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How to keep NX from renumbering Features?

How to keep NX from renumbering Features?

How to keep NX from renumbering Features?

(OP)
This question comes from the I-Deas world. In I-deas features would hold and keep the value after the feature. For example extrude 185 would always be extrude 185 until it got renamed. In NX these numbers that are assigned to features are changing constantly. Is there a setting that can be changed to keep NX from Changing this number when modifications happen to the model? The reason for this is to be able to compare the modified model history to an older revision of the same part. So if some sketches change that was not excepcted one can go back in the old model and do a search for the sketch 345 and it could be found in the older model.

RE: How to keep NX from renumbering Features?

As a good practice tip i try to do an undo instead of an delete every time i need to make corrections in my model, when building up from scratch. This keeps the sequence of the numbering. I know it's not always possible especially when working on older models for making changes; but it's sufficient. All my features and parameter numbers stay in the right order.

Best regards,

Michaël.

NX7.5.4.4 + TC Unified 8.3
Win 7 64 bit (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5650 @2.67GHz)
24.0 GB
NVIDIA Quadro 4000 + NVIDIA Tesla C2050

RE: How to keep NX from renumbering Features?

(OP)
The changes I am working on are concept models at this time. Many Many changes are happening. The result that I am after is if a extrude, sketch ETC. failed and I did not know what happened I could copy the feature number for Example exturde 345 and be able to search for that same extrude in an older revision of the same part. I really do not care about the sequence of the numbers. The models I am working on are 500 or so feature longs.

In I-Deas the work flow would be a feature would have an epic fail. One goes into the extrude and the wireframe has no gone nuts. So I go into the old revision of the part do a search for that same extrude and look to how the model was designed at the begining. It is the search for the same features from one revision to another revision I am looking for.

Thanks for suggestions.

RE: How to keep NX from renumbering Features?

Hi,
Sorry I am not aware if it can be done via part navigator but in case you are working on concept parts (not assemblies) then you may try EXPORT /PART with retain all parameters.You will see that the new part containing this exported feature history will have it in proper order.
Best Regards
Kapil Sharma

RE: How to keep NX from renumbering Features?

If you have 2 files (current version and earlier version) you can use the expressions to relate features. The feature numbers get reordered/renamed but the expression numbers remain the same. If an extrude goes haywire in the new part, look up the expression p-number then in the older part search for the p-number and it will tell you what extrude feature uses it. This works well for most features; however, some features do not use expressions (such as booleans). In this case you can usually find the parent feature (extrude, revolve, etc) and use its p-number then base your search on that. It is probably more cumbersome than the Ideas method, but it does work.

www.nxjournaling.com

RE: How to keep NX from renumbering Features?

(OP)
Great thanks for the suggestion. I was really struggling with this workflow in NX versus I-Deas. I will try out the mentioned suggestions and go from there. Thanks again

RE: How to keep NX from renumbering Features?

Generally speaking, the timestamp 'number' on the feature is just that, a 'timestamp', and they do NOT change unless you do a 'Reorder'. Granted, if you delete the last feature in the tree and then create a new feature, the new feature will have the next number AFTER the feature that you just deleted. In other words, the system does NOT go back and try to fill 'holes', once a 'timestamp' number has been used it will NOT be reused until a 'Reorder' operation is perfromed. And to reinforce what I mean about this 'number' being only used for 'timestamp' purposes, if you were to work in the 'History-Free' mode, there wouldn't be any 'numbers' at all, since by definition, there are no 'timestamps' in the 'History-Free' mode.

So the bottom line is that the 'number' that you see after a feature in the Part Navigator is NOT really part of the 'name' of the feature, it merely indicates the order in which the feature will be updated.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
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To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

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