Sheet Metal instance feature or instance geometry 1

[BOPdesigner]

I have a sheet metal part with a flange (width from end option). Then I have a cutout in this flange. I want to array 5 or 6 more of these flange features along the same tab edge. Instance Geometry does not seem to be avaliable in the Sheet Metal application. And instance feature comes up with a blank list of features that can be instanced. Any tricks to accomplish this? NX 6.0.1.5

 

[JohnRBaker]

Try using the 'Pattern Face' option instead, as I've done in the attached example part.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
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.

 

[BOPdesigner]

Thanks John. I was hoping for something in SM rather than Modeling, at least the part still flattens ok.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Actually the Instance Feature function, which includes 'Pattern Face', IS part of NX Sheet Metal. Just make sure that the 'Feature Operation' toolbar is active while you're in the NX Sheet Metal module. If you do activate it you will notice that it's listed in the Customize drop-down in the same section where other NX Sheet Metal toolbars are listed and that it ONLY contains functions which are supported directly by NX Sheet Metal, which is why it unfolded correctly.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
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.

 

[BOPdesigner]

I have some coworkers that are struggling with with this topic, and I too am unsure about what the best method is. Say you are making perforations in your sheetmetal for cooling as in the case of an aluminum housing for electronics. What is the most efficient way to make this pattern? When you extrude a hole, and then make a rectangular X by Y instance feature array, their workstation takes several minutes to compute/process this array. A small test that I just did suggests that pattern face is much more efficient. Is this the case? Is it more efficient to start with one hole as the seed, or perhaps start with a cluster of holes (like a 3x3=9 hole) as single feature and then pattern that, or maybe that doesn't matter.

 

[BOPdesigner]

By efficient I mean takes NX less time to compute and create the patterned feature. Instance feature is taking them several minutes when they push go and they are getting very frustrated and blaming NX, claiming that previous CAD systems that they used would not have had this delay in the feature creation.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, 'Pattern Face' is much more efficient than is 'Instance Feature'. However it does have more limitations such as every instance must be identical. As for whether it's more efficient to copy a single hole versus several at once, there might be some differences, but I suspect that it may be insignificant in the long run.

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.

 

[BOPdesigner]

Ok, there is something seriously wrong here. Run this experiment with me if you could please. NX 4 (I used 4.0.3.4)
Create a sheet metal tab large enough to array 60 instances of a 1/8" hole in both the XC and YC direction spaced 1/4" apart.
Create the seed hole in the corner next to the origin.
Rectangular array the hole with identical option 60 in both the XC and YC with 1/4" spacing.
It takes my workstation about 12 seconds
Undo this feature (or delete it) and create the same result with a pattern face, again it takes me about 12 seconds.
Now close NX 4 and launch NX 6 (I used 6.0.3.6)
Create the same geometry.
It takes me about 17 seconds for the pattern face, but for some reason, about 270 (yes 4 minutes and 30 seconds) for the rectangular array with identical option. Why could this be? I would hope that the performance of NX is getting better with each new release, not worse. Is there possibly a setting somewhere in NX 6 that I need set or unset?

Workstation is HP xw8400
2 Intel Dual core X5150 CPUS @2.66 GHz
4 GB of RAM
nVidia Quadro FX 1500 (256 MB) graphics.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Perhaps you will want to repeat this test with NX 6.0.4.3 (which should be available any minute now).

I duplicated your example, in both NX 4.0.4.2 and NX 6.0.4.3.

In NX 4.0.4.2, it took on my configuration (Dell M65 laptop, Intel Dual-core 2.00GHz, 2GB RAM) approximately 17 seconds using Pattern Face and 13 seconds using the Rectangular Array function with the 'Identical' option set.

In NX 6.0.4.3, the times were 16 seconds and 13 seconds respectively (note that to make the test as fair as possible, in the NX 6.0 run of the Pattern Face, I toggle Preview OFF before I started making any selections).

So from this I would say that perhaps there was a problem with NX 6.0.3.6, but if that was the case, it appears to have been resolved in NX 6.0.4.3, but like I said, NX 6.0.4.3 will be out any moment, so I would install the update and repeat your tests before either of us consider taking any next steps.

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.

 

[JohnRBaker]

BTW, I just checked, and NX 6.0.4.3 IS now available for download from the GTAC support site.

Have fun ;-)

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.

 

[BOPdesigner]

Good call John. 6.0.4.3 fixed it. I should have done more digging also because 6.0.3.6 seems to be fine on other workstations around here. Somehow it must have been corrupted on my workstation.