grouping components in assembly, VISUAL only... 1

[Jaydenn]

I'm looking for a solution to ease my programming woe's...

I have one manufacturing file to support five stages of machining.

Each stage has parent assembly containing all the fixturing details. Clamps, screws, locators, sub assy's, etc, etc.

Now, that adds up to alot of components.

It is really easy to turn on/off the entire fixture. However, I am looking for a way to set up Many different "states" or "Contexts".

i.e. when I need to turn off all the stage 3 clamps, instead of clicking all 10 clamps, all 10 washers, all 10 bolts, all 10 standoffs, I just want to click one group or something to make them all toggle on and off.

I need lots of these different groups and I need to toggle between them often.

Perhaps I have the wording wrong, but I can't seem to locate a function like this in UG.

The "Save Context" and "Restore Context" do just what I need, but it only does 1 state.

I hope thats clear.

JAY

 

[JohnRBaker]

When asking for help with a specific function like this, PLEASE tell us what version of NX that you are using.

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/

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

 

[Jaydenn]

Sorry all,

I'm using NX5.

 

[doc1955]

We do about the same here as what you are looking to do.
We accomplish this with arrangements and suppress in an arrangement details not wanting. Some of our fixtures do 50+ parts with different clamp arrangements and we only want to see clamps where they belong and only the part being worked on. Arrangements work extremely well for this.
Using them you can move clamps and details and suppress what you need. Some of the files we use have over 50 arrangements. This works very well also when drafting your drawing as you can put in a drafting arrangement to only show things you want to see on your drawing.


Doc

http://www.goodrich.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

Better yet, just open your Assembly Navigator and place your cursor over some 'white space' and press MB3 and toggle ON 'Show Component Groups'. Now select the item in the Assembly Navigator titled 'Component Groups in Part' and press MB3 and select 'Add to Component Group'. From either the 'By Name' of 'From List' tab, you can select components from the Assembly Navigator or the screen and after selecting OK, a 'Component Group' is created. Once it's created you can select it in the Navigator and edit it's name to whatever you desire.

Now you can just select that group item and act on the entire group as if it were a single component, such as performing Hide and Show operations, replacing the Reference Sets of all of the group members, etc. You can also add and remove components to the group. Note that using the 'Delete' operation either on or inside a group only removes the group or removes the item from the group, but does not actually Delete the component from the assembly.

Anyway, give that a try since I think it's closer to what you were looking for and it much easier to use then some other approaches that you might try.

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/

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

 

[Jaydenn]

Thanks Doc, I may give that a try.

John,
That solution requires an advanced assy license despite how basic the function is . Alas, I do not have one.
It would appear to me that solution is exactly what I want to do.


JAY

 

[hudson888]

There are so many ways to achieve your goal. You could use groups. You could use reference sets if you're keen to work in the context of assemblies. You could even be dreadfully old fashioned and use layers and categories. Any would allow you to filter between entities.

Now you could even use visible in view but 99% of users will hate you for it because it is probably the most difficult to figure out for anybody picking up another user's file. In the same way many people have come to scoff at layers espeacially converts from other software, but older users as myself find that provided you label the categories there is a level of flexibility and tracability that quite possibly betters some other techniques in terms of what the software provides to assist you in navigating other people's files.

Cheers

Hudson

 

[doc1955]

Yes I agree filters or component groups would work also.
We have used them in the past but for our situation of not wanting multiple unnecessary copies of components in the file and for drawings we have found arrangements with suppressions work great.And yes you do need a advanced assemblies lic to use assembly groups.



Doc

http://www.goodrich.com