Missing ôBlend All Instancesö in NX8

[Henrikj72]

I tried to make a blend between different instances that I created using “Associative Copy” ->” Pattern Feature”. In previous versions of NX you have the option “Blend All Instances”, but it is missing in the “Edge Blend” dialog in NX8. However, in the help dialog for the command “Edge Blend” is documented that there is an option for “Blend All Instances”. My question is: Is there some selection that you have to set to get “Blend All Instances”?

Henrik Johansson
University West
Sweden

 

[kapmnit123]

Hi Henrikj72,
As a workaround you can re-order the blends before using Pattern Feature.So it will be associative to the number of instances created.
Best Regards
Kapil Sharma

 

[capnhook]

Is there some selection that you have to set to get “Blend All Instances”?

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

 

[kapmnit123]

Hi,
I guess that this option is available for INSTANCE FEATURE (Pre NX8) only . Since Pattern Feature option is more robust and user-friendly and you can always re-order the blends before doing pattern so Blend all Instances option is basically redundant in that case.
But still i will discuss it with an expert before jumping out to any conclusion.
Best Regards
Kapil Sharma

 

[Xwheelguy]

Pattern is not an Instance in NX. Not saying I agree with it, either. Create the Blend, then Pattern.

Tim Flater
NX Designer
NX 7.5.4.4 MP8
WinXP Pro x64 SP2
Intel Xeon 2.53 GHz 6GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 4000 2GB

 

[JohnRBaker]

The 'Blend all Instances' function used prior to NX 8.0 was there because you could NOT include Blends in an 'Instance'. However, starting with the new 'Pattern Feature' function in NX 8.0, you can now include Blend features when creating a 'Pattern', which reduces the need for even having a 'Blend all Instances' function in the first place.

Now for those people who would like to defer the adding of Blends until later in the model's history, you can use the 'Reference' Layout option in 'Pattern Feature' which allows you to add a Blend, or for that matter any additional feature, to the members of an existing 'Pattern'. You simply add a Blend, or another feature like a Chamfer or whatever, to one of the members of an existing 'Pattern' and then use the 'Pattern Feature' Layout option of 'Reference' to copy that Blend feature onto ALL the members of the existing 'Pattern', which basically gives you the functionality which you had with 'Blend all Instances' except that since this is a general function, it can be used with more than just Blends.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
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[Henrikj72]

The problem I face is that I want blends between the different instances that you got from the pattern. This gives the problem that I cannot put them before the pattern, and the reference opting the John Baker and GTAC suggest, does not work. At least one of our exercises and many exams have included the usage of blend all instances. For example: A console where the arms changed from three to four. There is a radius between the arms.

After posting this question I saw the GTAC have this as issue. It was the documentation that was wrong.

Henrik Johansson
University West
Sweden

 

[Xwheelguy]

Have you tried using the Group Feature option (if still available in NX8 - I'm still on NX7.5)?

Tim Flater
NX Designer
NX 7.5.4.4 MP8
WinXP Pro x64 SP2
Intel Xeon 2.53 GHz 6GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 4000 2GB

 

[JohnRBaker]

When you create your Pattern Features, if your intention is to use it for 'Reference' later on, it needs to be created using the 'Variational' Method (found in the 'Pattern Method' section of the dialog). Note that in NX 8.0 you HAVE to create the Pattern Feature with this option set, however in NX 8.5 it can be edited after the fact, so if you had originally created it using the 'Simple' option you could change it to 'Variational' if that was needed later on.

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.

 

[Henrikj72]

The pattern I created was created using the “variational” option. When I use reference for the blends it creates the pattern but it gives the error message “Pattern [Reference] (12) / Instance[N][0]Error: Parent features failed to update”.

As an engineer you always see to work around the problems. I have found two ways to work around the problem. They are not pretty but they work…

Option 1:
Create a sketch on the pattern and use the edges from the pattern and a fillet, create a solid using extrusion (that creates a “blend”), pattern this extrusion, and unite everything. Then you get a blend between the different arms from the pattern.

Option 2:
The second option is to create a sketch were you define half of the first arm and half of the second arm. In the sketch you add the fillet and by using expression or a formula, you can define the angle between the halves before you extrude the sketch.

Henrik Johansson
University West
Sweden