Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
(OP)
Hi,
Is there any way to assign filter parts based on their names, so that only they show up in the modeling window, and everything else is hidden, so that I can select all of them and assign a color? So forth for all components?
Also is it possible to control SHOW/HIDE components in the assembly from the ASSEMBLY NAVIGATOR spreadsheet?
Or is there an easier work-flow for doing this?
My situation:
-----------------
My customer gave me a large assembly and an EXCEL sheet with all the parts list / materials in the assembly.
Now he wants me to assign Individual colors to parts. (Ex. All CARBON STEEL parts in GREEN color, PLASTIC parts in BLUE color etc.)
I have 8 occurrences of part ABC, 2 occurrences of part DEF in the assembly and so on...
It is time consuming to assign colors individually to parts.
-----------------
Please note that saving the assembly is not possible as they are already in RELEASED condition.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in adv.
-----------------
Running Nx 8 / TCE 8 on Win 7
Is there any way to assign filter parts based on their names, so that only they show up in the modeling window, and everything else is hidden, so that I can select all of them and assign a color? So forth for all components?
Also is it possible to control SHOW/HIDE components in the assembly from the ASSEMBLY NAVIGATOR spreadsheet?
Or is there an easier work-flow for doing this?
My situation:
-----------------
My customer gave me a large assembly and an EXCEL sheet with all the parts list / materials in the assembly.
Now he wants me to assign Individual colors to parts. (Ex. All CARBON STEEL parts in GREEN color, PLASTIC parts in BLUE color etc.)
I have 8 occurrences of part ABC, 2 occurrences of part DEF in the assembly and so on...
It is time consuming to assign colors individually to parts.
-----------------
Please note that saving the assembly is not possible as they are already in RELEASED condition.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in adv.
-----------------
Running Nx 8 / TCE 8 on Win 7





RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
But back to your question, there is the ability to apply filters, or what is now called groups, based on certain criteria such as size, attributes, names, etc. but it requires an Advanced Assemblies license and besides, once you've defined these 'groups' you still have to save something or else it's all for naught.
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: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
Khimani Mohiki
Design Engineer - Aston Martin
NX8.5
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
But this is for just a report generation or whatever at the customer end. We are to assign colors to parts based on their materials, generate screenshots of sub-assemblies for the report, and then leave the assembly *unsaved*.
Yes, I get it that, we can do this by assigning different component groups. But still it is **time consuming**, as we have around 65 materials encompassing 600 different parts of varying quantities that fall under different sub-assemblies. Not to mention there are 9 humongous assemblies like this in the pipeline.
Spreadsheet (MS-Excel) can efficiently filter out components.
I am in search of work-flow which can assign colors to components in assembly, once I color them out in the corresponding filtered cells of "Assembly navigator WORKSHEET".
Any ideas?
Thanks in adv.
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
Mike Hyde
www.astonmartin.com
NX8.5 with TC9.1
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
Oops! I found out that we do not have Visual Reporting license.
@KhimaniMohiki
Thats interesting! Worth a try.
Any scripting / programming would be nice.
Thx all.
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
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: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
Time to fetch a VISUAL REPORTING license!
But I just found out the materials have not been properly assigned to parts I've been working on...
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
Just a weird Idea... Is it possible to add CSV (comma-separated values) of plain text to Component grouping? See the attached image plz...
Thx in advance..
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
This new top assy can be saved as you desire without modifying the customer assembly.
2) the color of an object is a so called "display attribute" and can be changed in the displayed part. - You are in other words free to assign new colors to the components in the new top-assy without modifying the original piece part / assembly.
3) Bribe Cowski
Regards,
Tomas
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
@Cowski!!
We are waiting!!!
Thanks all for the eplies
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
If so, what does the excel file look like? What column holds the component name? Does this name match the file name or assigned name of the component in NX? What column is the color information in? Is it an NX color index, RGB values, color name (red, blue, yellow, etc), or something else?
Also, what version of NX are you using?
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
Thx you are here.
You are exactly right!
Part numbers match exactly with the spreadsheet. Not so with Part descriptions and Materials assigned to individual parts. They, in some cases match and others don't match with Spreadsheet. Colors primarily are RGB colors.
Please see the attached Picture.
There is an assembly with lot of sub-assemblies including parts of different materials, and we have instructions not to save this working assembly.
This is presented in a Spreadsheet BOM as seen in the uploaded picture. Each material has been assigned an unique color.
Earlier my work flow was like this:
1. Open the main assembly and load all the components.
2. Search in the spreadsheet for a particular part number and select the color of the Material cell and assign it to the part (Ctrl+J).
3. Repeat this for ALL THE INSTANCES OF THE PART, inside many sub-assemblies, strewn all over the main assembly.
4. Do this for all the parts in the main assembly.
After KhimaniMohiki suggested an alternative method, I revised my workflow.
1. I created a dummy assembly and created COMPONENT GROUPS of all the materials in the BOM, which I can paste in the assembly which I am working on.
2. Then I would manually drag the components into the corresponding material COMPONENT GROUP, and assign the material color, by putting off every other COMPONENT GROUPS, and enabling only this COMPONENT GROUP.
The problem I face is that I cannot add a bunch of PART NUMBERS into a COMPONENT GROUP, in one go. We are adding it one at a time, which is time-consuming.
I wish it is like this: FILTER Part numbers based on their MATERIAL from the spreadsheet and create a CSV or Text files of this filtered part numbers, ready to be fed into INDIVIDUAL COMPONENT GROUPS.
I think that RGB values is the way to go!
It would be helpful, if this can be resolved.
Running Nx 8 on Win 7 / TCE 8 here
Thanks in advance..
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
If I understand correctly, the journal could find the component and change its color based on the excel file. I see no need to create component groups unless you need them for some other reason...
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
Yes!! It can be close. There would not be any legibility in the report after all.
"If I understand correctly, the journal could find the component and change its color based on the excel file. I see no need to create component groups unless you need them for some other reason..."
Yipee!!!
Thx..
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
You will need to change the column and colorColumnOffset values in lines 95 and 97 to match the structure of your excel file. The column value is the column that holds the component part name information and the colorColumnOffset should point to the column that holds the desired color information. If the part names are in column C and the color info is in column E, then column = 3 and colorColumnOffset = 2.
I don't guarantee it to be bug-free, so let me know how it goes...
component_color_from_excel.vb
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
Huge thanks for your effort...
Will check it and post feedback..
Thx again
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Nx Hide/ SHOW, COLOR filter etc.
It really surprised me that you were eagerly waiting for my feedback.
Had to work in Dassault systemes CATIA for a month for project requirements and am literally on a tight schedule...It works really well for small assemblies I tested. But couldn't put my hands on very big assemblies. But I hope it will surely work...
Thx a ton 4 the efforts. You always extend the functionality of a software triplefold with your programming skills.
Will definitely post a field-tested feedback in the last week of june...