Just started I-deas from Solidworks 1

[arcticcatmatt]

I was a solidworks admin for our company. Took me many years to get to that level.

Now, I was moved and I am using NX I-deas 5. WOW is this different. I can't use my spaceball since I am using a windows PC to dial into a Unix station. There is no feature tree, there are no planes, I had to tape words to keys on my keyboard so I know what does what (f1 is pan f2 is zoom etc), It took me 2 hrs to model a square and has taken me over an hour so far trying to figure out how to modify a dimension to change the size of the square.

Good god am I in for it. This program is far from easy to learn.

 

[SDETERS]

Your Dimension Set I am confused? Please clarify

Thanks

 

[arcticcatmatt]

I set 0 from the center of my part and located some features with ordinate dimensions.

I then added a feature and want to add it to my ordinate dimensions (dimension set).

The only way I figured out how to do it was, start a new dimension set and locate my component, then delete the 0.

 

[SDETERS]

I think if you hit "no datum" On the bottom of ordinate dimension area you can set 0,0 to anything you want and get a dimension to your feature from that 0,0. This should be a two selection process. We do not use ordinate dimensioning I have just played with it a little.

 

[icconian]

You are certainly being constrained by your work environment more so than by I-DEAS! Normally, you can use the spaceball in modeling & assembly, and drag instances to your heart's content. Yes, you can even drag and have instances snap together for automatic assembly constraints. This is all in how your user environment is set up. It looks like either no one cared enough to set all this up for you, or you are hemmed in by the requirements of C3P. Ask some of your company's I-Deas power users to give you a start. MOST of the stuff you are struggling with can normally be solved easily.
You may also catch some I-DEAS users over at the forums of PLM World (the generically titled users group for Siemens PLM software - I-DEAS, NX, SolidEdge, etc).

http://plmworld.org/

[This week may be slow due to the national conference going on.]

 

[ubercad]

Some calrification on never moving the part (relative to the absolute 0,0,0,). When you select a part you will get eight white corners outside of the part (which I will refer to as the "bounding box"). You can then select the move command to move the part. NEVER EVER do this. The move is recorded in the history. If you were to rollback to anode before the move was made you will see the part in the original location. To move the part in space move the coordinate system that you created in the begining of the part. (Oh yeah, rule no. 1: ALWAYS start each part with a coordinate system). This way your part won't bounce around all over the place while rolling back in the history tree.

Glad to hear you will be moving toward UG NX soon. I was at a company that made the move from i-deas to NX3. the company after that was making the transition from I-deas to solidworks, where i recieved a ton of training but got little time on the software. I believe you'll find UGNX to be quite a bit like solid works.

I have been on I-deas for about 9 years. I have also got time on UG NX, Catia V5 and a teensy amount of time on Solidworks. All CAD apps have they're strengths and weaknesses. Handicaped people can live very full life living within certain limitations. Mabey you need to adopt the attitude of a phisically challanged person while woking on i-deas and quit the griping.