Variable Offset Surfaces - Dialogue change from NX7.5 to NX8

[doncasters]

Hello all,

Having just changed from 7.5 to 8 we are struggling with the change in dialogue on the Variable offset Surface command.
In 7.5 we were able to select specific points on the surface and specify the offset at that point.
In 8 after select the surface we are presented with a rectangle which encompasses the surface with handles which you can drag around, or specify U and V values. I dont really understand this. Is there a way to revert back to the 7.5 method of selecting points?

Many thanks.

 

[Toost]

Is there something that you cannot do with the new dialog ?
- in the case that you want the corners, there is no need to click four times.
- Dragging a default point should replicate selecting the point , or ?
- have you noted that you can drag- adjust the value at each point ?


Regards,
Tomas

 

[doncasters]

I have noted that I can drag the default points, but it is not clear when the location of the dragged default point is exactly the same as the corner of the surface in question.

 

[JohnRBaker]

By default, when you select the target surface, the four points are already AT the corners, so if that was your intention, all you have to do is hit OK and you're done. As for selecting something other than the four corners, in additional to dragging the points to some U/V location, which BTW is what gets stored as Expression values anyway, you can enable any one of the Snap Point options in the Selection Bar and simply select your points using that scheme.

And as for your professed confusion with the new dialog, isn't it better to have but a single dialog with something like drag handles than what you had to do prior to NX 8.0? That is, having to work through a long series of cascading dialogs with very little feedback as to what was happening until you got to a point where enough information had been provided and then the offset surface would suddenly appear, but by then the function was finished and could not change anything. And if you did try to edit the offset surface, the edit dialog looked nothing like the creation dialog and in fact, did not even allow you to make any point selections but rather forced you to edit only the U/V values, Whereas with NX 8.0, you're given virtually that same dialog as was used to create the offset surface in the first place including the ability to either drag the points to new locations or using the Snap Points, to define totally new point locations or references such as to a previously defined point on the target surface.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

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

 

[doncasters]

Sorted, thanks for help.