Exploded view, straight tracelines between surfaces

[BOPdesigner]

I am making an exploded view of an assembly and I want to show tracelines between two components with planer mating surfaces. I don't want the traceline to be on the edges of the components, but rather near the center of the faces. When I use the point on face snap I can never line up the point on the 2nd face so that the resulting traceline is a straight line normal to both faces. It always has some bends or jogs in it. Is there an easier way to accomplish this with the traceline function? NX 5 and NX 6.

 

[jerry1423]

I put those in with simple curves. If there is a better way to do it I would love to hear it.

 

[JohnRBaker]

After placing the point on the first surface where you like it, project it onto the second surface along a vector which you consider as being the direction you are shooting for. Now any trace-line drawn between them should meet your criteria.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

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

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

 

[BOPdesigner]

I am not following. Work flow is Traceline button in exploded view dialog. After I pick the cursor point on the first face, I can't interrupt the workflow with the project curve button. At the drawing assembly level, it doesn't appear that I can create a point on a face and have it be associative. When I move the component in the explosion, the point remains fixed out in space. I suppose I would have to WAVE the two faces up to the drawing assembly level?

 

[JohnRBaker]

No, the points wouldn't be associative if created in the drawing. I should have noted that this only really helps when making static trace-lines.

Of course you COULD create the first point in the detailed part and then WAVE link it to the second file and create the projection there. That might help to establish an associative relationship.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

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

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

 

[hudson888]

Nine times out of ten I find that there are centres of holes somewhere that might align so I just use those to construct centrelines on the drawing. as long as you have just exploded the parts with a straight line offset it may be a quick and easy option that you'd like to try.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum