Looking for direction

[BennySpriggs]

Looking to get some input from the NX community. Not sure that version is going to matter to much in this one but I'm running NX 1969 in case someone want that piece of knowledge. Basically I have to model an aluminum part that is then overmolded. Ultimately from a document control perspective I will want to control the aluminum part as well as the final overmolded part. There are a few ways I can see doing this within NX and have may not have picked the best route. Right now I created the aluminum part, then created a new .prt file and using assembly added the aluminum part to it. Now when I generate the overmolded part I am using edges on the aluminum part to define the plastic overmold. So to get those edges I am using project and intersection surfaces to convert the edges. However I am noticing that when I change the aluminum part (e.g. thicken it) when I get back to the overmold .prt file it doesn't update (and yes associativity is turned on). So what happens is when I make changes the to the aluminum I have to pretty much go through any feature that uses an aluminum edge, then redefine the edge then fix any downstream errors.

What I am looking for is:
- when I update the aluminum I get updated geometry in the overmold
- I want/need to control two seperate .prt files so I as they will be managed seperately

Any thoughts on the best way to go about this?

 

[cowski]

I've done a number of two-shot plastic parts and I think you are mostly on the right track. After you add the Al part as a component of the final overmolded part, use the wave link command to link the body "up" to the overmold part. This will give you an associative copy of the entire Al part to work with. In the assembly load options, I suggest using "fully load" and turn on the "load interpart data" (and use at least the "immediate level" option for load parents). I think the "load interpart data" is off by default. If you do not turn it on, you may be working with out of date data.

You'll probably want to remove the linked body from your model ref set; this way you won't see it when you add it to an assembly.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[BennySpriggs]

This seems to be doing what I want finally thanks!!