LINK TITLE BLOCK INFO TO PARENT

[jkcone]

Hello
I need to link the title block info of many sub-components to their main assembly parent file. I think the last time I looked into this I was in NX5 & linking expression strings for the part attributes to other files wasn't available till NX6. I'm basically just checking to see if using expressions is still the only way to do this since some of the title block info is just for the shop floor & not needed by the NX design. The problem is the expressions in my main assembly file is becoming very cluttered. I'm wondering if in NX6, 7 or 7.5 can some of these non essential title block attributes be driven by some other means than the parent's expressions like maybe an embedded Excel file?

I'm in NX6.

Thanks,
James

 

[JohnRBaker]

If you are talking about information going FROM an Assembly TO one of its Component Parts, Interpart Expressions is still the only way to go about this without having to create some additional file which is used by both the Assembly and Component Parts, such as an external spreadsheet (Excel) or database (Access).

This is an architectural limitation due to the fact that while an Assembly may know about it's children (the Components), the Component is ignorant of it's parent(s) (the Assembly). After all, you would not want to 'update' a component every time it was added to an assembly. Think about something like a standard fastener or part which is reused in many different assemblies.

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

 

[jkcone]

Thanks for the response John,
I am talking about information going "FROM an Assembly TO one of its Component Parts". I want to be able to change something like a job number in one assembly file only & it change all the component files in that assembly.
I don't know much about how NX can use Excel files. You mentioned using an "external spreadsheet". Does this have to be "external", could it be an embedded spreadsheet in the parent file? Like I said I'm not up on using spread sheets with NX.

Thanks,
James

 

[JohnRBaker]

No, it would have to be an external file since two part files, in this case the Assembly part file and a Component part file, cannot share their own internal spreadsheet data.

However, creating an 'Interpart Expression' does establish a 'link' between the 'child' (the component part) and its 'parent' (the assembly part).

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