working with big assemblies

[basslaats]

Hello all,

I work for a Dutch truck factory as an Engineer using NX6 to modify trucks to customize it to special uses. (We called this the Non Standard Orders aka NSO) This mostly involves changing a standard Truck chassis to the requested dimension and/or strenght. In our system the truck is broken down in different component groups as we called these, for example a tank, an axle or a battery component group. In this way we can combine these to a complete truck,eg a customer choses a 400L tank, a 161N axle and 175Ah battery. We combine these customer choices with a unique frame to get a truck which is up to the job. To do this we build the "complete" truck in NX6 using reference sets on different layers. As we mix up a lot of standard configurations we need this overview to make sure that the chassis is ok, e.g. no holes forgotten etc..

Our current practice is to load a certain component (assembly), put it on its right place, make a refence set of it, and close it again, using only the refference set to "claim" a certain space (visually), thereby making sure no two parts/assemblies occpupying the same space. It is a lot of labor building up a complete truck, which contains up to 100 different component groups, but it is currenly the only way to get an overview of the complete truck.

Any better suggestions?

Best regrads, Bas slaats

 

[daluigi]

Reference Sets are not meant to be used for components - they are very difficult to maintain in that approach.
Instead, if you are looking for something to manage assemblies work only, "Component Groups" is working well for most of the assemblies tasks.
If it comes to manage loaded/unloaded components in large assemblies drafting, I haven't found anything efficient in NX, at least until 85.

 

[cubalibre000]

Hi daluigi,
do you work with big assembly ?
Do you have advanced assembly license ?
If not...how do you work with big assembly ?
I don't know if you know SolidWorks, but I would like SolidWorks solutions to work with big assembly into NX, because component group is a solution that need lot of work.
Bookmark are little implemented into NX10, so apart lightweight and partial setting, there isn't a solution to manipulate big assembly and relative drawings.


Thank you...

Using NX 8 and PDM RuleDesigner

 

[KhimaniMohiki]

I would have thought a reasonable solution could be found using Arrangements, Variants or Part families. Do you use Teamcenter or any PLM system?

Khimani Mohiki
Design Engineer - Aston Martin
NX8.5

 

[cubalibre000]

Hi Khimani,
we talk about a simple solution to open a big assembly.
Arrangement is worse that use component group.
Variant must be set.
Part families.. i don't know what you mean.
Meybe you need to know what other cad do.
In the cad world NX not always has the better solution for some situations.

Thank you...

Using NX 8 and PDM RuleDesigner

 

[cowski]

Cubalibre00
I'm not familiar with SolidWorks, but I'm interested in how it handles large assemblies - could you elaborate?

 

[KhimaniMohiki]

Many companies use NX for assemblies with 1000's of parts without issue, for example aircraft, cars, ships etc. I think the answer lies in a PLM solution which would allow you to configure the product structure before you even load it into the CAD environment. If you don't use PLM then component groups would be a better solution than reference sets as you can set logical rules and effectively create a configurable product structure by combining rules.

Khimani Mohiki
Design Engineer - Aston Martin
NX8.5

 

[cubalibre000]

Hi Khimani,
remember that PLM can be a solution only if you do lot of configuration and that are hours and hours of work by mens. Those configurations need to be also maintained.
Remember that if you don't configure the PLM, parts are parts in those company like in mine and big assembly are a problem there like here.
There are companies like aircraft, cars, ships that use surfaces instead of body and this is another difference.
Companies like those, don't use constraints, but grid.
Companies like those, don't use parts or surfaces, but JT.
Without this NX has less solutions to open big assembly and create relative drawings.

SolidWorks can open a big assembly to review in two seconds. Then if you need to edit some parts, SolidWorks download the lightweight geometry.
You can open big assembly in selective mode.
SolidWorks can do drawings of this big assembly using the graphic card.

I open an ER about this, but it's there, in review.

Thank you...

Using NX 8 and PDM RuleDesigner

 

[basslaats]

thank you all for your quick replies.

To answer some of the questions raised here, yes we have teamcenter, but I only uses it to open NX. Not aware of any advanced options in that system. We use a separate ERP system for the Bom structure, which operate on some pre-Dos programm which is not compatible with teamcenter/NX as I am aware. We have the full NX programm here (incl. assemblies) and uses arrangements, part families and such, but that is not what I am looking fore.

I will show some of our Bom to get a clear picture:

Number Revision Component Name Layer Quantity
NSO-1383450
18446612 1100 FF 94 1
2014640 0 1101-CHASSISRAAM. 1 1
1931515 1 POS 02 1 1
2014641 0 POS 10 1 1

1850578 0 1102-OPHG. VA1 2 1

1873526 0 1105-OPHG.AGDAS 3 1

I open made the file "NSO-138345" in the "load structure only" option. Because I have first made a represantation of all components in this file I have visually a complete truck, but with no parts open! Then I open the chassis assembly (2014640) on layer 1, to check if all other parts will fit on this modified chassis. In case of problems I only have to open the problem part or component (e.g. 1850578) to work out a sollution. In this way I have a very "light"and quick file to work with.

What I am most interested in is if there is a quick way to get the representations without having to build them seperatly ?
or the other way arround: is there a copy/past solution for represantations/referance sets between files?

best regards ,Bas

 

[bfinkelstine]

If Teamcenter is not creating JT files for everything, you can set a preference in the Save Options to Create JT data. This will build up the JT files, and allow you to view the assembly with TC Vis instead of NX.