nx8 pattern 1

[uwam2ie]

I have looked a little bit deeper at the new feature pattern.
In what situation does the simple option in pattern methode help ? The variational option does the job every time - is simple option obsolete?
regards

 

[JohnRBaker]

It was included more as a higher-performance option.

While it is true that the 'Variational' method does work in ALL situations, including when you wish to retain the flexibility to edit ANY of the original options or perform edits on ANY of the Pattern elements, this flexibility does not come without a price tag in terms of performance, particularly when the number of Pattern elements are up into 100+ realm or greater.

Whereas the 'Simple' option is just that, simplier in what it does or in what it allows the results to be or whether all possible options are retained and available when you decide later to edit the Pattern feature and its member elements.

Whether you start with the 'Simple' or the 'Variational' method was more critical with the initial release of NX 8.0.0.25 since once a Pattern feature was created, when you edited it you were NOT able to change the method. So if you started out in 'Simple' because you wanted the better performance you had to make sure that what you were doing didn't require the extra capabilities of 'Variational' or your edits were only going to be simple or you didn't need the extra flexibility in terms of controlling the Pattern elements because if later on you discovered that you indeed needed what 'Variational' your only option was to delete the original Pattern and start over.

However, all of that changed in NX 8.0.1.5 (based at least partially on input from me since I found some common cases where the edit I wanted to do was locked out because I didn't start in 'Variational') since you can now edit the method used later on. So my recommendation is, if you're running the NX 8.0.1.5, and you don't really need the extra capability and flexibility offered by using the 'Variational' method, then go ahead and use 'Simple' and get the benefit of better creation and updating performance and then later if things change you can always go back and change methods and continue.

Now, I've been told that there is work being done to improve the performance of the 'Variational' method, but no matter what they're able to accomplish, the 'Simple' option will ALWAYS perform better.

So to get back to your original question, NO the 'Simple' method is NOT obsolete. In fact, with the changes made in NX 8.0.1.5 I would say that we just made the 'Variational' method less attractive as being the default (I need to follow-up with a recommendation that since we can now edit the method that we really should make 'Simple' the out-of-the-box default).

John R. Baker, P.E.
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