Stop the current function without killing ugraf.exe process

[BOPdesigner]

NX 6: Is there a way to kill the current process of adding a feature to a part if it is taking forever? For example, suppose I want to Instance Feature to create an array of holes in my part. But there are so many of them that when I hit the OK button, it takes several minutes to complete the feature, or ugraf.exe hangs in the task manager. Is there a way to terminate the feature creation and return to your NX session without having to kill NX in the task manager and then relaunch it? I know that sometimes a "Working" dialog box pops up with a Stop button, but other times this is not avaliable (unless that is an option that has to be turned on somewhere). Update view of large assemblies in Drafting is another operation that can take a several minutes to complete.

 

[hudson888]

If the STOP button is displayed then you can stop the process but if not the only way to break in is to kill ugraf. The short explanation is your inputs that become parameters in the file are fed to this piece of software called the Parasolid Kernel that is basically the solver for geometry. It either builds the model according to the supplied instruction set or it fails, but short of failing it has no other error handling or break in points so you cannot get it to respond to a STOP button. That's why NX appears to be "not responding" when it is given an instruction that causes it to take a while to return what will most likely be a failure.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[JohnRBaker]

As Hudson stated, only a limited number of tasks can be halted without aborting NX itself, and best way to tell if a task CAN be halted safely is IF you get a 'Work in Progress' message with a 'Stop' button. If you do, you can halt the task. If you don't, you can't. It's as simple as that.

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.

 

[larrylcoyle]

One other thing to keep in mind. If I am going to add a feature that could possibly take an extended amount of time or that I am not sure about, I always save my file prior to kicking off that process.

Larry

 

[hudson888]

There are only a few features than can sometimes cause the system to spin its wheels for want of a better term in the manner that you describe. I would do the same thing but fortunately it has become increasingly rarely necessary to be concerned about such things.

If you're having any particular problems using a particular feature or function then by all means post your concerns here and we'll see if anyone can offer tips to get around those sticking points. It might even be a tip in itself to take care using some functions in case you do strike such a problem.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[BOPdesigner]

The situation that I have experienced is a large array of instance features. I have found that the pattern face seems to be much more efficient in that regard.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Which is one of the reasons for adding the Pattern Face function since it does cover many cases in a more efficient manner.

Note that there is a proposal to revamp this whole area of 'Patterning' features and objects for NX 7.5. We got a 'demo' of some prototype code just yesterday that looks promising with a lot of effort going into improving the raw performance although anytime you have functions like this you tend to start experiencing what's called the 'N-squared' phenomenon, which can often only be mitigated but never eliminated totally. Anyway, it shows promise so time will tell.

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.