Part Family Weights 1

[druzil69]

I currently have around 50 part families each containing 100+ members. When we create the tabulated drawing for the family, one of the criteria we put on there is the part weight. is there a way to avoid opening every single member or applying the values to each instance and manually getting the weight? Ultimately what i would like is the weights are in the family spreadsheet and get auto populated like the Part number filed when the table is created on the drawing. but i would be happy with somethign that just gives me the weights of every member without opening each model.

 

[JohnRBaker]

The ability to 'assert' a manually entered mass/weight, thus allowing you to specify different values for each member of a Part Family, this was added as an Enhancement in NX 9.0.

John R. Baker, P.E.
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Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
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To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[druzil69]

After re-reading my original post, i realize i might not have worded it correctly. is there a way to automatically pull the weight from each part and have it auto populate in the table? i am trying to avoid analyzing each and every family member, noting the weight somewhere else (ie excel, word, paper) and then manually enter it into the table.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Well you could add an associative Body Measurement to the master Part Family template which will create a Weight Expression that will be inherited by each Family Member as they are created, and which could then be accessed by notes or table entries.

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.

 

[druzil69]

I have created the Body Measurement feature and updated the family members with the feature. But i am not exactly sure how to get that into the table? I tried using an interpart expression but no dice. I can't seem to find the body measurements to link to. i even tried to create and expression that references the body measurement but that doesn't show up anywhere either.

 

[JohnRBaker]

You don't have to put it into the table, it will just be there in the part.

What version of NX are you using?

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.

 

[druzil69]

using version 6.5.

is there a way to get the weight to show up in the table?

 

[JohnRBaker]

The is NO NX 6.5. However, there is an NX 6.0.5.3 and I'll assume that that's version that you're running.

Let me put an example together and I'll get back to you.

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.

 

[JohnRBaker]

OK, the attached part file is a very simple Part Family Template example where I've created a block, assigned a material, created a weight measurement expression for the mass of the part and then created the Part Family data. The part family will allow you to create 3 different sized parts. After using the Part Family Template to create these three parts, open the individual piece parts and you will see an expression for the mass of the part. Each part will have a different mass since each part is a different size, but the mass was computed in the model itself not because of anything I put in the Part Family spreadsheet.

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.

 

[druzil69]

Excellent!!! thats step one. now can i link to those values in a table on the drawing? without opening each individual file?

 

[JohnRBaker]

I think I know what you're asking for, but since the Weight/Mass values only exist inside the individual family members they have to actually exist. A also assume that this 'Drawing' will be used to document the Family Members without actually showing all of the members, just one with 'Dimensions' using labels referenced from your table, correct? Yes, it can be done but there no automatic way to do this. You have to create some interpart expressions and stuff but it's all a waste of time since even if you did link the drawing to all of the parts, since they're all family members they can't be edited so they're never going to change anyway so whether they're linked or not, it doesn't really do any good. You might well just enter the values in the table manually.

But so that you can at least see how this would work if you DID create a drawing linked the weights of a bunch of parts, look at the attached Drawing file.

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.

 

[druzil69]

Well given the examples and help you have given i was able to get what i wanted. However given the time its going to take to set up the interpart expressions for all 500+ airfoil blades, i don't think its going to be anymore of a time a saver. especially since we would have to do all the expressions twice to get a lbs to kgs conversion.

 

[Trietsch]

Excellent topic! May I ask a slightly different question on the topic?

We have a part family of ≈650 parts and we are after their volumes. Measure bodies is at the bottom of the children's model tree. Is there a way to extract a table (static/snapshot is fine) of all of the volumes?

I'm really looking for a quick way to populate an ERP system with weights of these parts in many different materials so once we get a list of part numbers and their volumes in excel this becomes really easy.

Thanks for your time
Ryan

NX6.0.5.3/TCuA8.3 (a solution here is ideal for my users.)
NX8.5 / NX9.0 (a solution here is manageable as I can re-create the part family native if the functionality exists here)

 

[JohnRBaker]

No, you have to create each part in the table, query each part for it's volume and then collect and format that data in an external document like a spreadsheet. This process would be no different if the parts-of-interest were just random parts created and saved in a folder, just as long as each one them has a 'Measure Body' feature as the last feature in the tree.

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.