Internal Spreadsheet Question
Internal Spreadsheet Question
(OP)
So I have used the internal spreadsheet to bring in part attributes, then make calculations based on that attribute. My question is, I now want to bring that calculated value into an expression, I am not sure how to read values from the internal spreadsheet? I tried using the path to the ug.xla but it gives me a memory error. Any ideas?





RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
It might help to understand that the 'internal' spreadsheet is just a scheme to use Excel as 'user inteface' to record and manipulate expression values and then those results are passed back to NX and the content of the spreadsheet is saved in a data record inside the NX part file. Therefore, except then the spreadsheet is actually open, there is NO spreadsheet to 'link' to.
Now please do not confuse this with the Expression system functions used with spreadsheets since these are intended to work with an 'external' Excel spreadsheet, which is NOT and can NOT be the 'interna'l spreadsheet.
John R. Baker, P.E.
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RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
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: Internal Spreadsheet Question
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
Now create your equations which do whatever you're doing and when you have the result that you want go back to those expression entries and set the 'date' express equal to your result. Now go back to the 'Add-Ins' tab and select the 'Update NX Part' item, at which point your part will update. Now exit Excel making user to say 'Yes' to saving your spreadsheet data, and when you're back in the NX part you expression(s) will have been updated based on the spreadsheet.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
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: Internal Spreadsheet Question
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
That being said, note that for NX 7.5 we have added a new capability where you can set up a parametric model in NX and then via the expression system pass values to a math-based 'spreadsheet-like' computational engine where it would automatically perform whatever you had programmed it to do and then return values back to NX as if it were a built-in function of NX, which could then cause your model to update using these new calculated values.
For this 'computational math engine' we have chosen to interface NX to the Maple product from Maplesoft Inc. Now we are NOT including Maple with NX 7.5, but rather are providing the interface (free of charge) however you will need to acquire a copy of Maple yourself from Maplesoft Inc. For more information about Maple, go to:
http://www.maplesoft.com/products/Maple/index.aspx
Anyway, this will expand significantly the types of 'problems' for which the solutions to can be fully imbedded inside an NX design model.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
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: Internal Spreadsheet Question
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
It would be a substantial benefit if a similar capability would be provided for Matlab, in addition to Maple. Matlab is a very powerful and widely used (both in industry and in academia) mathematics software package.
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
That being said, there were other considerations which led to our choosing Maple, including both business and technical issues. While it might be true that Matlab has a larger presence in the industry, it turns out that their product is not considered to be the best or most comprehensive (we had access to some studies done at a university where Maple was compared to several other products and it was clear that it offered more in the long run). There were also business considerations and again the Maplesoft people proved to be more willing to work with us than did the others (in one case [not Matlab], we would have had to deal with a direct competitor and they told us to basically 'get lost').
So in the end, we based our decision on a combination of technical and business considerations, but not without first assuring ourselves that Maple would be more than adequate in providing the capabilities that we felt our customers would need in a package like this.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
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: Internal Spreadsheet Question
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
Expression Formula
EXCEL_LINK C:\Folders\Notes.xls"
NOTE1_IN 1
NOTE_1 if(NOTE1_IN = 1)(ug_cell_read(EXCEL_LINK,"A75"))Else("")
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
Mathcad is ~$1000; Matlab is ~$2000; not a huge difference in price really. (Of course you can inflate the cost by adding on options but the core functionality is all most people will ever use.)
@JohnRBaker,
You have other links to Matlab, for example, thru the NX Motion product, where Matlab can be used to provide control algorithms to motion simulations. I don't know if the work that's been done to make that happen would help in doing something similar to what's being done with Maple. At any rate, to the point about it being potentially confusing as far as which language (Maple or Matlab) to write the code in; NX already has set a precedent in this regard, by supporting a plethora of different scripting languages (Java, VB, C)...
RE: Internal Spreadsheet Question
Perhaps, but with languages the difference is really 'external' to NX whereas with one of these 'computational math engines', in order to make them truly effective for your typical engineering yet non-programming types, you have to provide an actual user interface with dialogs and such, and having virtually the same but different functions is always a source of confusion and additional complexity.
As for the cost of Maple, the latest version, Maple 14, lists for $1,895(USD) for a single-user commercial license for use in North America and most of Europe. For more information, go to:
http://www.maplesoft.com/
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
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.