. How come it doesn't know which direction to extrude when I pick the target solid to subtract from?

 

[JohnRBaker]

Starting in NX 5 we introduced something we call 'Dialog Memory' where the dialogs will remember the last settings and options that you selected, even between sessions. Therefore the system automatically adapts to your 'personal defaults' as you select or set them. However, note that the setting of the Boolean type was NOT retained in NX 5, but that has been changed for NX 6 where they will now be retained like any other parameter value of setting/option.

As for the second issue we never attempt to second guess either the user or the model so we generally use the planar sense of the face/sketch/loop of curves/edges to determine the default vector direction of extruded feature. However, all you have to do is dougle click on the Yellow drag-arrow to reverse the direction of any displayed vector, be it during an extrude or any place you see a preview with a yellow vector handle.


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]

I don't like to restrict whatever you want to do, but please do consider others when building models in NX. Booleans with the creation are fine when the parts are simple. However for anything with more that two or three booleans it can be a lot easier to analyze somebody else's model if to take the care to execute them separately. That is to say that they become apparent in the feature tree and most users find that easier to deal with. Some people want to celebrate a low feature count I think in the case of booleans that this is a false economy as the complexity is exactly the same.

Best Regards

Hudson

 

[BOPdesigner]

Thanks for the help. I also have experienced that it is best to do the booleans as seperate operations when the models get complex. But for simple geometry, I do like to keep the feature tree small.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Prior to NX 5, editing the state of internal Booleans was limited, however starting in NX 5, you can now edit any internal Boolean including setting it back to No Boolean operation at all which means that if you use the internal Booleans and later decide to remove them and add explict ones, or visa versa, you will now be able to do that with no penalty or limitations.


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]

You gotta love that! Cheers John

The real problem came about when you tried to edit the section and couldn't be quite certain why it failed when you tried to update the model. Sometimes the section edit was the culprit and sometimes the boolean failed. It is nice to be able to sneak up on a solution in a more or less painless manner.

Regards

Hudson

 

[BOPdesigner]

Speaking of dialog memory, the numeric entries don't quite remember what I last entered. For example, I extrude with limits of Start = 0 and End = 0.5 for the distance values. Next time I use the command, the dialog remembers Start = 0 and End = 0.4999999999999999. Is there any way to resolve this?

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, we're aware of this and it's being addressed and should be fixed in a future maintenance release.


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/

 

[NXMold]

Oh good, thats been driving me nuts. Plays havoc with feature recognition downstream too, if your not careful.