Drafting: Smash View - any pitfalls or tips?

[icconian]

I have an I-DEAS drawing that has been read into NX 9.0 for revision. It is all 2D - a piping schematic. Although the text can be edited, the curves cannot. The lines can't be moved, length changed, etc., nada. I've discovered, however, that "Smash View" can be applied to this original view. Everything now sits on the Sheet, and can be edited. Soooo, what are we getting ourselves into by using this command: Smash View? Can these elements now be placed on a new View just to get them off of the Sheet view, and is there any advantage or disadvantage? Thanks!

 

[cowski]

I'd guess that your schematic was converted as a custom symbol. Normally, a custom symbol cannot be edited directly; "smashing" it will break it into its constituent pieces. Smashing it probably left you with "dumb" curve geometry that lives directly on the drawing sheet. If so, you can leave it here if that's what you want; we used to create (very simple) electrical schematics directly on the sheet. If you don't want to keep it on the sheet, you can use a "view dependent edit" to convert the curves to "model" curves. Doing so will move the curves into "model" space; you can then add a view to your drawing of the model curves. Doing this will make it easier to move the schematic around on the drawing, if necessary.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[icconian]

Thanks for your thoughts, cowski, but it seems as though I-DEAS 2D curves are some sort of special case in NX. The schematic cannot be smashed using Smash Symbol, so it really isn't acting like a symbol. Once I applied Smash View to the view that the I-DEAS elements were in, all those curves moved to the Sheet and were marginally editable. Double clicking lets you change the length and angle by dragging. They can be moved & copied. Which is enough to allow me to make the revisions in NX for now. Moving all that back to an NX View "froze" all the curves into an un-editable state. Was hoping that any former I-DEAS users had already run across this situation, but for now I am kludging along!

 

[cowski]

Moving all that back to an NX View "froze" all the curves into an un-editable state.

How did you "move them back to an NX view"?

If you convert them to model curves as suggested in my previous post, the curves will show up in the modeling application and will be editable as a "dumb" curve. If you would like, you can start a new sketch and use "add existing curve" to convert the "dumb" curves into a sketch.

So, I guess it depends on what you mean by "editable". Dumb curves are perfectly editable, but I think you have a "sketch" type of edit in mind.

www.nxjournaling.com