Items UG needs to fix!!
Items UG needs to fix!!
(OP)
I just posted in another thread how I'm always telling myself I need to write down the minor "annoyances" I have to deal with everyday while running UG but I just never seem to do it. For some reason I think having a thread dedicated to just that may help. At some point maybe these items will get the attention they deserve by UG. So I'll start it off with a couple that immediately come to mind:
#1. Fix the darn 2d translators!! Why does making a DXF or a DWG of my drawing have to be so difficult? It has never worked right! Why am I forced to run it through CGM in order to get reliable results?
#2. Let me fix errors during feature creation rather than having to start all over again. I.E. "Through curve mesh" intersection errors force me to fix the intersections and then start all over again. Let me edit the intersections from within the creation menu so I don't have to re-select all of my geometry again! Apply this mentality to all feature creation...give me the ability to fix mistakes on-the-fly.
I think I'll be more likely to add items to a thread on a message board than write them down on a notepad so let's give it a shot!
Take care...
#1. Fix the darn 2d translators!! Why does making a DXF or a DWG of my drawing have to be so difficult? It has never worked right! Why am I forced to run it through CGM in order to get reliable results?
#2. Let me fix errors during feature creation rather than having to start all over again. I.E. "Through curve mesh" intersection errors force me to fix the intersections and then start all over again. Let me edit the intersections from within the creation menu so I don't have to re-select all of my geometry again! Apply this mentality to all feature creation...give me the ability to fix mistakes on-the-fly.
I think I'll be more likely to add items to a thread on a message board than write them down on a notepad so let's give it a shot!
Take care...





RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I have also reported some of the problems which needs to be fixed
1. While editing the sketches I end up with a Ugraf error.
2. Modeling spreadsheet connection failures.
3. Display problems in freeforms and assemblies.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Good Idea for starting a post on this. I've seen similar threads in other posts that help reveal poor QA procedures at some CAD companies. I used to do QA work for PTC so I have no problems interogating UG and finding bugs. Mostly I try to make work around or not use the bad functionality I encounter if at all possible.
#1 Load options - Oh why can't UG automatically try to load from directory first and then the Saved As locations that the referenced files are from then search through a directory list. I sometimes have to switch between several different load options or save specific load options for each project.
#2 SNAP POINT TOOLBAR - When UG implemented this sometimes-useful functionality, why didn't they check to make sure there was no lost functionality or that it would appear when needed.
#3 Project Curves - When you project a curve onto a surface that should result in an arc with a radius in its projected state why does it get made into a spline. I have always been able to do this on Pro/E with no problem but in UG I'd have to create a section curve with a plane parallel to my sketch plane.
Well I have to get back to eating my lunch cause I could go all day with items UG needs to Fix.
Michael
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Andy
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
VERY ANNOYING AND UNPRODUCTIVE!!
I think this may be being fixed in NX4, but a maintenance release for NX3 should be issued!
PS can anyone duplicate this behavior?
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
but most of us pay maintaince, ....
we should stop paying it.
uw
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP1.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Having been in a large corporation, we went off maintenance in 2002, but I still had tech support by using the site ID from another division.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
"Fixed in the next release" should replace "Product First" as the PTC slogan.
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
ok UGS is releasing betas and they have to fix the problems. On the other hand there is so much flexibility I like UG.
uw
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
"Fixed in the next release" should replace "Product First" as the PTC slogan.
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Take care...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Use Group Feature, add the extrusion to the Group Feature set, then array the Group Feature....is the only way to do it without GRIP or custom programming. I've been griping about UG's lack of straight forward array & mirroring capabilities for years & no one at UGS seems interested in listening. The biggest of which is that I can mirror a body with one command, so why can't I do the same by arraying a body?
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP1.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Take care...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Another thing I would like to see is to be able to use a datum plane to mirror about. As it is, I have to set my csys to the orientation of the datum plane, then mirror about a plane defined by the csys. Am I missing something?
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
that's a great tip for circular arrays! It's pretty cool how your method allows for the array to be fully parametric. I really appreciate that one. (& I agree about the fact it seems puzzling why the array feature in general is so limited).
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Group Feature is one of the most under-utilized functions in UGNX as well as having very little attention brought to it via UGS development. I do not believe I knew about its existence until 3 years into using UG.
However, you need to watch how it behaves. In the past, I would apply it as a circular array & one of the grouped features would fail in only one instance, while working just fine on the rest. But, in UGS' defense, it has been working fine for me since NX2.
Regardless, the entire Instance Array command needs a desperate overhaul and the ability to array any geometry associatively needs to be added. Since UG allows for multiple solids in a single part, the 'Tool Body completely outside Target Body' error needs to be eliminated as well. I see no valid reason for not allowing a user to instance a simple cylinder (without using Group Feature). Too many mouse clicks the way it is now.
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
nkwheelguy - no prob w/nick :) I have to re-iterate how useful your tip has been to me. That was great!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I recently changed jobs and now must use Solidworks. Boy I really miss UG!
--
Bill
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Guess it's what you get used to. I mean, there are things I like in UG, but I really miss configurations the most.
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP1.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
The grouping works fine, I agree, and can help to instance features that otherwise fail to go, but we have noted that if a series of features are grouped, the regeneration times go through the floor compared to using "apply to all features" function. So the moral is, first off look out for the "apply to all features" option in dialogue boxes before grouping them.
e.g.
Boss with draw and fillet won't array directly. Group the features together and array, and it works fine. However, array the boss and then use "Apply to all instacnes" option on fillet and draw dialogue boxes, and the model updates many times faster.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Just to clarify, I did not offer the Group Feature tip as a suggestion to use instead of an Array. An array is always going to be faster in UG and you should use it when ever possible. It's fairly common knowledge that you cannot directly array some features, like a Through Curve Mesh. You FIRST have to add the TCM to a Feature Group then array the Group which should show up as a Pattern (rectangular or circular) in the Model Navigator. Any Feature Operations (Blends, Chamfers, etc.) that are performed to the Pattern of Grouped Features will not have the option to 'Apply to all Instances'. That option is ONLY available after a true Array is created. Group Feature combined with Array is considered a Pattern, not an Array so the 'Apply to all Instances' option doesn't appear for the Feature Operations.
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I often question the necessity of some of the confirmation dialogs but must admit was a bit surprised that there wasn't one on drawing sheet delete a few days ago! Somehow in my haste I had the sheet highlighted in the navigator and accidentally hit delete while my cursor was making it's way to save. Not realizing I hit delete for a split second, I then saved....thus losing my ability to undo the delete. Lost an entire sheet that had about 6hrs into it. My fault...yes. But considering some of the confirmation dialogs we have to deal with I think deleting a sheet should get one too.
Take care...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Take care...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
"View from part" works great if you're only wanting to show one part or parts from one particular assembly but a tool design assembly structure usually isn't friendly to what you're tryting to show so the Exploded View->Hide/show component is great....just needs some tweaking.
Take care...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Given that UG only has part extensions even for assemblies so all types have files have the same extension, I can see why the Assembly functionality is so poor.
Instead of having to Delete and Recreate Mating conditions they should allow users to pick the assembly refs box and change the assembly reference to mate component to something else. People wonder why so many UG users don't use mating conditions is that most of the time they fail or are completely counter intuitive.
Hopefully this is an issue UGS is looking at cause a lot of time could be saved if users could keep the mating conditions and change references if they are missing.
Michael
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Since the DXF translator is evidently never going to work right...how about giving me a batch CGM converter so after I export my drawings to CGM I don't have to import each and every one in order to export a DXF or DWG.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
You might want to look into the UG to 2D translator if you're having issues with the DXF translator. The UG to 2D takes the drawing views & flattens them into true 2D geometry & can also flatten & export to NX .prt, DXF, DWG or IGES in one step.
Personally, I feel ALL the translators should work this way (by flattening), but then again, what do I know? I only use NX every day.
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Now that "continual improvement" has become a popular catch phrase in industry, UG is taking advantage of it, but they call it "continual education". Each new version is forcing seasoned UG drivers to relearn the software. If I have to relearn it, why don't I just switch to Catia and learn it instead? I think that they may be destroying themselves by their own sucess.
I realize that they are integrating Solid Edge with NX, and that may result in a superior product, but they are putting the cart before the horse. As they grow, they are diluting the product. PLM world used to be heavily UG, and worth the $expense$ to attend. Now it is more Solid Edge and Teamcenter, with NX topics seeming a mere afterthought. Not much value there for native NX users.
I think it may be about time, for those of us with the opportunity, to learn another system. I'm going to have our IT guy load SW 2006 on my computer. It's not Catia or ProE, but it is an available alternative for me.
[end rant}
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
New versions do cause problems for existing users, but the relearn curve with training is still shorter than learning a new package. Besides, what makes you thing that CATIA, SW, Pro/E or any other package will be any different. They all introduce new functionality with new versions.
As far as CATIA goes, V5R7 is way different than V5R16.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP3.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I agree that there probably isn't much difference between the packages regarding the learning curves. Catia, however, is definitely a growing presence in the aerospace industry, and seems to offer many more employment opportunities than UG does today. I am afraid that in ten years time, Catia experience may be worth much more than UG experience.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
The reality is that UGS may not even read this forum and they have official channels for getting enhancements voted on for inclusion in future releases. If you want UGS to make changes to the product, use the bbsnotes conference so UGS can see what you are 'complaining' about and then use GTAC to get an official ER entered into the system. Without the ER, UGS won't do anything. It may also turn out that UGS feels what you are asking for may be a bug/regression in functionality and they may assign it an PR with a high priority.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP3.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I disagree with your comment. GM is a large customer, but from my 18 years experience of working with the Unigraphics/NX people, they do listen to the small guys also.
I have had them change a whole distribution release because I argued with their plans for the distribution. At the time I had 35 seats and our corporation only had 150 seats of UG.
If you make a business case for functionality or show them that something is now taking longer, they do listen. John Baker is very good at looking at things from the user's standpoint.
UGS cannot be growing the way they are unless they were doing something right. John had a very good explaination of a portion of the development process in the bbsnotes this past weekend.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
For smaller companies, I seriously doubt UG would win a head to head against Solidedge or Solidworks unless they are doing some serious freeform where you have to control curvature without much regard for parametrics.
Maybe NX4 will change the game some......but those proces need to come down first.
Also, 150 seats is a fairly moderate size.......and if you pointed out something fairly critical, I'm sure they will listen...most companies will depending on what it is. I'm more speaking from an enhancement standpoint rather than fixing critical issues. I'm eagerly awaiting NX4 so hopefully most of the shortcomings will no longer be so.
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP3.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Take care....
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
After our company has moved with GM to NX3 with lot of
problems like measuring in NX3 . I started in drafting for the first time in NX3. I works but I must move and click a lot of more than in previous UG versions. For example the the text/annodation editor.To set up text on a body I must jump to the selection toolbar or to the placement toolbar, this frustrating especially when you have place multiple text annodations because it loses this placing setting every time... Annother annoyance that is that I still can not use asm partattibutes in the ID symboleditor .
... must I start griping ... in a "high-end" System for this small problem...
uwambie
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Can you give an example of what you are trying to do? NX3 is much easier to use for annotation. I think the problem is that it is different than earlier versions. You have to learn it all over again.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
try to set up a annotation on a body in drafting there is ever a face pre select even when the layer is not selectable you must switch from any to curve for ex. in the selection toolbar, after you ve put it there where you want the settting in the selection toolbar has toogled to any again, the next annotation have to do the same again ... to the selection toolbar... . For the ID-Symbol: I 'm doing a drawing in master model. Now I want to create a ballon with leader with the information of the part number/name in it. The <w .. @$name> doesn't work because the partname is to long. ...
maybe you can give me advice
uwamie
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Modeling:
1. Multiple holes in a face. Either drag a box over all points, or at the least single clicking them all. I'm not the designer of the parts, the customer sends me points and vectors for hole placement. If I have 100 points to select it will involve clicking the face, clicking point on point, and then apply 100 times over. Mouse middle button was changed between V18 and NX2. It used to be apply, but now it's OK. This means the dialigue box will disappear if you don't click the apply button. Currently, you can pick as many holes for threading as you want which creates seperate features so it's not impossible.
2. Holes on non-planar surfaces. Why is that I can analize/create a minumum line then subtract a cylinder from it for face normals, but the software can't do this mundane task?
3. When hitting cancel during a trim curve operation I'll get an error message and lose all trims since the dialgue was selected.
4. Through Curve Mesh will reset to the beginning if your primary or secondary strings self-intersect or have gaps instead of going back to the last complete string. This gets irritating after picking a large amount of small curves.
5. Certain operations like trim body now will change the state of your worktop if the operation is not canceled first. Let's say you've selected trim, moved your WCS into position, unblanked an object to use as a reference. If you chose another operation without trimming it will go back to before you made the changes. This involves moving the WCS back, unblanking etc all over again. This is a difference from V18.
Manufacturing:
1. The ever moving ONT. I especially like it when I'm in the middle of editing a few paths in a pile of 300, and every time I exit the operation it moves me back to the top of the screen. I then have to scroll back down to path 104, and once again for 105. After finishing 105 I start back at the top and have to scroll back to 106...
2. From point needs to be set for all template cutter paths individually. In the geometry creation they added the useful global clearance plane, but neglected the from point. It takes a lot of clicking for not much benefit.
3. Trying to delete clearance plane 1 from a template cutter path will result in an internal memory violation. It's supposedly fixed in versions beyond NX2, but why can't they apply the fix accross the board?
4. Start points are tricky on closed boundaries. The dialogue that brings up selection works great, but it's rare to have the processed path use them. I've found that applying tan/on conditions with boundary stock will cause it to be ignored. I've taken up the habit of extracting curves, projecting them flat and offsetting them as needed to use one type with workable results.
5. Cavity Mill has been improved since V18 allowing the option of having the smaller tool know the material left by the bigger one. This is a major time saver vs building geometry to avoid over-cuts which leads to tool failure. Though I like the change, it still needs more tools to change the way it calculates it's movements. There's nothing worse than watching a machine race over to cut a .0001 piece of something while on overtime on a Sunday. It's hard to make an effective roughing program.
6. Planar clearance planes. Why can't I pick offset from surface with holes and cavity mill?
7. In the machine dialogue box why doesn't it remember that I streched the box? All I get is pile of /operator message= which I have to expand to even read the message. If I close the box it resets it's size and I have to start over yet again.
8. Feeds and Speeds calculator doesn't update RPM's based on tool size when applying a new tool. It's required to change the number slightly, then change it back to get the RPM's to update. This is an easy step to forget which can result in costly errors.
Drafting:
1. UG's unique rounding system. I have never heard of the way they do it, and I learned that it's better to use 4 place for +/-.030 stuff to avoid the error. The standard for rounding that I know of is if the last digit is 5 or higher round up. If it's 4 or lower round down. They could not be bothered with conventional practices, but rather opted to make a new rounding rule from scratch. In this system the preceding number from the last digit decides everything based on even or odd. For .024 dimensions it will show as .020 but for .034 dimensions it will show as .040 . I've had fit up problems because of this. They offered a grip function to make it calculate correctly or just use more decimal places.
That's all I have for now, and thanks for reading.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
You bring up many good points, many of which I agree with. However, there is a good answer to "UG's unique rounding system" - it follows an established ANSI standard. Reference this thread for the standard number: thread561-83135.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
UG's drafting standard for rounding is based on ANSI/IEEE 268 as referenced from Y14.5m-1994, 1.6.4. I found that ASTM E29 explains the rule in 6.4.4.
Dimensions on a drawing are always rounded to the nearest even number at the specified decimal place for rounding if the last digit is a 5.
13.344 to 2 places is 13.34
13.345 to 2 places is 13.34
13.346 to 2 places is 13.35
13.354 to 2 places is 13.35
13.355 to 2 places is 13.36
If you are seeing .034 round up, then you need to check the actual dimension in your model. UG uses double precision numbers, about 13 decimal places on small numbers.
This has been discussed many times on the UGS BBS as far back as V6 or so. I started using UG at v3.2.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
When it comes to manufacturing, if you use the model, then you will get the part you designed, within tolerance, even with the rounding of the drawing. If you use Y14.41, then you get the model as designed.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Exporting objects to an existing part, new part, iges, step etc. moves it's absolute position if the session has been open for about 15 minutes. I haven't done the investigative work yet to see if it's tied to the first save or some other function. That's what they are paid to do once notified of the problem.
This is a major problem when all users aren't using UG and inner-office translations are required. Our check tools and all other sellable items have to be verified back to the native Catia data set by the inspection dept. When they try to import the tooling it ends up off in space somewhere. I've figured out how to work around this issue, but it's been an issue for over a year now. I'm current on the Maint packs and releases, but can't move from NX2 because of customer requirements. When will this be fixed?
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
With the release of V16 UG changed it's integration of verification software with Vericut because they made a half done one of their own. At this point it required a UFUNC license for around $3,500 to get the Vericut interface within UG that cost nothing prior. Nifty eh?
Since then we've only been able to access Vericut when using the mfg bundle. We have a number of floating licenses, but only 1 bundle. The UFUNC license is part of the bundle package. It won't work without it, but we paid for 2 extra seats of the UFUNC license and have never been able to use them. I didn't know about it until last year when the eng manager wanted me to check the maint agreement to see what we're getting charged for.
I've talked, about 4 times, to my local UG rep and with UG directly. It still doesn't work, and with 3 programmers we have to save/log out a couple times a day to hand off the bundle.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I'm running NX2.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
As for the UG/Vericut interface, they are sending me a trial license tomorrow after the conversation I had with them today. They didn't seem to think it should be required to have a bundle for it to work. I'll let you know what the final outcome is.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product "Evangelist"
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
As for the programming issues on your end, I've called support on most all of the ones I mentioned in my detailed post. None have been adressed up as far as NX2. Not one in over 7 years of usage, 6 seats in house, and 2 OS platforms.
All that aside, I would like to say that it's good to hear from a UG Dev. Thank you for not only reading what I said, but posting a response. I'm so used to UG that I don't want to leave it, and have been a key part in keeping it going at my company while native Catia is such a prevalent entity.
I would just like to see your software be all it can be. I realize my problems are small in the grand scheme of things, but as a daily user it's what I need to be more productive.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
As for you list of issues, the last one has been hashed over for years, but I have to say that when I attended engineering school, the round-off rules that I was taught were exactly the same as we have implemented them in UG/NX. Note that this is in accordance with international standards as well, as in this example taken from the web:
The following is a Copy from IEEE/ASTM SI 10-1997 Paragraph B.6 Page 54.
When rounding to fewer digits than the total number available, proceed as follows:
a) If the first digit discarded is less than 5, do not change the last digit retained. For example, 3.46325, if rounded to three digits, would be 3.463; if rounded to two digits, 3.46.
b) If the first digit discarded is greater than 5, or if it is a 5 followed by at least one digit other than 0, increase the last digit retained by one unit. For example 8.37652, if rounded to three digits, would be 8.377; if rounded to two digits, 8.38.
c) If the digit discarded is exactly 5, followed only by zeros, round the last digit retained upward if it is an odd number, but make no adjustment if it is an even number. For example, 4.365, when rounded to two digits, becomes 4.36. The number 4.355 would also round to the same value, 4.36, if rounded to two digits.
For the complete web item that this was taken from, go to:
ht
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product "Evangelist"
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I mentioned the drafting one only because I was running out of ideas. What I'd really love to see is the multiple holes in one step feature. I have requested this one to the help line more than once in the last 7 years. Every time a new version comes out I load it and check that first only to be disappointed.
Another thing I asked for was to be able to change the placement method via the ugenglish file or modeling. I haven't used the default setting (point on line?) a single time, but have had to toggle off it to use point on point for every single hole I've ever made. I'm guessing in the 10's of thousands at this point. If mulitple holes at once in an irregular pattern isn't a possibility, then this should be doable. Also, please change middle mouse back to apply for this one operation. It would save a ton of mouse movements with no real purpose. Hitting the ok button once after 100 holes is nothing vs chasing apply 100 times.
I know this change was made to standardize the ok/apply middle mouse according to the help line. I also know of quite a few operations where it still is apply. I won't tell you which ones in the hopes that they won't get changed also.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
We finally got the UNFUNC licenses worked out today and it's great not having to play "toss the bundle" hourly after so many years!
Now if you could get some features changed in NX2 like I've mentioned I'd be a happy camper.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I loaded NX4 a few months ago, and checked my list against the new version. None have been addressed, and after seeing the fundamental changes in the UI I've warned my fellow programmers and designers against upgrading from NX2. We're too busy right now to figure out all the old and new commands from scratch again.
It's almost required to pay for training like when V18 came out. The buttons have all changed, and now there is a Start button like Catia. Please don't adopt their tree system. The layer style you utilize now is far easier for me to manage.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Also, some of the original options are greyed out when you edit! For example, when I edit a trimmed sheet, it won't allow me to change the original target sheet.
So annoying!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
This has been addressed in NX5. I tested with 2 different sheet bodies and 1 curve that intersected both sheets. I trimmed the first sheet to the curve, then used Edit with Rollback and de-selected the 1st sheet and then selected the 2nd sheet as the sheet to be trimmed with the curve and all worked fine.
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Why haven't the OEM's switched over to Solidworks then if it's a better system?
Justin Ackley
Designer
jackley@gmail.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
CADWHORE,
Troll much?
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
It it just me or is there no REDO. I've gotten so gunshy of using the UNDO in case I forget and go one too far and 'undo' an intricate sketch or something.
I would love to see a REDO to go along with the UNDO.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Which version of NX are you running?
I know that in NX4, you have the ability to perform a redo in the sketcher.
Also, as John Baker demonstrated this past Tuesday, as well as this morning, Redo has been introduced into Modelling in NX5.
I don't know if this helps...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Glad to hear it has been introduced in NX5. Thanks!
Logan
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
For my take on NX4, as a recent convert, please refer to this post:
h
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
http://www.ugs.com
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I utilize your software 50-60 hours a week, and I just want it to be all it can be. Our success is indirectly connected to yours, and I want to help out as much as I can. That and my clicker finger gets sore. ;)
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
http://www.ugs.com
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
'ziner
Peace Through Superior Fire-Power!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Justin Ackley
Designer
jackley@gmail.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
http://www.ugs.com
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.
Justin Ackley
Designer
jackley@gmail.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Just curious. I would love to be on the new releases. Just still stuck on NX3.0. Although majority of my work is GM parts, not many go back to GM. If we do send any data it's through autoweb as a parasolid. Which could be done in the new releases.
Justin Ackley
Designer
jackley@gmail.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I have 3 different versions of NX installed along with one seat of I-DEAS and possibly a seat of CATIA v5 coming along in the future. I just use NX3 for the GM work and newer versions for other customers. Some of our customers are conversion companys that don't have any data management policy in place, so we're responsible for all of that, which allows us to choose the software we wish to use for the modeling and drawing. Other customers (like Nissan), aren't quite the sticklers that GM can be when it comes to CAD data. We might model in CATIA then bring the model into I-DEAS as a dumb solid and cheat on the drawing by importing a cgm and hiding a view of the model to get the drawing linked to the solid.
I think the whole integrated supplier business didn't go over well with our decision makers. But don't quote me on that...utter speculation.
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
#1 Bring back the documentation to the resource bar. I'm getting tired of having two windows to deal with. This version is so different I'm sure alot of people will be spending time in the docs. It makes it hard to go step by step along with the docs in two different windows. I really hope CAST hasn't been removed from the resource bar also. (We haven't got CAST installed yet, so I don't know.)
#2 What happened to the offsets in the point constructor? I use rectangular and vector offsets very frequently. How do I offset a point? And no, I don't want to open another dialog to do this.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
<UGII_BASE_DIR>\UGDOC\html_files\mainlibrary.html
As for the second item, I'll have to get back to you on that one.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Specialty Engineered Automation
http://www.sea4ug.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
NX3 and NX4 had two resource bar tabs, one for Help and one for Internet Explorer.
Specialty Engineered Automation
http://www.sea4ug.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Go to the ugii_env.dat file (in the UGII folder) and search on 'UGII_DISABLE_HELP_PAGE'. When you find this variable, comment it out (actually there are two entries, comment them both out). The problem is that apparently under Windows 64, you can ONLY display the HTML documentation reader in an external browser and it appears that someone decided to play it safe and disable it by default (I'm not so sure that was a very good idea, but since no one asked me, they never got the benefit of my many years of experience nor my vast insight into how our customers are actually using the system
Anyway, if you comment these variables out, you will basically have the pre-NX 5 Resource Bar behavior for accessing the Documentation set.
As for CAST, I don't nomrally install it on my system so I can't answer that question with 100% certainty, but from reading the ugii_env.dat file it appears that it's still supported on the Resource Bar, if you've installed the proper CAST libraries of course.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Specialty Engineered Automation
http://www.sea4ug.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
But for now, you really only have two choices, get someone to edit the ugii_env.dat file and remove the offending variable or, as I suggested originally, change the Customer Default so that you can get access to the help files via the web browser tab. I know it's not ideal, but it might be OK until we get this fixed in the code.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Specialty Engineered Automation
http://www.sea4ug.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
What we're going to do is make this a 2 valued variable meaning that when we fix it, there will be one value to enable it and another to disable it, which will then allow you set it in you .bat file, which is also the way I work (but of course I also have access to my ugii_env.dat file).
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
When chosing blank, for example, NX4 opens up a mini toolbar that includes 3 options unlike prior releases. Class select, accept, cancel. The original class select tool bar includes all these options already, and I was wondering if there is a way to bypass the mini toolbar? I would be happy with a macro call, or some way to edit either the customer defaults or an .ini file.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Just set the following environment variable, either in your user profile or, if you start NX from a .bat file, in there:
NX_FORCE_CSD=1
Now that was easy, wasn't it?
BTW, in UGS NX 5 there is no longer a Blank, nor for that matter, an Unblank command. They are now known as Hide and Show. Same difference, just terms that can be translated into other languages (Blank was OK, but there is not such word as Unblank in the dictionary).
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
.... Nx5 hide and show
will Layers be removed ?
will we get postiv and negative bodies in near future?
... I miss UG ...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
, then they will need to be edited, or recreated.
I like layers, been using them since 1984. Never known anything different. So which CAD systems don't use layers, and how do you manage what's visible, and what's not ?
Specialty Engineered Automation
http://www.sea4ug.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
What would be better would be a scheme by which we would have somthing along the lines of a 'group' where I could define as many or as few as I needed. Where I could name them and define what their behaviors would be, to meet my needs. Now if that meant that I needed 256 numbered groups whose members could only occupy one group at any one time, so be it. But if I preferred a hierarchical scheme where groups could be members of other groups and where objects could be found in more than one group while also carrying names that conveyed more meaning that a simple numerical ID< should be able to that as well.
But don't hold your breath. While we are continuing to enhance and expand the capabilities of so-called 'groups' in NX, it'll be awhile before we will be ready to replace layers as part of a more comprehensive and flexible 'grouping' scheme.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I'm glad UGS have changed the terminology of blank/unblank to hide/show. PTC still uses hide/unhide!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Specialty Engineered Automation
http://www.sea4ug.com
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
My turn!
In drafting: I'd like a hole chart. Nothing to big, select a 0,0 point pick all the holes you want listed and it creates a tab block with the x/y coords and hole sizes.
In Modeling: Id like to be able to add constraints to points (points on a curve), so when I adjust the curve it keeps the points with it. (I use the points to locate hole centers)
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
"You are no longer able to access CAST from the Resource Bar in NX — the Training tab has been removed. The Resource Bar has been getting more and more use in recent releases of NX, and it is no longer practical to display the training in the Resource Bar, since so many of the training activities require you to view things in the Resource Bar.
If you have an installation of the CAST Library, you can still access it using Help?Training from the NX menu bar, as before."
_____________________________________
Complex problems have simple, easy-to-understand, wrong answers.
_________________
PI Penkov
CAM Programmer
Non-standard Equipment Designer
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Another which I know has been a bone of contention for some time is that users have asked for either more control over what system controlled tabs get displayed, or at least, don't include any tabs that serve no purpose for that particular installation, and the prime example being the tab-space 'wasted' for those people who do not have CAST (wasting that space on the Help pull-down is not seen as big a deal).
And lastly, we might have also run into the same problem with CAST running under Windows-64 as we did with the Help Files. While I don't know this for certain, it's quite possible that like the search engine tool used in the Help Files, that some utility needed for CAST was only available in a 32-bit version. And the reason that this is an issue is that if you were running the Windows 64-bit version of NX 5, anything launched from the Resource Bar, since that is integrated into NX, would also have to be fully implemented in 64-bit. Items launched from a menu pull-down do not since in the case of any IE-based untilites, like Help or CAST, this just spawns an independent application which can be a 32-bit version running on Windows 64.
So taking ALL of these issues into consideration, it appears that the decision was made to remove CAST from the Resource Bar for NX 5. Now I did check the ugii_env.dat file and there does not seem to be a provision, like there was for the Help Files to override this if you were running the 32-bit NX, so apparently someone felt more stgronly about this situation than they did with Help.
Anyway, if you wish, I can investigate this a little further on Monday, but I suspect that what I've said here is going to be confirmed, at least the first 2 items for sure and most likely the last one as well.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
The only one I'm familiar with is Catia. They also use the hide/show system. I think that UG is trying to bridge the gaps from other systems making it easier for new users to get up and running faster. This is what I hope the intent is, since I'll be like the other long term users trying to get acclimated to the new protocols. That being said, Catia uses a tree type system with parent objects and children within them. I've never been trained on using it, but I fish through it getting the information I need before migrating the data to UG.
Also, thanks once again Mr. Baker for being helpful. The "mini toolbar" problem has been fixed and everyone in the office is happy. It's amazing what little things can do. ;)
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
_____________________________________
Complex problems have simple, easy-to-understand, wrong answers.
_________________
PI Penkov
CAM Programmer
Non-standard Equipment Designer
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Can anyone help?
Thanks all.
Gator91826
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Is it me or does part families really suck when dealing
with several components and assemblies in one file.
Mating conditions don't always stay, or they get blown out
updating part families. Wave linking in multiple assemblies
you lose data integrity. Preferences don't stay in drafting.
I have to change arrows in STYLE all the time. Editing
features can be a pain as well sometimes(offsetting flanges,
couterboring on angles, and sketcher; when modifying multiple
extrusions in one sketch). Finally information object doesn't
always give you the info your looking for about that
particular object or feature. I'm done ranting.
These are my issues that "urk" me even though I work around
them.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I cannot offer any advice about assemblies since I don't work with them very often and when I do, they are just a few components. However, I do know that if you use datums instead of faces for assigning constraints, that should make dealing with the constraints a little bit easier. Based on my limited experience with constraints in NX, they typically only fail when you've replaced a face in one of the mated components. This can occur when you delete a curve from a sketch that is used to created some sort of body whose face is used within the model and also has a constraint assigned to that face or an edge of the face. It's just basic common sense in regards to parent/child relationships.....IF that is the true culprit.
Regarding the Preferences in Drafting, if you don't set them as DEFAULT then don't expect the arrows to be correct as you create them. Changing the Style of one dimension after you've already created it is NOT the same as setting it as default. You can set the defaults for dimensions in your customer defaults to be whatever you want them to be and I'm positive that DOES work. You can set defaults to be just for the session as well. Both have worked fine for me for the entire NX series (about 5 years now). Could it be you're not using the correct commands to set dimension defaults (Style)?
Sketcher has worked fine for me in regards to editing sketches for years...not really sure what issues you're having with editing. Maybe just not familiar with it?
What information doesn't Information Object give? There's very little that I can think of that doesn't appear in the Info window about geometry, if you're using a preferred method. After you pick the object and the dialog appears, are you clicking the big "i" button? For features, I'd suggest using the Model Navigator rather than trying to isolate the features from the geometry and using Information Object.
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
In UGS NX 5, 'Redo' is available in most places but not all. Generally speaking, 'Redo' is only available after Undoing something that was done using a dialog that has gotten the so-called 'NX 5 treatment' meaning that it has been updated to the new 'block-style' format. As more and more dialogs 'get the treatment', Redo will become more widely available and usable.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
1. In version 11 or 12 the legacy line and arc creation functions were deleted. They were eventually returned after a certain amount of protest a couple of versions later, (sooner if you found out about the enviroment variables). After all this time I still find that UG does not have a better way of creating lines parallel at a distance, or at an angle to an existing line. It also messes you about far more than should be necessary when trying to strike a line tangent to any arc not lying precisely on the creation plane. Basically there are umpteen curve creation tools to do the same functions that were probably never better than in V16.
Why?! Don't other users find this frustrating too?
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I'm teaching kids how to cut sections for automotive. It's not appropriate to use sketches for that, and the customer wouldn't accept it.
We need to make lines parallel at a distance. UG does it okay once you know how, but it isn't as easy and straightforward as I think it could and should be. Could it be done by improving the offset curve function, we're only using NX-3 is it improved in later versions?
Matter of fact I had a bit of a play with the sketcher just to satisfy myself and I don't think is any easier there anyway.
Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
However, we have also added a new function, Instance Geometry, which will allow you to basically perform 'Translate Copy' type function on any geometric object including lines and other curves. Besides 'translating' along a vector, you can also use a point, along a curve, rotatation, mirror, etc. Results can be either associative or not and it has a preview function so that you know what you're getting before you actually accept the results.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS
UGS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
The little I've seen, and everything I've heard about NX-5 is good news. This is another example.
In part we are like a lot of organizations in that we wait for GM take the lead for the next version of UG, because they're a major customer. What news if any as to the uptake of NX-5 by GM?
Best Regards
Hudson.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
You should register your company for access to gmsupplypower.com. That site has all the information you'll need for anything NX related.
There is a Blockpoint event (upgrade) happening soon. Details are as follows:
[start]
To: GM Supplier
Attn: Engineering Data Manager
Re: GM BP2007-01 Tentative Wave Assignments
This letter is to advise you that GM has tentatively scheduled Wave assignments for the upcoming BP2007-01 event. The following outlines the two (2) planned global deployment wave events, and the most current related Software.
Software Version*
(Exact version number is subject to change)
TcAE v9.1.3.6q (minor) (Win & UNIX)
UG NX v3.0.5.3 MP6a (minor)
TcVIS 2005 SR1 MP2b (current)
GMPDL/GMTK 3-D.1.2 (minor)
GM Launch 5 (current)
GM UG Config 3e (current)
Mozilla v1.7.13 (UNIX) (current)
Timing**
(Additional Waves may be added)
WAVE 1 (August 27 - SOP)
NA Vehicle (Pontiac)
NA Mfg. Engineering
NA Die & Stamping
Powertrain
CREC/CAMI
JCI
Allison
Holden
PATAC
GMTCI
ITDC
Saab
South Africa (A)
Torrance (A)
WAVE 2 (September 3 – SOP)
NA Vehicle (Warren)
TREC
Brazil
Vauxhall
GMPTE – Strasbourg
GMPTE – Turin
GMDAT
Honeoye Falls (A)
[end]
All of this is tentative and may change.
For further information on getting access to GMSupplyPower, call 1-888-238-1119. Tell the support person that you wish to register for access to GMSupplyPower.
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Anyway, I would take the advice of Tim above and get registered with the program and you will have all the info that you will need to both prepare for the releases and to stay current with GM and their other suppliers.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
UGS NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/ugs
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I like your signature at the end of your post.
It brought a smile to my face when I started imagining some people that I would like to treat as "slinkies"
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
For example, when we create text (insert->curve->text) and extrude it, selecting all the edges of the text will take more time, even if we use "connected curves" option.
The "feature faces" selection intent is available for face blend! I don't know why the same option is not included in Edge Blend also.
Ug version : NX 4.0.3.3
-Regards
man2007
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I think you have misunderstood my post. Neither I commented nor I told the existing "selection intent" options as meaningless.
I only meant that by adding "Feature Faces" selection intent (as in case of Face Blend) to Edge Blend command- will enhance that command.
Have a look at the attached file, wherein I have to select 89 faces with "Face edges" option as against 12 features!! if I had the option of selecting "Feature Faces".
htt
-Regards
man2007
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Also, is there a way to specify different thread sizes in a part family short of manually entering manually entering the values (major & minor dia, etc.)?
Thanks in advance!
Al
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
If you are teaching your students to use curves without using sketcher, you are doing your students a huge disservice. You should take the time to actually learn the power that sketcher can give you in even the simplest functions. I use sketcher for everything and work with guys who are five times slower than me because they don't want to learn how to use it. What a waste.
'ziner
Peace Through Superior Fire-Power!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Sketches are great and powerful tools, but I agree with Hudson. One of the strengths of NX is the vast size of the tool box that you have to work with. I work with some complex lofted aerospace surfaces that do not solve easily with sketcher, but smart curves provide a more than suitable alternative.
If you only teach students the sketcher, you might as well use SolidWorks...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Sorry, but no. At the moment they are created as two different types of features.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Sorry, but no. At the moment they are created as two different types of features.
I was afraid of that. I was hoping to avoid deleting the old thread and recreating it, but it's not a big deal. The pain is to have to create seperate sized parents for my fastener part families. It would be nice to be able to have a field where I can call out the threadform I want in the part family spreadsheet.
Thanks for your help. It's great to be able to post a note and get answers straight from the source.
Al
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Ug will not allow putting rectangular window or 'window selection' while CREATING the blend, I tried it.
Even I tried to select the EDGES FIRST by
1) Setting the selection mode to 'general objects' (By hitting 'G' key)
2) Then put a rectangle to select the edges
and right click on the edges->select Blend... option, but unfortunately ug deselects the edges I selected and will prompt me to select new ones. For single letter like 'N' (which doesn't have smooth edges like in 'S' or 'O') also this method fails.
-man2007
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
What version are you running? I assumed you were running NX 5. Sorry, but in NX 5, you can area select when creating Edge Blends.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I had mentioned it earlier, it is NX 4.0.3.3.
-man2007
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Here are some thoughts.
It's about time you could pick more than one boundary within a general pad feature. The letters A,B,P,R in capitals are all impossible. Why not make it that whole words could be done.
When blending, or tapering anything with a great number of edges to select then one of the best selection tools available is to use "Select all edges in face". It is just a damn pity that it is implemented as an all or nothing option. Many times the face has central edges that you want to apply blends to and yet it would be either impossible or undesirable to get the same blend/taper to work on the boundary edges or some smooth edges of a sewn trimming surface earlier applied. What needs to happen in that case is that you make then initial section using all off face thereby including the overwhelming majority of edges that you need to select, but you are then able to deselect individually the fewer edges that you need to exclude. Currently no matter how I try to do this it doesn't work. I'm certain it would be a valuable enhancement and it may provide the work around that previous posters to this topic are looking for.
Under some other dialogs where window selection is available the same all or nothing behavior occurs. I was thinking of curve projection. You can't shift deselect those one or two background objects that got inadvertently included in the selection window. It is annoying and I think not good enough.
In earlier versions of UG to control how selection confirmation works you could hold down one or two extra keys to turn it on or off. This was really good I still miss it. Why can't you please re-introduce that or something like that. The current situation is that you have either to confirm everything or set a delay and then wait, neither is nearly as good as being able to exert my control over the ability to use it when I need to.
I have been working mainly in NX-3 and tested in NX-4. We have NX-5 but not to work with for long enough to comment with any certainty yet. Therefore it is possible that some of the solutions I have alluded to may have been implemented without my knowledge.
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
OK, try this. The way I've got my selection set up is that under Perferences -> Selection... under 'Highlight' I have 'Highlight Selection on Rollover' toggled ON and the delay set to '3'. However, under 'QuickPick' I have that toggled OFF. Yes, OFF.
Now this may seem odd, particularly since, as you've pointed out, we've removed triggering Confirm using special second keys. However, you can now basically use QuickPick like you've done in the past since now when you place your cursor over some area where there are multiple objects that could be selected, while the first item will highlight, no matter how long you wait, the 3 periods (...) will NOT come up so it never gets in the way of normal picking. However, if you wish to use QuickPick (i.e. 'Confirm') just hold down MB1 (left mouse button) for approaximately 1/2 second and the 3 periods will come up and you can then go directly into QucikPick as normal, just without having to either wait or having to use a special second key.
Anyway, try it, I think you'll like it. I know I do.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
This sounds like just the thing I need to be doing.
Under which version are you describing it?
In NX-3 I have pre-selection turned on, and have now reduced the delay to 3, from something that was much higher, probably too high. I'll try it like that for a while, and I'll look into settings for NX-4 also, we're still really waiting for NX-5 so if that has been improved I'm keen to see it for myself and pass on my congratulations if indeed there are some real improvements.
The remainder of my earlier comments were substantially exploring the idea that my tinkering lead to, which was about how the requested "thing to fix", could be addressed in a few different ways.
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
However, in NX 5 this has been changed to six descreate settings, displayed as 0 to 5, so a 3 in NX 5 is NOT the same as a 3 in NX 3 or NX 4.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
SIEMENS PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
1. Why oh why can't helical curves be associative? I design bottles. Every one of them has threads on it. If I change the heighth of the bottle after adding a thread, the thread goes kaput. Actually, the way I create them, the thread will tolerate small changes, like say .060" or so, but anything more and the sweep won't follow the curve. I have to delete the thread and all associated features, including the helical curve, and create them all over again. I thought this was a parametric software.
2. Why can't hidden lines be easier to deal with in Drafting? If the hidden line becomes solid as it comes around the model, then the solid line gets erased too. I've tried splitting the lines but that's too labor intensive. I don't even bother with hidden lines anymore.
This is on NX4, although I've used NX5 at a previous employer and had the same problems.
Mike
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
You make points both of which are valid in terms of you intent to use the software in a certain way. It may be possible that future enhancements will come along to address some of your concerns. I hope that people who post here are often heard by PLMS, but you could of course put in an ER as well.
You also mentioned about users who come in with a different approach based on their use of other CAD systems. In the same way perhaps I would approach your task differently mindful of the limitations of the system as it stands. They may still be limitations that you don't much like, but there's nothing wrong with trying to make your life a little easier.
For the bottle threads, you could design the bottle with the datums near the thread rather than the base so that upon updating the thread end always remained intact. Another way would be to create your thread in a separate model mate that to the neck, wave link the thread portion and unite that to the bottom of the bottle solid.
For the hidden lines, while I agree that they aren't easy and could perhaps be better I would have to say that I have so little call to manually edit them that it really doesn't bother me. I wonder how and why it comes to be that you have to manually edit hidden lines frequently enough that it becomes a problem. If you want to start a thread describing exactly what you're doing and how, then we may be able to give you a few pointers towards decreasing your suffering to tolerable levels.
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Specialty Engineered Automation (SEA)
http://www.sea4ug.com
a UGS Foundation Partner
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
The problem comes after I make the Swept thread feature. As soon as I move the curve, or it moves as a result of another change, the sketched curve defining the thread flips upside-down. The curve is sketched on a plane created at the end of and normal to the helix curve. I'm not sure what's actually happening here; if the normal direction of the plane is flipping or if it's because of the way my sketch is constrained. Or maybe something's changing in the initial surface created to define the helix.
Incidentally, I'm making the thread as a Swept feature because when I make it with a Sweep Along Guide the thread profile twists somewhat as it follows the guide. Using Swept I can select Face Normals, select the face of the revolve that the thread is going to sit on, and the shape doesn't twist.
Any suggestions for what I might be doing wrong are appreciated.
Mike
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
And to make matters worse, when I make the helix curve something other than a full turn the sketch really gets screwed up. I think I definitely need to look at how I'm constraining the sketch for the thread.
Any jabs still appreciated though. ; )
Mike
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Could mail me the part file?
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I'd say that what you have done is used the helix curve to create the plane one which you have then sketched the thread profile. When the helix moves then the plane moves, but because the plane is loosely anchored only to the curve then there is no vertical or horizontal directional vector anchoring your sketch. You may find that you can create a datum axis that you use to set up you sketch plane using two points taken from the helix construction geometry. You'll find these datum axes to be associative enough and even if the axis does not lie on the sketch plane it should still work.
Two obvious choices are that if a helix axis exists then the end of that and the adjacent endpoint of the helix might do he trick. Otherwise if you always use a round number of turns in your thread then the two ends of the helix might provide a useful construct for a datum axis. Even the axis of the helix itself as a curve could provide the basis for a datum axis that will keep your sketch facing the right way up.
If you don't have geometry that you know of with which to do this then you may have to create something perhaps as part of one of the other sketches in your model.
One other factor to consider in this is the shape of the thread form. There are several possibilities whereby your threads may be modeled without a sketch and that would also make the problem go away. For example if it is essentially a circular profile then use a tube rather than sweeping anything. I had an example of this with a fellow mid last year. It was great practice for me to brush up on my sweeping knowledge in explaining all about it to him, but at the end of the day it turned out to be a simple circular profile best done with a tube.
A lot of other profiles can be created starting with just a line which you would probably have to sketch so it follows the helix up and down as the bottle height varies. But if you sweep a line you get a sheet, which can be thickened, tapered, blended as required to arrive at a thread form that having been built in this way should be less likely flip over when the model changes.
And if all that still won't work then as I said earlier it would be easier if you modeled the bottle from the neck down, rather than the base up. Some of these problems would be alleviated.
Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
For example - to change the view of dimension line and then to set it as default in "Customer defaults".
2) To keep the drawing standard settings not into prt-template file, but in settings file (Customer defaults). So it would be easier to change the default settings in the templates without creating new template file.
Regards: Dimo Urumov
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Hudson, as I said above, I've got it working pretty well. It turns out the sketching plane wasn't the problem but the way I had the sketch constrained. At least that's the way it looks so far. The shape of the thread profile is such that I think it is easier to sketch it. Or maybe that's just me. Thanks for your tips.
Mike
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
In NX 5 Customer Defaults, we have now implemented a 'One Button' option to select a predefined 'Drafting Standard' as an alternative to setting a bunch of individual items. The included default Drafting Standards (yet still customizable) are ASME Y14.5M - 1994 (which can also be set to comply with either the ANSI Y14.5 - 1982 or the GM Addendum to ASME Y14.5M - 2004 standards), ISO 1101 - 1983, DIN and JIS.
2) To keep the drawing standard settings not into prt-template file, but in settings file (Customer defaults).
Also for NX 5, we've added on option in Customer Defaults so that when using an existing Drafting Template, that the system either honors the drafting setting in the Template Files, or it OVERRIDES those settings and uses the explicit Drafting Standard selected (as discussed above) in Customer Defaults.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
As long as it works
The ability to do things so many ways is the beauty of UG. That alone made me confident we could always find you a way out.
Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
2) I think it's a good idea to add some kind of LOCAL file manager (ideas-style) for easy management - which drawings must be updated. It would be useful for big assemblies - to manage assembly tree, etc... It's not about PDM environment, but just local files.
Regards: Dimo Urumov
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
For what it is worth what you have proposed for the management of site standards, or customer defaults in drafting already sounds like a great improvement over what was previously the case.
From the point of view of an old UG hand please no more I-deas adaptations. I-deas was either to become NX or not at a point in time when they merged, thereafter quite a few good and not so good features were adopted, some I suspect just to ease the transition for I-deas users coming over to UG. In the wake of that change speaking for myself and colleagues of mine of similar experience and background it was felt that UG lost its way somewhat. We had several releases with more and different ways of doing the same things but for the amount of adaptation that we were forced to make we weren't really rewarded accordingly with enough in the way of additional capability.
Doing more of the same thing in different ways isn't "bang for your buck" in the same sense as having the capacity to do more different things for the same cost.
As you know the people who have invested the most maintenance dollar in your company are the oldest UG customers. Speaking from that point of view, (the only one available to me), copying other CAD systems isn't the same as competing with them. They may have a lot of good ideas but existing users get fed up with re-learning old skills for seems like the sake of change. We think UG can be better, this forum, and this post alone, constantly raises that theme. But for mine UG will only be better by being better at being UG.
On the bright side I think that the NX-5 and upcoming NX-6 releases appear to be doing more in this regard and despair that I don't have the opportunity to say more positive than that as we're just not ready to take the upgrade yet. What I've seen so far I like.
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
It's not about to forget "old UG-style" of workflow, but I don't think it should be erased all of the "I-deas ideas".
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I agree with your comment, because I was talking about things that are past and done. There is seldom any benefit in erasing past changes at this late stage, and I admitted then and now that the adaptations from I-deas weren't all bad. My main issue was that for all the new and different ways of doing things that we gained we also had to adapt to change and for the most part it seemed that it was all about new ways to do existing functions. I mean to be helpful by putting a strident opinion that can be countered in discussion here by the opinions of others.
Some of the changes I mentioned that I was less than enamored of may have flowed from I-deas. That was the Historical context which explains why it was probably done at the time. So my comments are not intended to carry any criticism of I-deas as a CAD system or of I-deas users. UG has probably adapted many of its better functions from all of the CAD systems that it competes with. At the end of the day I just want to put the case for substance over style. To that conversation I bring my perspective that current day NX already has the elements that combine to define its own style and that there are benefits to continuing in that vein to improve and build in more functions because that is where the real substance of better productivity has to come from.
Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I opened ug, "no files were opened". I just wanted to scroll down the File menu, accidentally I hit Exit option and Ug got closed "without asking me for confirmation".
This is not the case when any of the files are open. I mean to say Ug will ask for confirmation before exiting, when one or more files are open.
In NX2 ug will ask for confirmation before exiting, and that should be the normal behaviour.
Am I missing any Customer Defaults setting?
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Note that for NX 6 we're even changing what happens when you have modified files open and you hit the 'Exit' button, so as to consistent there as well.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
You may be right in one way. But I still like the NX2 way of File->Exit. Because when you work fast, it happens that you may encounter in clicking wrong button, more often by clicking a button adjacent to the intended one. I tell you the scenario in this case, in file menu Exit button is the last one and when the menu is not expanded fully I have to click the double arrow button at the end of menu (to scroll the menu) and there are chances that I may hit the Exit button. If I execute any other command wrongly then I can just discard the command by pressing the Esc button, but for Exit I will not get a second chance, as in NX2.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
While you may consider my suggestion a 'workaround', I was only offering it as a solution to your particular situation where you wished to avoid accidentily exiting NX. Since I can't offer you anything that would change NX to behave in a non-Windows-like manner, it was the best that I could do under the circumstances.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Just as an anecdotal response, ProE has the Delete Older Versions and the Delete All Versions menu picks one on top of the other. IMO they should be separated by at least three feet.
Boy I only made that mistake once! Even though it asks for confirmation, when you're "sure" you made the right pick...
Mike
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare. - Robert Hunter
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
We're using NX2, and I've been testing NX5.0.2 (which I like more and more), but the new hole feature is a bit frustrating so far.
It pops into sketcher and shows my pick position as a green square, but I can't constrain that. Do I always have to draw another point?
Is the best way to locate one hole to place a point in sketcher and then dimension its position? Note that I'm talking about holes that aren't at an arc center.
If I am creating just one hole, wouldn't it be faster to use the pre-NX5 hole?
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Now think about it, if you were not paying attention to what was happening, right up until the stuff disappeared from the screen, Blank and Delete asked the same basic questions, offered the same selection options and used menus that were virtually identical (except for the title at the top), but of course, if you thought you were Blanking something but later you discovered that you had actually Deleted it, that could ruin your whole day, and remember, this was BEFORE we had an UNDO button!
Now don't get me wrong, the person who had suggested the change had a perfectly logical argument to make for it, the only problem was that he was a software engineer and had never really used the software except when testing his particular projects.
Anyway, that was back in the 'good-ol-days' and we all know that nothing like that could happens now, eh?
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
As for creating a sketch of points, over even just plain old points ahead of time and using them to create your hole(s), that perfectly all right and just another workflow that is supported, This will become even more common in NX 6 since we have enhanced Point Set to now create an associative/parametric feature of the 'Point Set'. If you create a Point Set feature, you'll be able to select that to define all of the locations for a set of holes and if you edit the Point Set, either by editing the geometrt it references, such as a face or edge/curve, or change the number of points in the point set, the holes will update as well.
All in all, that changes made to Holes will be best appreciated if you examine how you can change your workflow to leverage the capabilities that this function now offers as well as using it in conjunction with other functions currently in NX or soon to be.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Attention to Mike also,
Could Mike program a user exit function so that when you hit exit it calls a macro or something similar, to ask the question, "Do you want to exit." I remember using such user exits in the past but things have changed so I'm not sure if it still exists using the same method, but perhaps some other equivalent guise would suffice.
Talking about PFK's my best memory of the original stuff was that the "Display Refresh" button was the only way to get the line you just drew to appear on screen. The original green screens apparently lacked automatic refresh unlike later CRT's that refresh the images so many times per minute etc. The button persisted right through to the demise of the PFK but few later users even knew of it's original purpose.
Seems like everybody just posts everything in this thread. Perhaps it would be possible to close it soon if it is going to persist in being miles from the original point.
Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
You could watch a user and by how often he hit the 'Display Refresh' button you could tell how experienced he was. If he hit it after every deletion or transformation or blanking operation, that was a dead giveaway that he was a 'newbie', but if he could go 3 or 4 minutes between 'Repaints' (that's the original name for 'Display Refresh' back in UGI days) then you knew he was an old-timer. After awhile you just sort of looked past the objects with the "X's" on them.
Now don't sell those 'green screens' short. After all, they had a display resolution of 4096 X 4096 lines (pixals). Circles always looked like circles! But it was true that the only colors you had was Dark Green and Light Green. The geometry was in Dark Green and the cursor and those temporary markers, the little "X's" and "O's", were in Light Green. But hey, we thought we were HOT S#@%.
As for your suggestion about a 'user exist', well ever since menu/toolbar customization was added, you can replace any Menu item or Icon with a user defined operaqtion which could launch any sort of program, be it User Function, a Macro, GRIP, etc. Almost like having a 'user exit' anywhere you want to put one. Not that we approve of the idea of using soemthing like that to overcome the effort we put into making NX Windows-compliant, but if we didn't want you to ever change anything, we'ed have never implemented the customization tools, so I guess it's up to you
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I called it workaround because i am comfortable with 'Advanced with full menus' Role and I don't want to customize every time when i open ug and moreover i will not get the same system everyday.
I discussed about this problem with one of my colleague and i came to know one more situation where this enhancement is disadvantageous.
He is working on an engine assembly which has around 6000 components in it! To open this assembly it will take more than 10 minutes on 8 GB system. He exited the ug by click the X button (ofcourse accidentally),while working with multiple windows.(I suppose many people work on multiple windows). Will u suggest the same solution here?
I can open Microsoft Word or Excel in seconds, but not an ug assembly! I don't know why SEIMENS wants to copy some features of Microsoft even though it is disadvantageous?
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I think I see your point now that you describe the downside. For the moment I suggest that you and your colleague should try to open the top assembly with no components loaded then run part cleanup before you go ahead and open up the components. You can test it but I think running the part cleanup should be enough to get NX thinking that you have made some small change to the data, just enough that it won't close without asking. I know this isn't much help but at least I can hopefully help you to think in terms of safeguarding your session next time you open a really big assembly.
Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I've seen this option in ProE and SW.
Regards: Dimo Urumov
Aircraft Engineer
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
You do mean in sketching, rather than drafting?
For sketching diameters for turned parts I just type 18.23/2
Maybe these other systems won't accept a mathematical formula when you're inputing the parameters. I probably wouldn't bother switching modes or selecting a different dimensioning tool to achieve that result. It seems cool but it doesn't add a lot that you can't already do.
You do know that in drafting if you create a symmetrical centerline and use it in your dimension selection that it will provide the result shown in your image. This is standard practice and has been supported in NX for some time.
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
1) I mean sketch as a sketching in Modeling application (and Drafting app. in NX5). A kind of 2D geometry which could be extruded, revolved, etc...
2) I've just made the applied picture in Drafting app. and I know that there is some kind of feature, like I've described in drafting for geometry dimensioning.
3) Really?! I'm disappointed of that NX does not support some kind of functionality yet. I think it could be usefull for creating axisymmetric shafts, axles, etc...
4) In addition it good to add in measurement feature - diameter measurement. The radius measurement is not so handy for holes or shafts.
Regards: Dimo Urumov
Aircraft Engineer
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I'm talking basic "autocad" type stuff. It should not be so hard to draw a basic 2D line.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare. - Robert Hunter
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
If anyone knows any different please let me know.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Can't get much easier than that.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I'm on NX4 and unfortunatly I don't have the same MB3 options, but nice to know this has been addressed on NX 5.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Regards: Dimo Urumov
Aircraft Engineer
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Now if you would like to set a more presistent/permanent rotate point, just press MB3 over the display screen and when the view pop-up menu comes up select the 'Set Rotate Point' option and then select your point of interest on the model. Once set, this point will be used as the center of rotation for either Mouse or Spaceball rotation. When you wish to cancel that rotate point, either select another point, or using MB3, select 'Cancel Rotate Point'.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I should start with that I use the I-deas style functional keys F1-F4. And I think that is good to add (optional) during the rotation of model (F3) to autodetect the initial rotation point, just like Zooming of the model view. I see that there is autodetect of zooming point, tracking the initial position of mouse cursor.
I know about "Set Rotate Poin". And maybe it could be some kind of "Auto Set Rotate Point", with no MB2-clicking.
Regards: Dimo Urumov
Aircraft Engineer
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
As a side bar, when we first started to look at Ideas and what features and functions the Ideas user community placed a high priority on wishing to see in the new consolidated product, NX, this issue of having these 4 'hot-keys' to control graphics became a big issue. In all honesty, we over on the UG side could not really appreciate why this was a big deal until we discovered that very few Ideas users had purchased 3D controlers, i.e., Spaceballs. Amoung the UG community the Spaceball had always been a very popular add-on. In fact, UG was one of the first CAD products to support the Spaceball working with the original Australian inventor, John Hilton, nearly 20 years ago to create a software interface that could be easily installed on many different platforms while providing consistent performance and behavior.
Later when we were asked to consider implementing our Mouse-driven display control it was during that era when Spaceballs were still rather costly and this was only done as an attempt to offer a lower cost (actually a NO-COST solution since everyone already had a mouse).
When first introduced about 20 years ago, the original Model 1000 series SpaceBall sold for around $1,500. Eventually the price dropped to about $600 and then Logitech introduced a competitive product the Magellan 'Space Mouse', for under $400. Eventually Logitech acquired the Spaceball technology and merged that with their Magellan product line forming the subsidarary, 3DConnexion. Currently they offer a line of 4 different devices, priced from $399 for a SpacePilot to $59 for the low end SpaceNavigator (I use one at home and it works great):
https://3dconnexionstore.com/home.asp?CT=USR
Now remember John Hilton, the Australian who invented and developed the original SpaceBall back in the mid 80's, well he's still in businees and is now offering a low-cost full-function competitive product the 'Astroid 6000' for $199:
htt
Anyway, my whole point is that in the world of Unigraphics and eventually NX, the SpaceBall has generally been the perferred solution, even when the cost was higher, and now with the prices in the $100 to $200 range, almost anyone can afford a SpaceBall and once you've used one, you'll never want to got back. True, we do and will continue to support both the UG-Style Mouse-gesture and the Ideas-style F1 thru F4 hot-button functions, but only as secondary approaches. Our recommendation to people doing heavy 3D work is that they should seriously consider acquiring a 3D controller from one of the 2 supported vendors, 3DConnexion and Spatial Freedom.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Don't be offened, but John's answer is so right that I had to smile at your expense. We had this discussion a while back about the merits of various spaceballs or space pilots on behalf of a user looking to buy one. NX is very much optimized for these devices, which used to be a bit of a problem where some users weren't willing to pay the high price of their purchase. I recently picked up a space navigator for something like $99 US. You question may be quite valid, but I can't think of a good reason not to buy one at these prices.
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Spaceballs with NX makes users happy :)
you can get the SpaceNavigator for right at $100 and it is WELL worth it for NX, especially coming from I-Deas
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Why cant UG default to the drafting application when opening a drawing file and modelling application when opening a model file? 95% of the time when i open a drawing or a model I have to change the application to suit. What do you guys think?
Im on NX5 btw.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
As a single .prt file can contain any combination of 3D part, assembly or drawing data how would NX determine what application to open it into? I think the current system where it opens in the application in which it was last saved is more suitable. If you are creating your drawings in separate files then, assuming they are saved in drafting, they will open back up in drafting. I therefore struggle to understand why your files open in the wrong application 95% of the time.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I might be working in a drawing file and need to open a model (or vice versa), when I open the model all my toolbars still show drafting icons as i'm still in drafting. So I will have to manually switch applications. (Maybe i'm just being lazy here, it is only one click!)
If each company has a different way of organising dwg and model files I can see how this would be a problem to implement tho.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I've been playing around and you are right. It seems that if you open a file from Gateway, it will open in the application it was last saved in, however if you open the same file from within a different application, then it opens in that application. I have never noticed this before but agree it doesn't make sense. I think it should open in the application it was saved in regardless of the application the user is in when opening it. Fingers crossed for NX6...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I can see my previous post may have been slightly confusing, my query isn't just about opening parts from gateway rather opening and switching between models and drawings within an application.
The way I see it this could be done in two ways:
1. Like you say, files open up in the applications they were last saved.
2. Parts contaning drawing sheets open up in Drafting app, otherwise they open up with the Modelling app, also assembly parts could open up with assembly app - isn't this the common sense way of working or am I missing something!??
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
However, with respect to Assemblies, while it is true that Assembly Modeling is a separate module in the sense of how it's licensed, in the way it works it's really a mode. Either the mode is active or it's not. However, even if it's not active, you can still open an assembly and perform most all normal activities and tasks as long as you do not attempt to edit or modify the assembly structure in any way. In fact, most all of our customers have sufficient Assembly Modeling licenses that they operate with it turned ON by default, which can be set in Customer Defaults -> Assemblies -> General -> Miscellaneous. The rational for this was two-fold.
First as I mentioned, since most all of our users have sifficient Assembly Modelin licenses, we needed an option to just keep it ON full-time, as if it were part of the Basic product.
And second, since so many other applications depend on Assembly Modeling when working in the Master Model mode, such as Drafting, Manufacturing, CAE, etc., that we needed to make Assembly Modeling work as it it were a full-time capability (the only reason we even provide for this approach to be disabled is for those few customers who do not have sufficient Assembly Modeling licenses so that all of their users have access to it full-time).
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
If this MB3 menu includes 'Section' command (View->Operation->Section) also, I think it will be very useful feature. For example while converting unparametric model (like a 'supply unit' which contains several bores drilled on its body) to parametric, we use this command frequently.
ug version : NX4.0.3.3
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
But hey, it's still a step ahead of where we were prior to NX 5.0.2.2.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
This post is so long and ridiculous at this stage that it almost makes sense to suggest that you go out and hire Stephen Hawking to help you create black holes in NX. They exist you know!
Cheers
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
It was really just an excuse to make a bit of a joke. Why would you want a hole that isn't a hole? There has to be a more logical way to implement whatever it is that some people want to do than by uniting a hole.
Then I saw your answer and got to thinking.
What would interest me more is providing the capacity to define a group of features that have the same hole and/or fastener applied to them. Currently this exists with arrays and carries with it their inherent pattern limitations, circular and rectangular in the main. I'd like to give some thought to defining hole positions using points within sketches or without, and then grouping those points so that irregular hole patterns can be created where applicable, by picking the group. Also make a threaded hole part of the hole class not a separate operation please.
I say this because I recently picked up a job that had been started at another company. All the hole patterns were created by circles in their sketches and none of the threads worked properly. This was in NX-4. The hole pattern for the flange 18 odd fasteners all the same at different pitches and an irregular shape at one end. You just want to be able to say to the system here are 18 places that I want the same hole and the same fastener.
Just a thought for the day.
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Obviously you've not seen NX 5.0.2.2 and the new Advanced Hole function. You can now create a sketch of points and for each point it will create an identical hole and if you add or remove points from this sketch, the number of holes will update as well. Also, all of the holes created in a single operation will only occupy a single entry in the Part Navigator making it much easier to understand the model. Also we have included 3 types of holes, General Holes (including Simple, Countersunk and Counterbored), Screw Clearance Holes (also including Simple, Countersunk and Counterbored style) and Threaded Holes.
In the case of the General Hole, it works pretty much like the exisiting pre-NX 5 holes but with the Sketch interface.
For the Screw Clearance Holes you define them by selecting the desired fastener and the system then creates the correct size and shape of the hole. Also included is the ability to define the class of Fit that determines that actual size of the hole (thus the name 'Fastener Clearance Hole'.
And of course the Threaded Hoke is just that, a single feature that defines both the hole and threads based again on selecting a certain thread standard and size from a library of sizes.
For NX 6, we're adding a Hole Series, which will allow you to, in the context of an Aseembly, define a set or 'Series' of holes through 2 or more components in an assembly including the base hole in the first component, a clearance hole in the intermediate component(s) and finally another clearance or threaded hole in the last component. Now all of these holes are associated to each other and editing one will cause the complete 'Series' to update. Also in NX 6 we've added Tapered Holes.
Anyway, as soon as you upgrade to NX 5 you'll need to take quick look at what you can now do with the new Advanced Hole Feature.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Finally sorted out the license thing with NX-5 and loaded with 5.0.3 once that became available last week. It all worked simpler that I expected.
I kind of see what you're getting at with the hole function now that you mention it in connection with my last post. I had looked at it wonder what it was all about apart from better supporting hole types. I haven't tried mating a bunch of fasteners into one of multi hole single features yet.
What I really need is a couple of projects that aren't stuck in the older versions to get my teeth into NX-5.
I'll have to go back to whining about why there still aren't any Whitworth threads.
Best Regards
Hudson
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I haven't tried mating a bunch of fasteners into one of multi hole single features yet.
It doesn't quite work like that, yet, but that's one of the things that is being looked at but there will be some work soon in making it easier to add fasteners to an assembly.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Defining two diameters, depths, and a tip angles provides a very powerful tool for making geometry. Alternatives are to revolve a sketch (not terribly practical, especially with a non-rectangular array of identical features), extrude a sketch twice and add then unite cone features, or create cylinders and cones. Maybe chamfers could be used. Really the "hole" feature is just a great shortcut for creating cylindrical geometry, especially with a drill point.
With mold wizard I find myself drawing a lot of subtraction bodies, which is the main reason that I found myself wanting to unite holes.
Since you can extrude almost anything to create many different types of geometry, I keep wondering why you can't extrude a point to make a line. Or extrude a point with offsets to make a cylinder, sleeve, or cone. Sets could handle multiple counter bores and threads (what about a screw hole with a jack thread? Or a cap over the screw in the c'bore area? I drew just such a triple threaded hole yesterday).
I like what I'm seeing, and I'm glad I started on NX5 with all these new associative tools, lots of power here.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Do you make two sets of hole geometry then unite them together, and then subtract that booleaned object from the target body?
Why in that case would you not simply subtract a the first hole or set of them in one feature followed by a second hole feature for the other part of the thread. I would have thought that simpler and just as good if not somewhat easier to create.
BTW out of interest what is your background such that NX-5 makes you happy to start using it. I could only presume that you made that judgment based on your experience of other CAD systems, which is good to know.
For myself I'm a UG user from way back. Sometimes I think the best and most powerful part of NX is under the direct modeling toolbar, because it offers a powerful way to circumvent what somebody else's associativity has left me with. Please don't get me wrong here we all try to do the right thing, but the number of times people model themselves into a corner that I can't begin to analyze is high and counting.
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
With ProE, 50-80% of your design effort (until, or if, you got really good after many years) was spent not "modeling yourself into a corner". With UG the opposite problem seems to exist, with people "severing the umbilical cord" and unparameterizing at the drop of a hat to get out of trouble.
Anyway, in one case I have a locating ring from a component catalog with c'bores for screws. This component includes a false body for the ring, but none for the tapped holes. I added a hole feature and united it with the false body so that when its later subtracted from the plate there will be holes for the screw taps. In other cases, I'm creating similar false bodies.
You can draw a screw using the hole feature, for example. Its quicker than revolving a sketch or extruding two sketched diameters. See the attached picture. Of course your base solid will be called a hole in the feature tree, which is not good...
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
You can mitigate some of the feature tree confusion by giving the feature a meaningful name. Let's say you have HOLE (82), you can attach a name so that it will show up as HOLE "alignment pin" (82).
Not a perfect solution, but you can minimize confusion.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Good to hear from your and that you're coping fairly well coming over from ProE. Not one of my favorite systems I'd have to say, mainly for the reasons you mentioned. I don't like finding models in NX that are constructed similarly for the same reason, they can be a house of cards. Which is not to say that some ProE users don't make a better fist of sketch based modeling that most NX veterans.
But nor do I advocate going around unparameterizing everything, there's nothing more annoying than when others do that to your perfectly good model. So that's why I mentioned direct modeling, which along with several other techniques provides the power and flexibility to put geometry where you need it to be such that you can basically get a result that avoids fixing everything that was wrong with the original. I guess what I mean to convey is that while we think of CAD as something belonging to the virtual, "ideal" world, there are a lot of models that just aren't ideal. Thankfully you need neither destroy them, nor is it necessary to waste time fixing them at the root cause when it serves no productive purpose.
I still don't get why you couldn't subtract the false body and then create the hole as you would normally have done, (in subtraction mode).
I want to acknowledge cowski's idea is a good one. If you must work in an obtuse way then at least give the next guy a hint.
There is a concept of commenting the code you write that software developers call "maintainability". Most people wouldn't think how similar modeling and coding have become. It is good when the models are kept maintainable.
I can't get by without wondering how this was a disadvantage in the past when a hole was a hole and could only be subtracted. What did we do then and where have we gone with this change?
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Because the false body is in one component (the locating ring, for example) and the subtraction happens in another component, the plate. So the hole must be created as a solid, linked, then subtracted. Since only one false body is created for each component (or component group in some cases) I find myself uniting holes to the false body and sometimes making holes in space! Thats the false body hole 'problem', older models I have seen use cylinders and cones to make this same geometry which is not fun or quick.
Your right about the house of cards, I always used the analogy that regenerating your model is like shaking the table that its built on, and removing lower levels from a house of cards is a delicate task to say the least! Direct modeling does allow flexibility here, I used similar modeling technique in ProE but it was much less flexible (mostly surface patches and tweak replace).
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I see that the old-school UG users are confused or offened by the imported ideas by I-deas. But there are some things that are missing in NX(UG). For example:
1) To create a pattern of bodies which don't have intersection. So you can get more volumes (bodies).
2) To use revolve feature for creating of a helix body.
3) There is a boolean operation in I-deas that is called "partition". I can see something like a "partition" in MoldWizard tools. But it would be good to have it as a normal boolean operation.
I used to be an I-deas user, but I like NX more. So don't be offened! These are just few "i-deas" that can make NX more productive.
Thanks in advance!
Regards: Dimo Urumov
Aircraft Engineer
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
With NX 5 we introduced 'Instance Geometry' which I think will provide you what you're looking for.
2) To use revolve feature for creating of a helix body.
Instead of thinking 'Revolving' a Helix, think of 'Sweeping' a Helix. Give 'Swept' body a try using an Angular Law as your Orientation Method.
3) There is a boolean operation in I-deas that is called "partition". I can see something like a "partition" in MoldWizard tools. But it would be good to have it as a normal boolean operation.
We call that 'Split' (in NX 6 it's been renamed 'Split Body'), but up through NX 5, performing a 'Split' operation on a solid body would remove all of the parametrics. However, that changes in NX 6 (part of the reason for the name change so that people notice that this is a very different command).
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Thanks for your post. I think that I see what you're getting at. It is really helpful of you to share a bit of what you do and how.
You are talking about two bodies one for the locating ring and another for a bolt. If the body for the locating ring is linked then my logic would be to subtract it and then create a subtract hole for the bolt. I'm not saying there's a strict right and wrong, but I wonder if the power to do something counter intuitive won't spawn models with some strange logic to how they get built.
When considering how you're linking bodies in all cases I prefer to be economical with how I create wave linked geometry. I would seek to avoid having a body existing in one part for the sole purpose of being wave linked to another part, at least in cases where that body has no purpose to the o-ring design. This because you have problems maintaining what does or doesn't get updated where part of that geometry would not normally be in the displayed reference set, and especially when using partial loading.
My favored technique for what it is worth is to link points at arc centers or holes where possible. With the new hole feature it seems I can use those points to create all the holes I need in one feature which suits me fine. Better still in NX-6 I'm told that we'll be able to mate a set of fasteners to that as an array.
We use tubes on an axis to make holes in styled plastic parts for the automotive industry, where there is seldom any planar reference to set up a hole to.. The axis in space based on a curve is probably as good as anything if you need to create a hole in space as it were. At the end of the day unless you're threading these holes there's probably no real harm in it.
That's my tuppence worth
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Dimo,
Don't take it just from John. I second the vote for what sweep can do. There are some things about it that you would intuitively expect to be different, but others that are so powerful that they'll surprise you, once you figure out how to use them. I think there probably ought to be more and better examples of sweep in the standard documentation.
I finally got around to modeling the twisted rope the other day using sweep and law curves. That is a very neat trick, seldom all that useful but still pretty cool.
John,
Split bodies without losing parameters! Great idea probably about time. I used always extract a body at timestamp and trim either half Had I need of this kind of function. I presume that the new feature should have a timestamp option in it somewhere in that case.
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Sounds fine to me maybe even better this way. Speaking from mainly pre-NX-5 experience of extract body, you needed to be sure to check the timestamp option in order to stop your extract marching ahead of any future operations performed on the parent body. In this case the timestamp extraction was not the default to my occasional distaste as I would on the whole have preferred the opposite behavior to be controlled as you describe the same way as any other feature.
Best Regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Do u have anything to say for my question?
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I personally feel it would benefit more users to have the ability to customize those MB3 object specific menus rather than have a single command added. That way, everyone can have what they may want available. Whether that's possible or not, I have no idea.
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
With software, ANYTHINGS possible!
However, while this might be theoretically true, in this case it would be VERY difficult to implement, at least based on how we generate those MB3 pop-ups now.
You see, they don't actually exist as identifiable records which could be edited, either manually or by using some sort of on-the-fly 'Customize' scheme, like can be done with the MB3 View Pop-Up. Rather there is a simple general purpose mechanism which, depending on what type of object is being highlighted, will produce, on the fly, the relevant MB3 options to place in the pop-up menu, and if availble, the Radial Pop-Up icons. The problem is that until you push down on the MB3 button the software doesn't really know what it's going to do, but as soon as you do, a code event is triggered that looks at the object type being highlighted and looks up what relevant operations can you perform and populates the list of items to display all in the blink of an eye. The problem with customizing this is where do I go to add my customized actions and how do I allow for the idea that a future change won't step on my choice of the 8 available icon spots.
That being said, we have for NX 6 decided that while we can't give you access to the object specific pop-ups, that we could just give the user some general purpose ones, simiar to the MB3 View Radial Icon pop-up, that you can do with as you wish. So for NX 6 we have added 3 of these 8 icon mouse-button initiated pop-ups for a total of 24 instantly accessable icons of your choice.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I remember that about half way through this post Tim and I were tossing round a few similar ideas based on a slightly different key combination. Then I thought that it ran into a brick wall with the need to support mouse based rotations. I doubt it was exactly the same proposal, but I'm happy that it will to fruition eventually.
Pity you can't squeeze it into a later incarnation of NX-5, since GM will probably hold most of us back for a good while, not having even gone over yet. If the current situation repeats it'll be NX-8 before we get to use it much.
Best regards
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I can't speak for GM, but I suspect from what we know about how the situation evolved which they are in now with the NX 3 to NX 5 'Block Point', that we would hope that it will never again be this protracted in the future. But who knows?
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
So I have another one. This time it's about drafting.
1) I think it would be good when I change the sheet size - drawing borders to get changed too.
2) I see that there is an additional category for part list in the part navigator. So is it possible to make additional category for title block?
For examle look Autodesk Inventor. ;)
Regards: Dimo Urumov
Aircraft Engineer
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I think this is a glaring inconsistency, the radial menu should allow make-displayed-part on the current work part.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
This has been supported since V17.0 using the MB3 Pop-Up dialog, and since NX 3 using BOTH the MB3 Pop-Up and the radial pop-up.
The issue is that when the Assembly is the Working Part, the selection 'preferences' cause Components to be selected ahead of other objects so if you just perform a single pick the Component is almost always what gets selected. That's why it's easy to just double-click the Component to set it to be the Work Part. However, once a Component has been set to the be the Work Part, the selection 'preferences' are adjusted so that now, if you're cursor is over the 'work part', that you now going to be picking edges, faces, bodies, curves, etc. just as if you were NOT working in the context of an assembly. But we still allow you to select the Work Part 'component' just that you'll need to either change your selection preference to Components or else you'll need to use QuickPick and if you do, the Component will be LAST on the list (now you can help that by once the QuickPick list comes up, you select the Component sub-filter) and if you select that and then press MB3 you'll get either the pop-up dialog or the radial icons, and one of the options will be 'Make Displayed Part'.
See, that wasn't so hard now was it?
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Say you have the history tab/palette open, there are quite a few parts in there, showing previews for each one. To find the part wanted you scroll with the mouse wheel up or down. Instead of scrolling in visually smooth steps, we get a dissorientating mess!
As I said, not a biggie but just brings down the quality of the user interface.
NX5 btw.
Katt.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
As far as I know it is more customizable. It's open and programmers can use all OS resources. But the companies avoid it because:
1) There must be additional employee education.
2) NX for Linux is more expensive.
PS: This thread seem to me quite long and hard traceable. Perhaps it's time for "Items UG needs to fix 2!!"
Regards: Dimo Urumov
Aircraft Engineer
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
We fully support Linux, and with NX 6, MAC OS (on Intel) as well.
But our policy has ALWAYS been 'Platform of Choice', but it's NOT our choice, it's the customer's CHOICE!
I've been using Unigraphics/NX for over 30 years (31 years this coming July, to be exact) and the software has always been available on multiple platforms. In the early days, on RDOS (Data General) and RX11/M (DEC), and later on AOS-VS (Data General), VMS (DEC), VM/CMS (IBM) and much later on UNIX (lots of people), Ultrix (DEC), AIX (IBM) and then of course, Windows and now Linux, and as mentioned above, the most recent is MAC OS (Apple) and in each case, we were supplying virtually the same functionality with full interoperabilty in that part files could be moved from system to system with no conversion needed.
I once did a demo (when I was still with sales) on 3 different platforms in the course of one afternoon. I started on Data General, then moved to a DEC system and then to an IBM (note that these were all mainframes) and finally ending back up on the Data General system all to prove a point that it didn't matter where you started your project or where is was worked on in between, that if was all the same software and everything was compatiable.
2) NX for Linux is more expensive.
That is totally, 100% FALSE!
We have only one price for software, maintenance and online media (documentation subscriptions, computer-assisted training, etc.) irrespective of the platform that it's being installed on. That has always been our policy and as far as I know, it will always be.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Given your experiences using the software on different platforms, what would you say is the best platform to use with NX? Does it run better on MAC as opposed to Windows?
Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare. - Robert Hunter
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I have always been a big fan of the Mac. Back when I was still with the sales organization I made some of the very first sales calls that we made to Apple, back when they were first showing off the Lisa and their headquaters was a typical spec-built industrial park type building in Cupertino. Apple purchased their first seats of Unigraphics shortly before the Mac was introduced, and have been using UG/NX ever since.
Personally, I bought my first Mac in 1984 and have owned at least a dozen differnt models over the years. Currently I have a G4 iBook which I honestly don't use as much as I used to ever since the company brought me the Dell M65 laptop that I now use here and on the road. However, when at home doing 'my own thing', I have a Dual G5 1.8GHz 'tower' with 2GB memory, plus all the typical items tied to it; high-res (4000dpi) Canon Film Scanner, Epson 4800dpi flatbed scanner, 8-color Epson Photo Printer, DVD-burner, external archive storage unit (as you may have guessed, I do a lot of photo work), however since it's not Intel based I don't have NX installed on it. However, when we first prototyped a Mac G4/G5 version of NX 4 I did install it on my iBook and did some testing and even a couple of early demos, but our intentions all along was to put our effort into an Intel version of the code, which we released with NX 5.
Now for the 'issue' that I have with all this.
I've been using NX on Windows now for so long that I'm sort of 'spoiled' in the sense that while I'm NO fan of Microsoft or Windows, it certainly runs very well under Windows XP and everything works together and so on, that when I sit down and run Linux it just feels like I've gone back to an older 'Unix' era. Unfortunately, the Mac implementation uses the same 'Windows-like' interface as does Linux.
But if you're asking me what would be the perfect combination, I would say a new Apple MacBook Pro, with both the Mac OS & Windows XP installed using something like 'Boot Camp' and then installing a Windows version of NX.
Now the reason why I don't do all my demos on such a configuration is, as you might suspect, a combination of things. First, our corporate standard for laptops is Dell, and second, using a configuration like that as a representative of our company could prove to be problematic since while this setup does work and works really well (at last year's UGS Connection (AKA, PLM World) there was at least one non-Siemens presenter who did just that and he just loves it, and it looked and ran great), it would not be 'politically correct', as it were.
So unless there was some 'religious' or national security reason, I would at the moment lean toward Wthe Window versions of NX, but I would love to be running them on Apple boxes and not just because they're designed using NX, but because they LOOK GREAT and run really FAST.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
They need control of their source code. Now what I mean by that is "NX5.0.1.4 MP5 patch a" for example. I don't think patch 'a' exists but humor me on this. NX5.0.1.4 MP5 is newer then 5.0.2.2 MP2 and 5.0.3.2. When you go up to another version, things are broken that once was fixed. Things that worked now is broken, and worst of all the MP5 version may change code that 5.0.2.2 does not, so when you upgrade, you may be left in a hybrid configuration. Meaning MP5 fixes a library and 5.0.2.2 did not, so what version are you running? 5.0.2.2? not really you need to explain to GTAC how you upgraded since the files would be laid out differently.
If a smaller release number gets maintenance pack, the same day every other version of NX on up needs to have a MP released that has the new fixes in it. Honestly the patches and releases are not of good quality either. No one would ever run a 5.0.0.24 version, a 5.0.3 may be the first real release to start to look at it. The goal should be an IRM is the last resort,
That's my frustration.
-Dave Tolsma
http://groups.google.com/group/NX_CAX/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
And because we continue to 'patch' older versions of the code than the latest 'MR' (Maintenace Release), there will be situations where fixes HAVE been included in a 'patch' for a so-called 'older' version that may not yet be in either the current MR or even in an 'MP' for a more recent MR, including the current one. I'm sorry, but that's just the way software development and maintenance programs work in the real world. The only alternative would be to halt 100% all work on fixing bugs in ANY release older than the current 'MR', which would be both a foolish, if not nieve, position to take, to say nothing of being unacceptable to a large number of our customers who, for whatever reason, is not able to install and update software on the same schedule as we release it (trust me, life would be SO MUCH SIMPILER if that WAS the case).
As for newer patches developed for older versions not being compatible with upgrades for newer versions, I believe that we cavet those exact situations in the field bulletins that accompany any of these items, be they MP's, MR's or whatever.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Simon W
Group CAD Manager
JCB
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
We rolled out NX5 a few months ago and it is improved in every imaginable way. The development team did a very good job with this release.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Currently if you go back to modify the whole and try to change the type it is greyed out.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Another thing I would like to see in future releases/updates is the ability to pattern with different pitches/angles. For example if you want to radially pattern a hole 10deg for one, then 20deg, then 15deg, etc... or a rect. pattern at .25, then .125, then .5 etc...
Currently the only way to do this is with the Clock command but I think doing this up front is a lot easier (plus you can do it in I-Deas :) )
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Now if you willing to not have the convenince of making a single selection (you'll have to select each point indivually, but they can still be part of single hole feature) you can also use the Insert -> Datum/Point -> Point Set... command to create a series of points based on some user defined scheme. Granted this set of points is not parametric nor assoicative, but it's is usable within those limitations.
However, that will NOT be the case in NX 6 where we will be updating the Point Set command so that it too will now be fully parametric and associative and it will also then act like a 'Sketch of points' or an 'Instance Set' of points behave in NX 5 in that if you edit the 'Point Set' be it to add or remove points or change the rules, that they hole feature will update to reflect that change as well.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
I am curious to see the new point set command, but as it is it still doesn't look like it will easily do what I want.
On a side note, I do love the way you can use the Instance Geometry command to create a "twisted array" by using a combination of angle and distance.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Mike
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
It is impossible to open file with filename different from latin. It is problem with automatic naming using part names with non-latin symbols.
It is problem with surface finish symbols. I'm trying to customize the pulldown menu and to have automatic bulgarian names for Production process. But When I restart NX to activate the new customer defaults (as you can see in the applied files) there are some strage "monkey" symbols.
So there is a lot of things to do, to make NX more applicable for international users.
Regards: Dimo Urumov
Aircraft Engineer
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
We're aware of this limitation and I think it's being addressed in NX 6, but I don't a confirmation yet, but I hope to have more info by tomorrow (the guy responsible for this dialog works in our India R&D site and I've asked him to get back to me on it, but it may a couple of hours yet before I can expect an reply, but if I hear anything I'll let you know.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
1) Try this
i) Create block
ii) Select hole command
iii) Next, in the positioning method select Perpendicular dimension icon, click block edge.
iv) Now again select Perpendicular dimension icon and select the SAME EDGE, to create second dimension.
v) You can now MB3 the hole feature and select Edit Positioning to see TWO OVERLAPPING DIMENSIONS FROM SAME EDGE!!, in fact ug tells that the positioning is fully specified!
I feel ug should be smart enough, not to allow such duplicate dimensions from the same reference, or at least it should pop up a message saying that you have already given that dimension (like in sketcher dimensioning).
2)When you select horizontal (vertical) positioning dimensioning icon (e.g. positioning a hole), ug will ask for horizontal reference. In the Horizontal Reference dialog the first option "End point" is totally misleading. It has to be renamed to "Linear Edge" instead, because the reference direction is the vector direction of the selected linear edge.
Version : UG NX 4.0.4.2
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
http://www.siemens.com/plm
http://www.plmworld.org/museum/
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
(2) When linking parameters and utilizing Product Interface, have the option (as a toggle) to only display parameters that are part of the Product Interface. This way you could rapidly see only the Product Interface-intended parameters.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
anybody explain to me, is the NX5.0.1.4 stable version? Sometimes it was "frozen", disappeared the working progress window etc... Try to fix it next qrm installing?
thx,
JR
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Cheers
Hudson
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
It is impossible use deformable parts with threads (all relases until NX6.0.0.25 MP1). UG cant work with those part corectly e.g.
Cylinder with thread. Cylinder lenght is deformable.
User can add part to assy only according to part orientation.
RE: Items UG needs to fix!!
Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.
www.enkei.com
Some people are like slinkies....they don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.