Use of patterns

[jackley]

What is the purpose of pattern drawing formats?

Is there a way to edit all the title block information as you load the pattern onto the drawing? Here were I work, we edit the titleblock manually. So the use of patterns does not seem worthwhile to use.

I would like to learn how to use these properly.

Justin Ackley
Design Engineer
jackley@gmail.com

 

[looslib]

A format is made up of a few hundred lines. If you brought the format directly into a new drawing, you would add 100's of entities to you file. When the format is stored as a pattern and brought into the drawing, it comnes in as 1 entity. Also, the pattern when in a drawing cannot be modified, as it is a single entity.

UGS has added some capabilities to populate the drawing format from attributes in NX.

"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications

 

[Dave K]

Also, by using a pattern for your format, if things change, ie company address, etc., you only have to change the pattern file. Next time you open a drawing, the new pattern should be displayed.

-Dave
Everything should be designed as simple as possible, but not simpler.

 

[ewh]

As mentioned by Ben, editing part attributes is a more effective method of updating format data than manually editing all of the text appearing on the format. Editable text cannot be included in the pattern, but can be in a seed file (as can attributes).

 

[jackley]

So how can I have attributes set up on a file that will change in the pattern when I import that pattern.

Maybe we need to have our titleblock built differently so you can have attributes on to it.

Right now we just have the titleblock as lines with dash's so we can just double click on those and fill out the proper information. Old way, sure.

Justin Ackley
Design Engineer
jackley@gmail.com

 

[ewh]

You set up the attributes in the seed file, i.e. for the drawing title <W$@title> which you can edit in File -> Properties -> Attributes when the seed file is used in a new part. Use these for part numbers, revisions, sign-offs and anything else that you don't want to have to actually edit the drawing text for.
Again, these cannot be used in a pattern, which is non-editable as such, which is why we use them in seed files (one for each format size).

 

[jackley]

http://geto.txf.com/a2_dwgfmt.jpg

That is our standard format. All the -'s, we double click those to input the correct text.

How would we go about rebuilding the format to have attributes in there?

Justin Ackley
Design Engineer
jackley@gmail.com

 

[ewh]

<W&@_____> is the format I use (I mistyped a $ instead of & in my last post). Just fill in the attribute name. <W&@P/N> for the part no., <W&@REV> for the revision level, <W&@DESC1> for the first line of the part name, etc.

 

[DavidTolsma]

Instead of using pattern files, why not create your formats and add it to a pallet. Then create tabular notes and add them to a pallet also. The tabular notes would be your part block, revision block, and any other special blocks you use.

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[ewh]

Can you ensure that information such as revision will be updated in all locations on the format (without having to enter it more than once) using this method?

 

[DavidTolsma]

All attributes references will be updated in the file when it is changed.

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[Dave K]

"Instead of using pattern files, why not create your formats and add it to a pallet. Then create tabular notes and add them to a pallet also. The tabular notes would be your part block, revision block, and any other special blocks you use. "

Question on this technique...how do you 'lock' the size and location of the table? I was going to go this route, but when experimenting the title block would move or change size from time to time, not staying on the corner of the format.

-Dave
Everything should be designed as simple as possible, but not simpler.

 

[abeschneider]

just a note, so this thread shows up if someone searches for " palette " instead of " pallet " ...

I'm interested to learn more about this technique.

 

[DavidTolsma]

Unfortunately I don't know of a way to lock the tabular note interactively. The best way would be to write a program to lock the tabular note to a point on the screen. Many companies have done this but none that I've seen for sale commercially.


-Dave
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