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* some setting avialable

* some setting avialable

* some setting avialable

(OP)
In a division of our company -switchted to nx7 and are using position constrains. The trouble is: In their design they only use constraints only for standard part. All the other parts a positioned absolute. With the new constraints - bidirectional- using from standard part to the absolute not fixed part the part are moving to the position of the standard part used. This was no problem with mating conditons. From to mated ... the second selected part was the fixed one. Is there any setting to control this behaviour?
 - solve this problem with the position contraints to absolute positioned parts? thx in ad

RE: * some setting avialable

With Mating Conditions all parts positioned relative to some X,Y,X origin were, by definition, considered to be 'Fixed' relative to other components 'mated' to it even though that was not descernable by looking at a list of constraints or even querying the model.  Also note that once some other component was mated to this original component that there was no way to change that condition without deleting the Mating Conditions.  Also the user had NO control over which parts were considered 'fixed' and which one were not except by the order in which the Mating Conditions were assgined and which was selected first versus second in the pick sequence.

However, with Assembly Constraints the concept of a 'Fixed' constraint is fully supported like any other constraint allowing users to apply, edit and delete it at will and to also no longer be forced to follow a certain order or pattern of working in order to get a certain outcome.

Now it would appear that in your situation, if the, I assume, 'large' components are being positioned relative to some absolute CSYS and the intention is that they stay where they're at, that you need to apply an explicit 'Fixed' constraint on each one.  Now you can either do this as you're placing these 'large' components, add the 'Fixed' constraint later or if your workflow is such that ALL of these 'large' components have already been placed BEFORE you start to add the 'smaller' Standard Parts, you could write a simple program which could be run at this point creating all of the 'Fixed' constraints at once.

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: * some setting avialable

(OP)
thx John on reply,
was even my solution ,users reply was "nice feature" we have extra work compared to the old.
...you could write a simple program which could be run at this point creating all of the 'Fixed' constraints at once.
- Can you give me some advice - which level journal or macro? - maybe do have one?
thx
 

RE: * some setting avialable

I don't have one, but anyone familiar with NX Open (which except for GRIP, I'm not) could do so in relatively short order.

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: * some setting avialable

Are you running a 32 or 64 bit version of NX (I've got someone looking at whipping up a simple program for you)?

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: * some setting avialable

(OP)
We have a mixed environment win xp 32 and Win 7 64 bit.
thx in ad

RE: * some setting avialable

OK, I have a manual workflow which you might wish to try.  After you have placed all of the 'large' component relative to absolute but before you start to add the 'standard parts', go in and apply a 'Fix' constraint to one of these components.  Now go back into Assembly Constraints, select the Constraint type 'Bond', change the Selection Filter to 'Component' and do a 'Select All', push the Green 'Create Constraint' button and then hit OK.

What this will do is effectively 'Fix' all of the components relative to absolute.  The reason I went the 'Bond' route is because it's a constraint type which allows multiple components to be positioned at the some time with only a single operation.

Anyway, give it shot and see if this helps.  I'll still pass along the program that applies a 'Fix' to all components since that will make it easier to remove and then move one component at a time if that's something that you may need to do later.

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: * some setting avialable

(OP)
thx John,
that was even the workaround I thought off.
What about subassembly levels should I fix - bond them,too?
To solve this, we should have an option for auto fix in absolute positioning.
thx

RE: * some setting avialable

At the top-level Assembly, if you 'Fix' the Component representing the sub-assembly all of the internal Components will behave as if they were also 'Fixed', relative to that top-level, even if some of the later standard parts are constrained relative to the Components within the sub-assembly.  Unless overridden, Constraints (legacy Mating or the latest Assembly Constraints) are only 'active' at the level at which they are being applied.

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: * some setting avialable

OK, attached are two programs, one as a VB Journal file and the other as a compiled DLL, which will apply a 'Fixed' constraint to any unconstrained Component in the current Work part.  There's no interaction, just execute it and you'll get a summary of what happened at the end.

After downloading the attached file, edit the .zipper extension to .zip before attempting to extract the files.

Anyway, see if this helps with your workflow.

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: * some setting avialable

(OP)
Thank you, John
great - hope it will help the users
 

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