I am using the pattern feature command, with a triangle pattern inside of a boundary. What I'm looking for is a way to capture the total "count" that was created. It may have 100+ holes in the pattern, and I would like a way to verify how many the pattern feature created without having to count each holes. I thought it might store this in an expression, but I didn't see it. Any help would be great! thanks
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Feature pattern with boundary count
- Thread starter akparsley
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JohnRBaker
Mechanical
What version of NX are you running?
If you're only creating a pattern of a simple hole (consisting of a single face) you could set your 'Selection Filter' to 'Face' and then using the cursor, either rectangular or area select just the holes in the pattern and in the Que/Status line it will indicate how many faces were selected, as shown below and in the attached image:
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
If you're only creating a pattern of a simple hole (consisting of a single face) you could set your 'Selection Filter' to 'Face' and then using the cursor, either rectangular or area select just the holes in the pattern and in the Que/Status line it will indicate how many faces were selected, as shown below and in the attached image:
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
- Thread starter
- #4
JohnRBaker
Mechanical
There is no actual 'count value' since the number of features in the Pattern is derived, on-the-fly, based on the size and shape of the boundary curve, the stepover and margin distances, as well as the 'Layout' style used. Editing any one of these will change the number of 'instances' in the final Pattern.
As a slight modification to my original idea of using face selection to determine the number of instances, try this: Before creating your Pattern, add a point feature at the arc center of one the edges of the hole and include it when you select the features for the Pattern (select both the Hole feature and Point feature during the first step in the Pattern dialog). This results in a Point being included with with each instance created. Now when you do the select by rectangle/area, set the selection filter to 'Point' and the feedback will be the number of points, which is that same as the number of holes. Now it's still possible that you may have some extraneous points in your model, but that's often NOT the case (be aware though that a Datum CSYS includes a point as well as the axis and planes). This also helps overcome the problem where the 'hole' might have more than one face. And when you're done you can either delete the original point and it will be removed from the pattern as well or else you can simply Hide them as they can be hidden independent of the model or the feature since Points, even if they're part of a feature, are standalone objects and therefor subject to Hide/Show as well as the 'Move to Layer' command. And if the part is going to be used as a Component in an Assembly, simply remove the points from the 'Model' Reference Set and they will not show-up in the Assembly either.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
As a slight modification to my original idea of using face selection to determine the number of instances, try this: Before creating your Pattern, add a point feature at the arc center of one the edges of the hole and include it when you select the features for the Pattern (select both the Hole feature and Point feature during the first step in the Pattern dialog). This results in a Point being included with with each instance created. Now when you do the select by rectangle/area, set the selection filter to 'Point' and the feedback will be the number of points, which is that same as the number of holes. Now it's still possible that you may have some extraneous points in your model, but that's often NOT the case (be aware though that a Datum CSYS includes a point as well as the axis and planes). This also helps overcome the problem where the 'hole' might have more than one face. And when you're done you can either delete the original point and it will be removed from the pattern as well or else you can simply Hide them as they can be hidden independent of the model or the feature since Points, even if they're part of a feature, are standalone objects and therefor subject to Hide/Show as well as the 'Move to Layer' command. And if the part is going to be used as a Component in an Assembly, simply remove the points from the 'Model' Reference Set and they will not show-up in the Assembly either.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
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- #6
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