NX9 Bounding Box function 6

[Arkance/PhoeNX]

Seen posts here and had customers ask about bounding box functionality in NX.
The answer was to use Journals/NX Open/Grip etc to solve the problem.

NX has a function called Create Box that existed in the Wizards (Mold, Die or Electrode).
Without one of those Wizard licenses, you couldn't use it.

Saw an IR recently (see image below) which says that from NX9.0.3 onwards, you only need a solid modeling license to use the function.

Thought it was pretty neat function so we've made a video to show how to access it and how it works:

https://vimeo.com/116116872

Also did some testing and NX9.0.2 can also do the same.
NX10 version of Create Box is better as well.


Anthony Galante
Senior Support Engineer


NX3 to NX10 with almost every MR (21versions)

 

[petulf]

Cowski: Thanks! that example program works and is very similar to the one we run now to generate a list of stock sizes except for the whole UDO part. Interestingly the example program seems to have problems with parts that use delete body as it pre-selects all bodies even if the body has been deleted by "delete body", and these bodies cannot be deselected. It would be feasible to customize this example program to do exactly what we want, but we currently have a policy to not use UDO nxopen features due to downstream process issues.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Note that for NX 10.0, the size of the Bounding Box IS associative to the model as it now remembers the Selection Method used when the 'Box' was originally created. Besides, we've added an option to simply select a Solid Body so any changes to that body will be reflected in the Bounding Box size.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

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

 

[petulf]

John: Good news but is the reference csys also associative in NX10?

 

[TaylorAnderson]

petulf:

It looks like the NX 10 version of the Create Box feature does what you want.

The orientation can associatively reference a selected CSYS, and the object selection uses selection intent rules now, so you can set up an arbitrary single body as a simple input:

I was able to create a UDF with just the two selection inputs, like this:

...that seems to hang together like a champ when applied to a couple of other parts.

(See the attached video clip.)

Taylor Anderson
NX Product Manager, Knowledge Reuse and NX Design
Product Engineering Software
Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc.
(Phoenix, Arizona)

 

[JohnRBaker]

If you mean, can you define something other than the WCS, which is what the pre-NX 10.0 Create Box used, such as an existing CSYS object, to define the orientation of the 'box' and if I edit the orientation of this CSYS, will the 'box' reorient and resize so as to still bound the selected object and be oriented relative to the selected CSYS, the answer is YES. You can even associate the color of the 'Box' solid body to the color of the selected object, as shown below:

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

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

 

[petulf]

Taylor: great news! this will simplify our workflow immensely when we switch over to nx 10 sometime in Q2

 

[TaylorAnderson]

Cool. Glad to help, petulf.

And kudos to PhoeNX for pointing out this feature. It had slipped under my radar, even though I've wanted this function for years.

I've had to write a couple of KF bounding boxes over the years to create certain specific tools, and this will be WAAAAY better.

Taylor Anderson
NX Product Manager, Knowledge Reuse and NX Design
Product Engineering Software
Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc.
(Phoenix, Arizona)

 

[phillpd]

To use this function with NX9, "Mold Wizard" has to be installed

NX 9.0.3.4
NX 10 (Testing)
Windows 7 64 (Windows 8.1 Tablet)

 

[Rob_N]

BUTTON MW_TOOLS_BOX
LABEL Create a Bounding Box

I manually edited my personal.tbr and it works nicely. It's faster and more accurate than the Journal I've been running

I don't have or have access to Mold Wizard, We do not do mold design

 

[phillpd]

I don't use/need Mold Wizard, but didn't include it with our Custom install ... The function will error out when creating the Box.

I've subsequently installed Mold Wizard, and now the function works.

With NX10, it will work even without Mold Wizard being installed.

NX 9.0.3.4
NX 10 (Testing)
Windows 7 64 (Windows 8.1 Tablet)