NX5 - anyone else find this really irritating?

[RobLN]

Hi

Just wondering if anyone else find the editing of constraints really irritating in NX5.

Here's the scenario:

All of the constraints are set up in an assembly and you want to change a few values on constraints specific to one part.

1. You click on the part in the assy navigator then the magnifying glass to see the constraints.
2. Then double click the constraint to change -> then change the value and enter.
3. then NX closes everything down and you have to re-select over again steps 1 & 2. Also no option to preview effects of a constraint change...

Any other workflow for this I'm missing?

Rgds
R.

 

[Jaydenn]

I have always edited constraints in a different way...

I edit them using the "MATE COMPONENT" command.
You know, the way that you make a new consraint... Just start up that command, find the constraint in the window and change it.

Admittedly, it a bit more difficult to isolate exactlly the constraint you want, but you get used to it and it's pretty straight forward.

J

 

[RobLN]

Hi J

Sorry I should have specified I'm running the newer 'assembly constraints' system which is different compared to the 'mating constraints' which is the old system as used in older versions of Solid Edge as I remember.
Could well be that the mating constraints work better in this respect.

 

[Jaydenn]

I think we are talking about the same thing...

I am only aware of one way to assemble components. That's using "assembly constraints"... and in order to get that option, you press the button labeled "mate components" in the assemblies toolbar.

I think that might a bit confusing.

Anyways, Once I open the assembly constraints window, I can edit as many constraints as I like.
All the constraints in the work part are listed and I can choose which ever one I like.

J

 

[ewh]

On mine, the icon is "Assembly Constraints". Is yours customized to show the previous Mating icon?

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]

 

[JohnRBaker]

Note that prior to NX 5.0 there was ONLY Mating Conditions. Starting with NX 5.0 you have the choice of using the legacy Mating Conditions, or the new Assembly Constraints (check Customer Defaults to see which one has been set as your default).

As for the behavior of basically closing (or at least reseting) the Edit Constraint dialog when you select 'Apply', that behavior is actually the same as when using Mating Conditions. The only real difference, is that with Mating Conditions, you at least stay in the same dialog which contains the selectable list of Mating Conditions, whereas with Assembly Constraints they are listed and selected from the Assembly Navigator which also 'resets' once you enter the Edit Constraint dialog. Now I suspect that this is just how the Navigator tool works; entering any dialog (irrespective of how that was initiated) moves the focus from the Navigator to the dialog (only one object can have focus at a time, which I think is a Microsoft limitation), and when the Component is no longer selected in the Navigator the system has nothing to display in the Dependencies panel.

Now that being said, after discussing this with a couple of our developers we determined that there might be something which we could try and so I'm opening a PR and they will research the feasibility of this. Now it may not be 100% of what you were expecting (it might require the selection of one extra button to restore the previous selection state), but it would solve the problem of having to remember which component it was that you were last working on. Anyway, if this looks like promising, I'll try and update this thread.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

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