NX5 Migration - Assemblies question 1

[TechnicalConsultant]

Hi all,

We are currently running NX4 with TCEng v9 and are in the process of considering an upgrade to NX5. One of the most interesting advantages which has been shown to us is the ability to open assemblies using lightweight data (I presume JT format) instead of loading the whole thing . I seem to remember something similar when being shown NX4 for the first time but I think that was using a faceted reference set?

My question is, to take advantage of this in NX5 is much setting up/configuring required, and is this feature a big step forward from NX4?

Many thanks in advance

Mark Noyce
Senior Design Engineer/CAD co-ordinator

 

[JohnRBaker]

The only difference between lightweight (faceted bodies) representations in NX 4 and NX 5 is that in NX 5 we have replaced the old UG/NX facet architecture with one based on JT. This provides us with a more efficient and modern approach, but it doesn't really change the way you go about using faceted models in large assemblies. And if you have your system set-up correctly, including NX 4 and NX 5, when you save your models, the faceted Reference Sets will be created automatically and they will then be available when opening a large assembly. Also, if you have NX 4 models with faceted bodies already defined, they will automatically be updated into JT models when that file is opened and re-saved in NX 5.

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/

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

Thank you, that's extremely helpful information. Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

Mark Noyce
Senior Design Engineer/CAD co-ordinator

 

[hudson888]

Mark,

It makes sense to do a re-file when you jump up to NX-5 and you may wish to consider going up to Teamcenter 10 while you're about it. It is just to say that I've seen this done, or not and it does seem better if you do, probably John's information explains the background to that.

Best Regards

Hudson

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

Thank you hudson888.

Mark Noyce
Senior Design Engineer/CAD co-ordinator

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

Hi all,

How do I load an assembly and use the facet/lightweight model? Is it possible to do this using "do not load components" but it just load up a lightwight representation?

Mark Noyce
Senior Design Engineer/CAD co-ordinator

 

[JohnRBaker]

Before you open the assembly, go to File -> Options -> Assembly Load Options... and in the section titled 'Reference Sets' select 'Use Lightweight' and then hit OK and now go to File -> Open and select your main assembly file.

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/

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

Many thanks! Again

Do I need to load all components or am I able to just load a lightweight model?

Mark Noyce
Senior Design Engineer/CAD co-ordinator

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

Also, I'm using NX4. So is this File - Options - Load options - Default reference sets

Mark Noyce
Senior Design Engineer/CAD co-ordinator

 

[JohnRBaker]

Unless you've explicitly created lightweight (faceted) bodies in the assembly itself and then created a lightweight reference set (this is never done automatically like it is in the piece part or component files) you must load all the components to see the lightweight components after the assembly is opened.

As for the NX 4 dialog, yes, that's the option you want.

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/

 

[TechnicalConsultant]

Thank you, that makes perfect sense.

Mark Noyce
Senior Design Engineer/CAD co-ordinator