Part is not "level" in assembly

[enginerd1959]

I'm a NX4 newbie, with a few years experience in SolidWorks.

For some reason my manifold assembly is rotated a degree or two, and I don't know how to make it square again (see attached JPG).

In SolidWorks the fix would be easy: In the rotated part pick a plane, axis or flat side, then mate it with the assembly plane.

I'm sure it's easy in NX4 but I've been struggling with it for the past hour & cant figure it out.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Add a Datum CSYS to your assembly using the Reference CSYS option of Absolute. This will establish a frame of references where you have an absolute X,Y,Z set of axis. Now using the Assembly Constraints function, set the Type to 'Touch Align' with the Orientation option of 'Align'. Now drag your cursor over the main cylindrical part of your model and it should highlight as well as a dashed 'centerline' will be displayed. While that 'Centerline' is displayed, select it and then select whichever axis (X, Y or Z) you wish to align it to, hit OK and the Component should now be level relative to that axis of the absolute frame of reference.

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.

 

[enginerd1959]

Thanks, but I can't find "Assembly Constraints" in any of my menus.

Is that anything like "Mate Component"?

 

[JohnRBaker]

Sorry, I missed that you were referring to NX 4.0. Assembly Constraints was not introduced until NX 5.0, but that's OK as you can do the same thing with NX 4.0 and Mating Conditions.

What you do is start out as I suggested creating a Datum CSYS in your assembly file using the Reference CSYS option of Absolute. This will establish a frame of references where you have an absolute X,Y,Z set of axis.

Now add your Component to the assembly and using Mating Conditions select Mating Type 'Align' and select that long main cylindrical face of your Component part and then switch the Filter from 'Face' to 'Datum Axis' and select the desired Axis of the Datum CSYS and hit OK. If you need to rotation the Component part around this axis, you can add an additional Mating Condition which aligns some other aspect of your model to the desired direction.

This should get you started and reading the User Document ion covering Mating Conditions should help you become familiar with the other capabilities and options for positioning Components.

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.

 

[enginerd1959]

Thanks John,

I couldn't get my main part to budge so I deleted it and added it again. I was able to mate that to the Datum.

I had to re-mate all the sub-components to the main component, but that was a minor problem.

 

[JohnRBaker]

When you added the original Component part, it became by default 'Fixed', which prior to NX 5.0 and Assembly Constraints, the user had no control over that. In fact, starting in NX 5.0, when using Assembly Constraints (Mating Conditions are still available as an option), the system never assumes that any Component is 'Fixed' until you specify which Component, if any, you wish to be 'Fixed'. Prior to NX 5.0, the first Component placed was always considered as being 'Fixed' unless it was first Mated to something like a Datum or an existing body already in the Assembly file.

However, that being said, you should have been able to add the Datum CSYS object and then create new Mating Conditions between the original Component and the elements of the CSYS and the other Components, if they were properly mated to only the Component being 'repositioned', they should have update as well. Anyway, it appears that you managed, without a lot of extra effort, your desired results, so that's what counts.

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.