Assembly Component management
Assembly Component management
(OP)
I am investigating whether it is possible in NX to get the same functionality that we currently get in Inventor from the use of Levels of Detail (LoD).
So each assembly can have a number of LoDs assigned to it which control what components or sub-assemblies are active or suppressed.
As a basic example, every assembly has 2 LoDs called Master (everything active) & Detail Suppressed (all minor components are suppressed). Where an assembly has a sub-assembly, the sub-assembly Detail Suppressed LoD can be called up.
This means that when a top level assembly is opened up in its Detail Suppressed LoD, all minor components at all levels of the assembly are suppressed. There is the additional functionality that lets different LoDs to be selected; so it is possible to see the detailed interaction between 2 sub-assemblies without changing the display anywhere else.
I can get some similar functionality by using layers but unlike Inventor I can't see how I can easily change a sub-assembly to Master without affecting the whole group.
Can anyone give me some pointers as to what I need to do?
So each assembly can have a number of LoDs assigned to it which control what components or sub-assemblies are active or suppressed.
As a basic example, every assembly has 2 LoDs called Master (everything active) & Detail Suppressed (all minor components are suppressed). Where an assembly has a sub-assembly, the sub-assembly Detail Suppressed LoD can be called up.
This means that when a top level assembly is opened up in its Detail Suppressed LoD, all minor components at all levels of the assembly are suppressed. There is the additional functionality that lets different LoDs to be selected; so it is possible to see the detailed interaction between 2 sub-assemblies without changing the display anywhere else.
I can get some similar functionality by using layers but unlike Inventor I can't see how I can easily change a sub-assembly to Master without affecting the whole group.
Can anyone give me some pointers as to what I need to do?
Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK





RE: Assembly Component management
-Dave
NX 9, Teamcenter 10
RE: Assembly Component management
"Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively."
-Dalai Lama XIV
RE: Assembly Component management
So, as an example, I've got a 3 tier assembly and the bottom level has a step made with steel grating and also a simplified block model of the grating.
I have created a reference set in the bottom level called Grating Hidden.
I have also created a grating set in the middle level called Grating Hidden
Now in the middle level I can right click on the bottom level and Replace Reference Set to Grating Hidden but I can't see a way to get the bottom level Grating Hidden be called up by the middle level Grating Hidden.
Seems to be stuck on single level operation.
Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK
RE: Assembly Component management
Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK
RE: Assembly Component management
want to see on the top level you need
only to right click the component on
The top level and choose the refset you designed
Comp top refset xxx
Comp under it refset yyy
Comp under it refset zzz
So if you choose refset xxx
You see refset yyy which see refset xxx
RE: Assembly Component management
Also, when in an assembly, how do I know what has is going to be displayed in a Reference Set?
Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK
RE: Assembly Component management
Here atached my example
To see the refsets expand comp_b and right click comp_a to see its refsets
RE: Assembly Component management
Best not to define reference sets at the assembly level that hide components, they should be defined at the part level. Reference sets are good if you what to show a component represented in two different ways e.g a component part with many holes could have two reference sets, one called detailed that shows the holes and one called simple that does not show the holes.
NX 9.0.3.4 mp12, TC 10.1
RE: Assembly Component management
I am trying to find a suitable solution for top level models that are likely to be in the order of 250k components which are parts of assemblies that have large numbers of layers and are significantly intertwined.
Creating arrangements for every assembly level is not a viable solution in the design process as it will significantly increase the workload.
What I need is a solution that is as good if not better than the Levels of Detail functionality that we are currently using in Inventor. This allows us to have a Detail Suppressed 'arrangement' to be created for every level of an assembly with higher levels calling on the Detail Suppressed arrangement of lower levels so there is no requirement for the high level 'arrangements' to be edited when the lower levels are changed.
Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK
RE: Assembly Component management
See the pic for clarification. DET for details, DETSUP for details suppressed.
http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=2...
RE: Assembly Component management
Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK
RE: Assembly Component management
Creating arrangements with the same name in the top level and all sub-assys won't make it work alone. When you change the top level arrangement, you have to change the sub-assy arrangement as well. Now when you have once shown which sub-assy arrangement should be used in which top level arrangement, NX will remember it next time.
Component suppression should be done by the sub-assy and not by the top level to avoid the update/maintenance issue you mentioned earlier.
I might be able to help if you need assistance in making an example assembly with this method.
RE: Assembly Component management
You can also try using saving your assembly as bookmark.
Then opening bookmark instead of part
Regards
Didier Psaltopoulos
http://www.psi-cad.fr