PMI, Anglular Dimensions and Part Families

[Jim0914]

We are trying to make a seed part with embedded PMI for designers to use here. It's a 'C' shaped part with an angular dimension. That angle can vary to just about any value. We will have several of these parts per job so the thought is to use Part Family functionality to create and control all of the parts for one job thru one part file. The problem comes in with the angular dimension when it goes above/below 180 degrees. We ALWAYS want the angle of the part (the entire 'C') and not the space between ends. When I get the alternate angle I could easily edit the dimension to give me the dimension I want via Alternate Angle. The problem is the Part Family functionality. The parts generated cannot be edited. Any idea how I can always get the angle I need below and above 180 degrees??

I've attached 2 examples. The Less Then 180 pic shows the desired angle dimension. Thee Greater than 180 pic shows what happens to the dimension when it goes beyond 180 degrees. We want the Alternate Angle there (225 degrees). I've been thru all of the threads here and cannot find anything regarding this with Part Families. Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks ~

Jim Weisner
Senior Designer
General Electric Company

 

[Jim0914]

Attaching the other pic.

Jim Weisner
Senior Designer
General Electric Company

 

[phillpd]

Angular dimensions (along with tangency constraints) in the sketcher can be painful at times, as they always have a tendency to switch to the alternate solution during an edit.

Rather than use angular dimensions, you could create datum planes before the sketch, then use Co-linear constraints, so that the lines are constrained to the datums.

NX 9.0.3.4
NX 11.0.0.33 (Testing)
Windows 7 (Windows 8.1 Tablet)