Product outline 1

[SiW979]

We continue to explore ways of speeding up our load times for large/complex assemblies, and assembles that contain very data heavy parts such as engines and gearboxes.

Due to our ridiculous multisite architecture, we were advised not to refile our 500k plus part as it would be potentially catastrophic however this also means that we are unable to take advantage of the light weight representations for all our legacy parts unless of course we revise them.

We have experimented with linked exterior with a reasonable amount of success, but now we have started to look at using the product out line tool in the assembly component context menu. This enables us to very quickly load a high quality representation of the assembly as well as place views on the drawing using the faceted representation option in the view style options.

What I want to know, is are there any down sides to working with like this if I add it to out group CAD standards? Obviously if parts are swapped in or out of the assmebly, then the product outline will need up dating, but is there anything else? Or if there is a better way?

Cheers

Si

Best regards

Simon NX7.5.4.4 MP5 - TC 8

http://www.jcb.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

Using a 'Product Outline' is certainly still a valid workflow approach to take. Granted, with the advent of the more automated use of Lightweight Representations it may not be be as compelling as it once may have appeared, but since you have a unique situation where you are not yet able to leverage many of those advantages, then I would say that using the 'Product Outline' approach if perfectly valid and one that you will find to be very efficient even if it does require some explicit 'maintenance' to keep it fully up-to-date.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

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