Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
(OP)
Hello All
A bit of a long shot, but worth an ask. Our manufactuing eningeers have asked if it is possible for us to put the total perimeter and area of each of our sheet metal flat patterns on the drawings. I know we can use the measurement tools and area using curves etc, but this isn't ideal as it is fairly labour intensive. Therefore I was wondering if there might be journal ( oh hello Cowski) floating about that I could assign to a button that could out put this information either as an attribute or associative measurement that I could then add in to our drawing border. All our flat patterns live on layer 131 and are coloured pure blue.
Thanks in advance
Si
A bit of a long shot, but worth an ask. Our manufactuing eningeers have asked if it is possible for us to put the total perimeter and area of each of our sheet metal flat patterns on the drawings. I know we can use the measurement tools and area using curves etc, but this isn't ideal as it is fairly labour intensive. Therefore I was wondering if there might be journal ( oh hello Cowski) floating about that I could assign to a button that could out put this information either as an attribute or associative measurement that I could then add in to our drawing border. All our flat patterns live on layer 131 and are coloured pure blue.
Thanks in advance
Si
Best regards
Simon NX7.5.4.4 MP8 - TC 8 www.jcb.com





RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
I guess KF would be the way forward with this.
cheers
Si
Best regards
Simon NX7.5.4.4 MP8 - TC 8 www.jcb.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
What you do is to first create a new master template part file for use when creating Sheet Metal models. In this template file create a default 'Tab' feature (the size is not critical). Now create a 'Flat Solid' feature from this Tab and place it on some invisible Layer, but before you do that, using...
Analysis -> Measure face...
...with the 'Face Rule' set to 'Tangent Faces' and the 'Associative' option toggled ON, select the same face that you selected as the 'Stationary Face' when created the 'Flat Solid' feature. This will result in Area and Permimeter Expressions being created. Then create a pair of Attributes which reference these values. Now save this part and in the future use it as your template or 'start part' for when creating Sheet Metal models. You simply edit the default tab to whatever your desired size and then go from there adding tabs and other Sheet Metal features. Since the 'Flat Solid' is always the LAST feature in the tree and since the 'Measure Face' feature is after the Flat Solid feature it will update as features are added to the model (this is the problem which was addressed in NX 8.5 where the Associative Measurement results were NOT honoring the 'Face Rules' when additional faces were being added to a model).
Anyway, for those of you who are on NX 8.5, if you would like to give this a try, I've attached an example of what this template file would look like.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
I think a journal can be made to do what you want; unfortunately, I don't have that journal lying about at the moment.
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
The vast majority of our sheet metal parts have cut outs in them of some description.
Best regards
Simon NX7.5.4.4 MP8 - TC 8 www.jcb.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
All cut edges are important as they will use the manufacturing guys will use the infomration on the drawing for time/cost planning.
Cheers
Si
Best regards
Simon NX7.5.4.4 MP8 - TC 8 www.jcb.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
If not, what needs to be done differently?
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
Cheers
Si
Best regards
Simon NX7.5.4.4 MP8 - TC 8 www.jcb.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
- Create a flat solid
- switch to modeling, extract a face (tangent faces option) from the flat solid
- use the join face command on the extracted face (on same surface option)
This gives a single face that you can use for the associative face measure command. In the (admittedly simple) file I was working with it updated properly after changes were made (flanges added, cutouts added, etc).www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
BTW...
How do you reference expressions in an attribute that you can then place on a drawing? Say for example I create an associative face measurement, how do I pull the parameters in to an attribute?
Cheers
Si
Best regards
Simon NX7.5.4.4 MP8 - TC 8 www.jcb.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
Let's assume the measurement we want to assign to an attribute is expression p1; we'll need a name for a part attribute to hold the measurement value (I'll call it MEASURE) and an expression that will assign the value of p1 to MEASURE (I'll call it M1). Of course the names can be whatever you like.
- In the expression editor, create a user expression (M1).
- For M1's formula enter: ug_setPartAttrValue( "MEASURE", format("%f";p1) )
The part attribute may not automatically update when the part changes. If it doesn't you'll need to execute the command update for external change (in the tools menu).NX8 or higher will make this process much easier. It has tools to directly assign an expression value to an attribute (or vice versa) and the updating is taken care of automatically.
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
I have now got NX8.5 however your method doesn't take into account jsut the outside loop of curves, it will measure every single face edge. so when I put a flange on the tab the perimeter is 4 combined edge lengther more than is required. Am I missing a trick.
Si
Best regards
Simon NX 7.5.4.4 MP8 and NX 8.5 (native) - TC 8 www.jcb.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
I think my workaround posted on 8 Jan 13 11:05 would take care of your problem. You might even be able to skip the extract face step and just perform a "join face" on the flat solid then take the measurment from the resulting single face of interest (untested).
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
Cheers
Si
Best regards
Simon NX 7.5.4.4 MP8 and NX 8.5 (native) - TC 8 www.jcb.com
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
NX 8.0.3.4 mp2, TC 8.3
RE: Associative measurement of flat pattern perimeter and area
This is what we are doing already, but it is a pain in the @ss. In my opinion, the software should allow you time stamp the flat pattern where ever I want without having to link/extract at time stamp.
Best regards
Simon NX 7.5.4.4 MP8 and NX 8.5 (native) - TC 8 www.jcb.com