NX5 direct modeling

[jerry1423]

I recently discovered a "scale body" icon on my "direct modeling" toolbar.
I have a feeling that this is a brand new function to NX5 because there is nothing yet in the documentation on it, nor does it appear in the "direct modeling" pull-down menu.
It is differnt to the traditional scale body in the way that you can scale parts of a solid body if required, and not the whole thing. This is nice if shrinkage is not needed on certain faces of a body.

Since there is nothing yet on the on-line doc I have some questions about it.

> Why are there 3 question marks next to where the scale factor is? (I have never seen this before)
> What is the "non blend face" icon used for?
> Is the "select region" suppose to work the same way as it does in "extract faces" function? (it really does not seem to work well)

I also have a couple enhancement suggestions for this new function:
Add a "variable" option to this (as with blends and tapers).
Add the point menu to the "reference point" selection.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Sorry, but all we did in NX 5 was give the function a new name. 'Scale Body' was introduced in UG V18.0, only it was then known as 'Local Scale' (and has been until NX 5).

As for the documentation, just open the 'Scale Body' dialog and press the F1 key and the documentation for 'Local Scale' will come up (or do a search for 'Local Scale').

BTW, it appears that there was some confusion in the name change so for NX 6 we're going back to calling it 'Local Scale'.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[hudson888]

John,

That would make the icon consistent with what the Direct Modelling feature is called in the Part Navigator.

For those who are confused as I was upon reading John's post there is another Scale Body Icon under Insert>Offset Scale>Scale Body or just on the Feature Operation toolbar that I was more familiar with. The Feature output by this one is simply called Scale in the Part Navigator. This is also slightly inconsistent as of NX-5.0.4.1

The difference between the two is that the direct modelling one can be applied locally and the other only to an entire body. For what seem to be largely fairly logical reasons the direct modelling local scale does not work with sheets whether they're single or sewn. Perhaps that limitation also sets them apart.

To be fair the original question was only about direct modelling but for the purposes of searching the documentation one could see how you might be confused. The F1 key is your friend. I'd say to use it in preference to all other searches where possible.

Cheers

Hudson

 

[JohnRBaker]

The so-called 'Direct Modeling' (I say so-called since starting in NX 6 we are including what was known as Direct Modeling functions under the larger umbrella of 'Synchronous Technology') routines were never really intended for use with sheet/surface models, sewn or otherwise. However, for NX 7 we hope to start to add more support for this class of geometry.

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.