Machinary Lib / Reuse Library - Problems with Lengths of Profiles

[wogo62]

Hello all,

we use some parts of the Siemens Machinary Library and own part families within Reuse Lib (NX8) - everything's OK so far.

Now we have the problem to create different lengths of some (Siemens-)profiles (Hot Rolled Beam steel..., IPA, DIN1025 ...).
It's nearly impossible to create every length of the profile within a part family, this would be a excel sheet with more then 10.000 variants or even more.

Of course we can change the variable "Length" after the reuse placing dialog within the profile, but when saving the assembly the parent profile will be overwritten with the new length and a child part wasn't created.

Any ideas how to solve the problem with the numerous numbers of length ?

Best regards
Wolfgang

 

[JohnRBaker]

Near the bottom of the 'Add Reusable Component' dialog there's a section titled 'Reference/Clone'. Change the setting to 'Clone' and you will get a unique occurrence of this part which you can later change the size of by editing the 'Length' expression.

BTW, this 'Clone' option is only provided in cases where it's anticipated that one will need to change the parameters of the item being created. In other words, this option is NOT going to be seen for things like Nuts and Bolts, which are created to a certain specification when added from the Reuse Library. In that case if you need to change its size, like needing a longer Bolt, it would have to be REPLACED with a different Bolt from the Reuse Library. But of course, as you've already mentioned, rolled-shapes are cut-to-length, something which would be virtually impossible to deal with using the Part Family spreadsheet.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

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

 

[wogo62]

Hi John,

as far as I can see that's the perfect solution for our problem

Just one more question: inside the "Reuse Clone context" there's an option Part Name Management. How can I set a desired
Output Directory as default ?

 

[PDW]

Hello Wogo62,

The option to specify the output directory[/b should be set in the Customer Defaults

File -> Utilities -> Customer Defaults
Click the "binoculars" and search for Directory
You should set Windows Part File Directory to what you want.


Kind regards,

 

[wogo62]

Hmm, better solution for us would be the "Part Family Save Directory".

The same path for "Part File Directory" and "Part Family Save Directory" (Reuse) will work of course, but all the parts will be saved then to Part Family Save Dir - that's not our intention.

Regards,
Wolfgang

 

[wogo62]

Hi again,

read this thread Link - seems it's not possible to define a dedicate "Clone Directory" in the "ADD Reusable Component" Dialog.