NX drafting table/expression calculations 1

[petulf]

Hi

We are creating new master model drafting templates where we have tables with process parameters, some of which depend on each other. Thus it would be nice if the dependent values were automatically calculated, to avoid errors.

Is it possible to read values from notes/table-cells into the expression system? Or is it a one way street.

Is it possible to edit expression belonging to the drafting part without changing mode from drafting to modeling?

 

[PSI-CAD]

Hi Petulf,

Don't forget to say your NX Version.


Regards
Didier Psaltopoulos

http://www.psi-cad.fr

 

[petulf]

Ahh sorry, NX 11

 

[Toost]

Q1 , don't know.
Q2 , Yes, you need to edit the Customer defaults, Drafting - General/setup - Miscellaneous(tab) - Allow Expressions. - This will enable the expressions editor in Drafting application.


Regards,
Tomas

 

[petulf]

Thomas thanks a lot!, did not even occur to me that there was a customer setting for the expression dialogs behavior in drafting.

 

[PSI-CAD]

Hi Petulf,

Q1, Maybe the the ug_cell_read formula is able to answer your problem in Tools/expression

Q2, You can also set the "Allow PMI bidirectional Edits" parameter

Regards
Didier Psaltopoulos

http://www.psi-cad.fr

 

[petulf]

Thanks Didier, for your suggestions.

ug_cell_read() is for reading specific cells from an excel sheet and cannot read notes, tables etc from drafting as those are different entities.

Bidirectional PMI would not be suitable for a workaround in this case as the PMI would have to reside in the drafting template (which would require a view to show the pmi value). The settings is also set to disabled on our site as we only want drawings to pull data from the master model and not push information to it.

But enabling expressions in drafting, got me most of the functionality that I wanted for the templates. I.E simple user input for process parameters that calculate derived values which are shown on drawing in table form. For example,

 

[PSI-CAD]

Hi Petulf,

Thanks for your feedback

Regards
Didier Psaltopoulos

http://www.psi-cad.fr

 

[Toost]

you can maybe do a "not so nice" workaround.
Place the note on the template. Hook up the note to an Expression.
The note will echo the value of the expression rather than the opposite.
Since the expression editor now is active in the drafting app, you edit the note from there.

Don't know if this added anything...

Regards,
Tomas

 

[petulf]

Toost, yes that is what we ended up doing. Expressions drives the notes and or table values, which works fine when expressions are available in the drafting module.