NX6 Parts List 'Levels'

[Tablor]

While using file attributes to create a parts list I'm having trouble selecting/deselecting components. On the 'Edit Levels' dialog I have typically had none of the 3 toggles turned on. I should be able to select any component regardless of the level in the assembly to turn it on and then ctrl select any additional components needed. It seems like it's trying to select things based on one of the 3 toggles. I can select/deselect and the highlighting from blue to light blue to no hightlight doesn't change. Sometimes it does change highlight, I'll hit 'ok' expecting a change and there's no change.

I will say this has always given me trouble in one form or another, but it seems more troublesome as I've moved to a new-to-me workstation. What am I missing? Thanks!

John

 

[JohnRBaker]

Have you ever tried to just select the Parts List item (highlight an entire horizontal 'row'), press MB3 and select the 'Cut' option?

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

 

[Tablor]

Sure, occasionally I'll cut & paste a row or two. If you edit a single cell in a row, it moves that row to the end of the p/l if you haven't 'locked' the row. So anytime I've changed a cell after sorting I'll cut/paste to get it back to the right spot if I hadn't locked it. I'm not sure why you'd ever want that to happen - perhaps that would be a product improvement?

We store the custom part attributes with all the models so the parts list can be auto generated based on the components of the assy/instl you're drafting. The issue is when selecting the components to have displayed via the 'edit levels' dialog. I suppose I could 'cut' all the rows I didn't want, but that would take a long time and introduce a greater possibility for error in the p/l.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Of course if you have parts which don't want to appear in the parts list 'automatically', you can add the following Part Attribute to the file:

PLIST_IGNORE_MEMBER=on

This will automatically exempt that component part from the Parts List (edit the value to 'off' and it will be included).

If you have a sub-assembly and you wish to ignore the Sub-assembly component but NOT it's content, you simple add this Part Attribute to the Sub-Assembly file:

PLIST_IGNORE_SUBASSEMBLY=on


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.

 

[Tablor]

I'm familar with those options. Each component must be seen in some drawing p/l - IE details show up in the assy and assy's show up in the instl, instls show up in either a collecor of instls or ultimately the top level so I'm not sure adding an attribute to each file is the right way to go - not to mention we'd have to add that to all of our 1000's of files based on whether they were a detail/assy/instl.

The problem I've started to run in to is not being able to unselect components of a sub assy. These components already have a hard callout and p/l entry in a lower level drawing and the 'edit levels' dialog used to allow me to deselect them using ctrl+select. They would go from dark blue shaded in the assy Navigator to no shading. Now it seems they go to a light blue shading but still show up after hitting 'ok' on the dialog. We moved from NX4.0 to 6.0 some time ago and I think that's when the problem started. Thanks for thinking about this.

 

[JohnRBaker]

What I do is add these Part Attributes to my template part files but with the values set to 'off'. That way they're already there and ready to use if I need them, but just editng the value of these Attributes.

And if I only want to effect a single instance of a component in an Assembly all I do is edit the value in the context of the Assembly by editing which are now Object Attributes assigned to the Component objects (note that the Part Attributes of the original Part file are automatically inherited as Objects Attribute assigned to the Component objects in the Assembly).

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.