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Lightweight Assembly Clearance Analysis

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claforet

Mechanical
Apr 8, 2010
54
I'm trying to do a simple assembly clerarance check on an assembly with two components in NX7.5. I want to do this as a lightweight assembly since the components are big. But for some reason, once there are no interferences (I move the components completely apart), it finds that everything interferes. Am I missing something, or does this just not work with lightweight assemblies.

Thanks.
 
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I just tested this and it worked fine.

Please check this; go to...

Customer Defaults -> Assemblies -> Site Standards -> Lightweight Representations

...and at the bottom of the page, is the 'Load Smart Lightweight Data' toggled ON? if not, toggle in ON and then restart your session and duplicate your test's workflow.

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

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

Thanks. I toggled that option on but I'm still getting the same result. I guess what I really want to do is create a clearance set and set the properties to make the analysis mode facet based and then run a clearance check on that set using NXOPEN but I don't know the coding.
 
Hi John,
I use this topic to ask something about the NX part structure.
I would like to know the difference between the standard lightweight, the Smart Lightweight Data, the model reference set, entire part reference set and the partial loading.
The question seem generic, but in NX 7.5 you have implemented lightweight reference set, but without set this option 'Smart Lightweight Data', the behavior seem as before, or I wrong ?
So which is the difference in memory usage from lightweight and Smart Lightweight Data ?
Why have you decided to keep lightweight reference set and Smart Lightweight Data ?

You have wrote that Partial Loading limitation was removed in NX8, so 'Partial Loading' what doesn't expose that permit more memory saving ?

And then, why entire part reference set with lightweight option in assembly load option permit assembly constraints without setting the 'Smart Lightweight Data' in the customer default ?

The problem is that there are to much setting and to much combination.
I would like to know the best setting for big assembly without pass between RMB when some commands can't be completed

Thank you...

Using NX 7.0.1.7 MP3 and TC8.1
 
Are you asking questions based on what you see in NX 7.0? NX 7.5 is completely different when it comes to how Lightweight representations are controlled and presented. To start with, there are NO more Lightweight Reference Sets. They are not needed since the Lightweight representation is now part of the model definition itself and is controlled separately from Reference Sets.

As for Smart Lightweight versus not, it's just that they provide for the most efficient use of memory and provides the best performance since the system will load additional model date, when it needs it, automatically with the user having to do it manually. While this option is currently (in NX 7.5) toggled OF by default, I would recommend that you toggle it ON and work with that way all of the time. In the future we expect that this will soon be ON by default, so I would get started now.

As for the partial loading issue, you may have misunderstood what I said. With NX 7.5 and even more so with the next version of NX, NX will be able to perform more operations as the user would expect them to be done whether Partial Loading is ON or OFF. And YES, having Partial Loading ON will still provide the most efficient memory utilization when it comes to loading assemblies and the included components.

As for Reference Sets, Load Options should be set to Model. If you've created your Sub-Assemblies correctly, that is that they do NOT have a Model Reference Set defined in the Assembly file itself, then they will automatically be loaded as Entire Part as they should be. And this has nothing to do with whether you're using Smart Lightweight or not.

Except for changing the customer default option enabling Smart Lightweight (toggling it ON) mentioned above, if you update your pre-NX 7.5 parts using the 'refile' utility enabling the new options added for NX 7.5 which deal with lightweight bodies and then just use the system as if comes out of the box, you should be getting the maximum benefit from the Lightweight Representations when working with assemblies.

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

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