NX6 part families

[AutoMick]

I have a series of varying diameter spring dowels and for each diameter there are different lengths; if I had one part number for every dia/length variant there would be close to 160 parts.
I don’t know if this is possible but I’d like to create a part family that uses user prompts ie. The user picks the dia from the family attributes hits OK and then, in some way, is prompted to give the dowel a length.
If it is possible it would reduce the part numbers to 9.

My first post & any help appreciated(even if only to be told it's not possible - at least then I can move on)

 

[MickyV007]

I think its not possible to make queries with family parts. A better solution for your problem could be deformable parts, whereby you create one standard part, then define the length and diameter of that part as deformable (Tools - Define Deformable Part - ..) Just follow instructions as mentioned in the menu. Then afterwards when you add this part in an assembly you will be asked what different length/diam/.... there should be.
Give it a try.

Best regards,

Michäël.

 

[AutoMick]

Thanks Michael

My concern with deformable parts is that the diameter & length could then be given arbitrary sizes that are not within a standard range and as the dowel should be in our Standard Parts library I’m not sure that would be acceptable.
I would also have to add ‘material thickness’ which I can currently control via the part family spreadsheet.

 

[MickyV007]

Ok, do you work native or with Teamcenter integration?
If working with TC you can add a database attribute to the table.
First two columns of the spreadsheet are the family members name but you can add also database atrribute like description as a column in the spreadsheet. Can use it like
length x diameter x thickness, so if you look for the parts you have all the info presented in the file open menu.

Best regards,

Michäël.

 

[MickyV007]

Forgot to attach an example.

Best regards,

Michäël.

 

[looslib]

What is wrong with using the family table?
It gives precise control over your parts.
How do you stock the parts in the store room for assembly? Does each diameter/length have a unique part number? Use the system in the same way so your BOM can be used to pull parts for assembly.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[AutoMick]

They are to be used in tooling fixtures and invariably only a few different sizes will be used as and when required; but the one I don’t produce will be the one someone asks for…
There are over 300 variants (having now been asked to provide both light & heavy duty) and I was hoping for an easier way of setting up this amount of parts.
This was to save time in creation and we also ‘Publish’ parts, via Teamcenter, to multiple company sites and large part families have been difficult to deal with.

Thanks for the advice, I’m beginning to realise there seems no other way but to put them all in a part family spreadsheet - perhaps one family per dia.

 

[looslib]

If you want to keep the number of instances down, 1 diameter per family table will help. I would not separate light and heavy duty.
You need to look at which ones may need to be substituted when setting up the families. If you only replace a pin with a shorter or longer one, diameter is the best way for updates. If you replaced by both diameter and length, 1 family table may be better in the long run.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[phillpd]

If my memory is good, "deformable parts" do allow you some control over the range of values specified.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Have you ever used a Family Table part? Say you have an item with 3 diameters and 20 different lengths, with some lengths unique to certain diameters while others might be available in two or more different diameters. When you launch the Family Table dialog ready to select one of the item and you first select one of the 3 diameters, when you then select the length option YOU WILL ONLY SEE LENGTHS FOR THAT PARTICULAR DIAMETER! The same if you had selected the length first, then when you went to select the diameter you would only see the diameters valid for THAT length.

And if you were to go one step further and set up your parts as described in the Reuse Library whitepaper (which can be downloaded from the GTAC product download site) the dialog that is used will provide an even better presentation scheme for a situation like yours as well being able to include a diagram, similar to what you see in a parts catalog where the user will see exactly how the various parameters related to the size and shape of the item. To see what I mean, I've attached a screen shot showing a typical Reuse Library dialog.

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

 

[phillpd]

John,

Where exactly do I find the "Reuse Library whitepaper" ?

I'm on the full product download site, but not sure what the file name is.

 

[JohnRBaker]

OK, after you select your platform type, at the bottom there should be an item titled 'Machinery Library'. Expand it and near the bottom of this list there is an item named 'Standard_Parts_Creation_Best_Practice_v1.1.zip'. Download this file and unzip it.

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

 

[AutoMick]

Hello John,

I have used family parts and understand how the family table works, suppose I was just hoping for an easy fix that didn’t involve putting over 350 variants in the spreadsheet.
Plus, as I said, I’m worried a family part of that size will cause problems (unexpected JETI exception) when I try to Publish it - far smaller sizes have done so in the past.

 

[JohnRBaker]

The number of entries in the Spreadsheet will have almost NO impact on the size of the part file since it will still consist of only ONE model. And the same can be said for each part file member created (actually they will be slightly smaller, since they will NOT inherit the database record where the spreadsheet data was stored in the template part).

And there's another reason why Family Table parts might meet your needs better is because you can always go back into an assembly which has one of the Family Members added as a component and you can select it and ask that it be replaced with another Family Member which will be automatically created, swapped for the existing components and all of the Mating Conditions/Assembly Constraints will be maintained and the Parts List will update automatically.

And besides, which 'publish' a Family Table part, in your case, it will be as if you published all 350 variations since that one single part file has the potential to manifest itself as any or all of those 350 variations if needed by whomever you are 'publishing' this file for.

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