NX3: Seed parts, user tool pallet, customization...

[Shadowspawn]

G'morning folks,

I'm starting to get poked in the ribs to standardize and customize NX3 to meet our needs. I've already got a headache from searching, so I'm asking kindly for a bit of help, or at least a nudge in the right direction...

At former places of employment (and in earlier versions of NX), when a user clicked on 'file, new', they had a choice of a standard dwg file or modeling file to choose from (customized a bit of course). I need to set this 'choice' up when creating a new file in NX3, as well as customize these seed parts a bit but I can't even find them... Ideas?

Another thingy I'd like to do is create a user tool pallet that I can add grip programs to... How is this done in NX3?

I'm starting to think that there are some fundamentals that I'm missing (like maybe I need admin priveledges or something)... suggestions? I realize I'm pretty vague in my questions and I'm not even sure what to ask. There seems to be no customizations at all to this work environment beyond what is shipped by UGS. So what say you folks, where should I start? ...TIA

Regards,
SS
CAD should pay for itself, shouldn't it?

 

[fgbrender]

First of all, are you using Teamcenter? I can tell you how to set up seed files in Teamcenter engineering.

As for the GRIP library, you probably need admin to write to the proper directory.

NX and Teamcenter are infinetly customizable if you kow what you are doing. Some is pretty simple such as seed files, workflow, release status....

Other customizations such as GRIP for NX and ITK for Teamcenter require a great deal of programming skill. I quess the best place to start is to define your requirements. What exactly do you wish to do? After that it is a matter of deciding the best route and then deveoping and implementing.

 

[fgbrender]

One quick note...

If you are not using Teamcenter, simply create your seed part and store it where your users have access to it. To use it, Open the seed part and then Save As to the new part name. It is a good idea to make the seed part read only so it cannot be revised and rendered useless.

 

[Shadowspawn]

fgbrender,
Thanks for the response. I'm in NX3 native, not Tce. I'm having a problem actually finding the seed parts to modify if this makes sense. In NX2, I knew where the seed files were and the tool pallets were already there (I just modifyed, not set up or created). I'm in a different company now, and dealing with a whole new animal (NX3, not NX2) that's not potty broke yet (not at all customized or standardized). I'm thinking it has more to do with my apparent lack of admin privies...

What I want to do is modify the seed parts to include layering categories, a datm csys, attributes, and named expressions. Suggestions? TIA...

Regards,
SS
CAD should pay for itself, shouldn't it?

 

[ewh]

Before I found the canned seed parts, I created my own. Simply open a new part, name it, apply any settings you want and save.

 

[fgbrender]

You won't be able to find any seed parts until you create them. In native a seed part is just a part that has all of you common settings such as layers, reference sets, preferences, drawings, etc. You load the part and then Save As to the new part.

NX3 does not behave any different than NX2 in this regard.

The seed parts and pallets you had pefore were created by someone at your previous company and are not part of out of the box NX.

 

[ewh]

There are english and metric seed parts provided with the software. Beyond the base units, though, I think that fgbrender is right and you have to customize them yourself.

 

[jpetach]

There are some sample palettes that provide for seed parts on the NX distribution. (The pax file can be added to the resource bar either by double clicking on the pax file with windows explorer or via "Preferences -> Palettes -> Open Palette File)

Hope this helps.

Z:\>dir/b "%UGII_BASE_DIR%\ugii\html_files\*.prt"
dwg_a0_format.prt
dwg_a1_format.prt
dwg_a2_format.prt
dwg_a3_format.prt
dwg_a4_format.prt
dwg_a_format.prt
dwg_b_format.prt
dwg_c_format.prt
dwg_d_format.prt
dwg_e_format.prt
dwg_f_format.prt
model_template_inch.prt
model_template_metric.prt
studio_template_inch.prt
studio_template_metric.prt

Z:\>dir/b "%UGII_BASE_DIR%\ugii\html_files\*.pax"
english_drawing_templates.pax
english_model_templates.pax
metric_drawing_templates.pax
metric_model_templates.pax
visualization_templates.pax

 

[JohnRBaker]

To create a palette for your "seed parts" just go to Preferences/Palettes... and select the "New Palette" icon. Once the palette has been added to the list in the dialog, select it and press the "Properties" icon (the wrench) on the right and edit the name to something like "Seed Parts" or "Part Templates". Press OK and then close the palette dialog. You will now see the new tab added to the Resource Bar. Select it and it will open but will be empty. Now to add your seed parts, press MB3 and select New Entry/Template and then select your seed part. If you have more than one seed part, repeat until they've all been added. Now when you need to start a new part, just open this palette and select the entry for the seed part that you wish to use. Note that if you make it a template part, you will not need to worry about doing a Save As since just hitting the Save button will automatically take you into a dialog where you will have to provide a new name for the part file before it can be saved (sort of like Word when you open a new document and when it comes time to same it, MS Office asks for a proper name for the Word document).

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product "Evangelist"
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
Phone: 714-952-6032
FAX: 714-952-5758
John.R.Baker@ugs.com