Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
(OP)
I know that this has been discussed before in several threads (such as thread561-199292: Unit on part list), but I still am having difficulty getting the mass of a component to display correctly in the Parts List of a drawing.
I'd like to be able to use the $MASS attribute available when using the weight in Part->File->Properties->Weight (Update on Save). Following the conventional approach of assigning the attribute <W$=@$MASS> to a column in the Parts List, the result shows up in units of grams, not kg.
I've tried recommendations I've seen in other postings such as:
<W$=@$MASS/1000> which results in a blank (nothing displayed, even after I update the list)
and
<W$=@$MASS>/1000 which results in a strange string composed of the part mass in grams concatenated with what looks to be some form of a part ID and the text "/100".
I've also tried:
<W$=(@$MASS/1000)>
and
<W$=@($MASS/1000)>
and
<W$=@$(MASS/1000)>
all of which result in blank output.
So, any suggestions? Thank you.
I'd like to be able to use the $MASS attribute available when using the weight in Part->File->Properties->Weight (Update on Save). Following the conventional approach of assigning the attribute <W$=@$MASS> to a column in the Parts List, the result shows up in units of grams, not kg.
I've tried recommendations I've seen in other postings such as:
<W$=@$MASS/1000> which results in a blank (nothing displayed, even after I update the list)
and
<W$=@$MASS>/1000 which results in a strange string composed of the part mass in grams concatenated with what looks to be some form of a part ID and the text "/100".
I've also tried:
<W$=(@$MASS/1000)>
and
<W$=@($MASS/1000)>
and
<W$=@$(MASS/1000)>
all of which result in blank output.
So, any suggestions? Thank you.





RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
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/
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
I don't know why the $MASS attribute comes into the drawing in grams even though the part is in KG, but that's the way it is. In order to have the Parts List show mass in KG, I had to do a couple of things:
After selecting the appropriate column in the Parts List, Edit Style and enable the interpretation of the cells "as formula". Then you can go back and enter
<W$=@$MASS>/1000
and the cells will calculate and display correctly. One also needs to set the decimal places to what is desired.
I learned a couple other useful things:
* To change the text size of the Parts List cells (ie: not just the header row, but all the cells) one selects each column and changes the text height to the desired value.
* For some reason, if you insert a row above/below the header, and you want to subsequently want to remove that row (which is now part of the header, not part of the parts list body), it seems that "delete" and "cut" don't do the job. To remove the extra row, I had to individually select each columnar pair in the header and do a "merge cells". Not sure if this is by design or not but the workaround seems work fine.
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
Now open the drawing and note the Parts List column for WEIGHT. The value shown there is in Kg.
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/
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
Thanks for the example files and the description. Is the approach you demonstrated here considered to be the "best practice" method for handling weight in the parts list?
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
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/
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
For assemblies, then, do you select all assembly bodies in the associative Body Measurement? This measurement would then need to be manually updated if new components were added to the assembly, right?
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
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/
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
nx5.0.4.1
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
NX6 gives you the OPTION of having a feature tree or no feature tree.
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: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
Why when I used your example and did a hole on it, the weight did not update?
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
I noticed on a different part, using this "Measure Body" technique suggested by John, that the mass on the drawing sheet didn't auto-update until I manually updated the Sheet.
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
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/
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
Could go a long way towards preventing simple screw-ups (since the INTENT of using the feature in this way is to always report the final mass...)
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
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/
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
In your example, housing.prt, is there a way you can round down the weight to display to only 1 or 2 decimal places ??
RE: Mass, with correct units, in Parts List
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/
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.