potential bug: extrude - 'until selected' limits option not available

[potrero]

NX5.0.4.1
There is a specific situation in which the option 'Extrude' -> 'Until Selected' (and 'Until Extended') are not available.

To replicate the behavior:

In a new part with only a CSYS, create an 'Offset CSYS'; offset it by the amount you want to extrude the section.

Next, create an extrude feature (either create a sketch first then extrude, or just create extrude and then sketch a profile, it doesn't matter); place the sketch in the appropriate plane (normal to the offset vector used to create the Offset CSYS).

Even though you should technically be able to extrude between the parallel offset planes in the 2 CSYS's, the option 'Until Selected' is not available.

Now to make it available, you can create a new datum plane and offset it by any arbitrary amount. After creating this datum plane, the option to extrude 'Until Selected' is now magically available.

Seems like the ability to extrude between planes of 2 CSYSs should be present without the need for any other datums.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, I've verified that this seems to be a bug in NX 5, however when I tested NX 6 it appears to work there just fine.

As a workaround if you really want to create the extrude relative to the offset Datum CSYS, go ahead and create any old offset datum and then suppress it. Now you can go back and create your extrude in the manner that you wanted to in the first place. It appears that if the only datum in the model are Datum CSYS's it doesn't recognize that they are there and the 'End' options are NOT activated. However, once something valid is there, even if its suppressed, then the code is able to 'see' ALL the datums and will now let you select them without any problems.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

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