Part Attribute versus Attribute Templates in NX8.5

[OldCADPOPro]

In NX8.5 you can create part attributes, like usual. You can also create Attribute Templates. Can someone explain the pros and cons of using Attribute Templates?

Thanks,

Richard

 

[JohnRBaker]

For one thing, you can have all your commonly used Attributes predefined which would eliminate one of the biggest problems that occurs when people simply type them in as needed, it's a lot easier to make sure that everyone on your team is using the correct spelling for the names of the attributes. It's very frustrating to have some user written application or some link looking for a particular attribute but then someone misspells the name and it's not noticed until some piece of information gets ignored because of a simple spelling error.

Also, if I predefine my attributes I can take advantage of such things as having attributes where there are only a set number of possible values so I can preprogram them into an exclusive list that a user would simply select from. Also, since numerical Attributes now can include dimensionality and units, if there's a chance that an attribute value will be used by an expression (which is much easier to do starting with NX 8.0), predefining the attributes in either the part template or a catalog will help make sure that the anticipated usage will have the correct dimensionality (units are less of an issue since they can be converted on the fly to whatever is convenient or needed, just like expressions have been able to do for years).

And if you do use a 'Catalog' to predefine your attributes, that catalog can be made available to all users when they open even legacy parts which were last saved prior to NX 8.0 before attributes were enhanced. And note that just because an attribute is defined in either the part template or a catalog does NOT mean that that attribute will be seen as active. They will start out as entries in the 'Unset' category which are basically ignored until explicitly activated by the user. That way unassigned attributes never clutter-up the list of active attributes. And in the case where you're using a 'Catalog' the attributes that you see in the 'Unset' category are NOT even saved when you save your part file thus reducing the part file size if you carry around dozens of unused yet predefined attributes. Also if you use a catalog, you can easily update it to either remove no longer relevant attributes or add new ones and make them automatically available to everyone as they're working on their parts, either newly defined or older legacy parts.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

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

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

 

[OldCADPOPro]

Thanks for the Overview, John.

A question that comes out of this is it sound like any attribute in the Unset category is ignored. Would it be wise to create the attributes that start with DB_DWG_TEMPLATE in this catalog? or do they automatically become active because they read from the model file?

Also would it be best to use groups for attributes for the ones you want not to be ignored? or are they ignored because they have no value assigned?

Thanks Again,

Richard

 

[JohnRBaker]

I would let the 'DB' attributes populate naturally as they're going to be there whether you've included them in a Catalog or not.

As for the attributes without values, while there is no problem creating 'empty' attributes, whether it's manually or by activating something from a Catalog that was predefined without any value, those attributes which ARE in the 'Unset' category are considered to have '<No Value>' while they're still listed as 'Unset' whether they actually have a predfined value or not. Only when they are activated, will they assume their proper predefined values and that they will now be found in whatever optional category they were predefined to be included in.

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

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