turning on Datums while in assy contraints

[blitz97]

Hey all. So when applying assembly contraints to a part in an assembly in NX 6 I sometimes find the need to turn on datum planes in the part I am placing so I can finish the constraints. To do so now, I have to close out of assembly contraints, go to the part in the navigator and change the reference set to "entire part" to be able to see the planes in the assy. Then I can go back to the constraints and use the planes for mating, aligning, etc. Then when finished, I have to go back and change the reference set of the part back to "model" for example. Is there another way to access datum planes while in context of assembly constraints that makes more sense?

thanks

 

[JohnRBaker]

There are two approaches, one which requires some preplanning and the other that does not.

If you're really going to be using a lot of Datum Planes you may wish to at least add the critical Datum Planes to the Model Reference Set and then use the Show & Hide... function to quickly toggle ON/OFF the display of the Datums.

Or you could do as you're doing now, by replacing the 'Model' Reference Set with 'Entire Part' except that instead of setting it back to 'Model', just use the Show & Hide... to manage the display of the Datums until you're ready to save you assembly at the end of your sessions where you could set the Reference Sets back to 'Model' and then save.

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.

 

[Jaydenn]

I use the hide and show method as well.

The keyboard shortcut is "CTRL + W". It's super fast to flip between the 2 states.

I pretty much leave everything hidden until I need it.

When I need it I just "Show All" the datums, apply what I need and then hide everything again.

Nice workflow for me.

J

NX 6.0.5.3

 

[ChaseWichert]

How about changing reference sets while in assembly constraints dialog, I don't do so well with preplanning...

 

[JohnRBaker]

I can see where that could be problematic.

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.

 

[MickyV007]

Or you can hit CTRL + L , this opens up the layer dialog. Turn the desired layers on, hit ok and you still should be in the constraint menu. This also works when adding components to an assy when changing the default layer where the component should be placed on. If the message appears, " Your adding a component on an invisible layer" just push CTRL + L and there you go.

Best regards,

Michaël.

NX7.5.4.4 + TC Unified 8.3
Win 7 64 bit

 

[blitz97]

thanks for the feedback everyone. CTRL + W is my very good friend....sounds like it will continue to be....)

 

[CNSZU]

I was about to post a new thread, but found this one instead.

I always constrain parts dragged from the library using their datum planes, but the reference set is set to Model for parts from the Library, therefore I need to manually change the reference set to Entire Part EVERY TIME I place a component in order to see the datum planes.

Is there a way to permanently set the reference set to Entire Part when dragging a part from the Library? And for every session?