NX 6 - Automating Notes

[cstauffe]

Background:
I have a list of 20 notes that can be activated depending on the outcome of the model. So there could be as few as 1 or as many as 20 notes not being suppressed by equation.

Problem:
I need the notes, and only the ones that hold true (from suppression by expression), to be displayed on my drawing sheet, organized/aligned. I can manage to get the notes that I only want to be displayed to show up, but I am unable to come up with a method to sort/organized these notes so they are structured one after the other.

Example:
Say these three notes are being displayed:
Note 1
Note 2
Note 3

After the model updates:
Note 1
Note 3

I need a way that the notes can be organized to always be one after the other without having the spaces. Is this possible?

 

[jerry1423]

You really cannot make the notes disappear or not, you can only change their content, using expressions.
Maybe you can use a table (with the boundry lines turned off) on the drawing to create, then organize, your notes. Possibly connected to a spreadsheet - then there may be a way to turn them on or off within the spreadsheet.
I wish I had time to play with something like that - it sounds like it could be fun.

 

[cstauffe]

You can turn notes on and off through suppress drafting object and creating a conditional expression that triggers it to be either 1 or 0, I have done this part, I cannot figure out a way to sort the notes from a top down alignment. Becuase in some instances the notes might be on and might be off, and they lose any kind of assoicative connection, so I need some way to sort the notes always. In other words I need the a way to grab anything notes (they could be on their own drafting sheet), then align them:
note 1
note 3
note 10
note 20

Not sure if I am really explaining this right?

 

[jerry1423]

I did not realize that you could suppress a drafting object by expression - very cool.
Maybe you could make the notes within a table (as mentioned above), then if there is no text in the table cell, the row would not be there. I guess I am bad at explaining - if I have the time I will make something and post it.

 

[cstauffe]

Is there a way to make a table that will not display blank cells?

 

[jerry1423]

I was hoping that there would be a way to automatically control the row height of the table (like there is in WORD), so if the note grows the row height would increase, and if there is no height to the note, then the row height would be zero.
It does not look like that is possible, but I will dig a bit to see what I can find.

 

[Shadowspawn]

Years ago, I wrote a grip that would add std notes to a drawing based on what type of drawing it was (casting, machined, assy, etc). Basically, each note was a seperate part file which was added/deleted via the group name on the face of the drawing. The user selected the dwg type, and the appropriate notes were added. This approach may help, if you know grip (or something similiar). I can't really see why this approach wouldn't work for you...

I don't see why you couldn't key off an expression similiar to suppression by expression or somthing similiar....
*pseudocode*
Ifthen/ condition == 1, delete notes and add appropriate notes
Elseif/ condition == 2, delete notes and add appropriate notes
Elseif/ condition == 3, delete notes and add appropriate notes
Else/ delete notes and add appropriate notes
Endif

I think the key would be that the notes
1) have to be seperate part files in a particular directory
2) the notes have to start in a particular location or origin point
3) the notes have to be imported onto the face of the drawing via a group name so the can be deleted via that same name
4) You have the ability to code in grip or some other language... or have access to someone who does.

If you know grip and are interested, I can try to dig up the source code...

Regards,
SS

CAD should pay for itself, shouldn't it?

 

[cstauffe]

Thanks Shadow, that might be possible, but the problem is that the notes will always be different.

I think if I explain the problem a bit better maybe someone can help me out with a better solution then what I have found so far for this.

I have a drawing sheet, that has information on it. Each time the part is ran, it will always be different, and will always have notes that get triggered on or off. (I have done this so far by making a tabular table, linked to expressions, which are linked to an excel file), The only problem with this... is that there is no way to automatically sort the table, other then the user manually updating the sort. So far this is my best option.

So say I have a drawing sheet with information:
Below the notes, any notes triggered by the expressions need to be populated (keep in mind i have found no way to sort, align notes automatically)

The problem is that say I have a total of 20 notes, but each note might not always be active, which will leave spaces.

ex:
NOTES:
Note one is on

Note one is on
Note two is on


Note five is on
Note six is on






Note thirteen is on


I Want to be able to combine the notes one after the other, parametrically as the model updates. I have a 90% solution to this now, the user simply has to update the tabular table. If there is a better way that someone can come up with please share!

 

[JohnRBaker]

OK, attached is an example which I think provides a very elegant solution to your problem.

It's a sample drawing with 5 notes (this will work for any number) formatted similar to what I suspect you're doing. As you've done, I've created 5 Expressions which controls the suppression state of the 5 notes.

So far nothing new. However, the scheme I use to control the locations of the notes is where it gets interesting.

I created a Sketch on the face of the drawing which basically consisted of 5 points (one for each note to be controlled) with constraint dimensions controlling the vertical distance between each point. The 5 notes are then edited so that their origins are associated with an appropriate point in the sketch. Now as you edit the Note's suppress status by editing the corresponding Expression, in addition to the note being hidden, the distances between the remaining notes are automatically adjusted based on which note(s) were suppressed so as to maintain the appearance of a well formatted list of notes with no spaces or gaps between the individual notes in the list.

Note that the Sketch is hidden but if you wish, you can unhide it so that it might be easier to see exactly what's happening when the suppression Expressions are being edited.

Anyway, I think this example will help show how you can apply a similar scheme to your drawings.

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

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