Load Options question / suggestion for NX

[animuL67]

It would be nice if the load options menu had a setting where, when a file was opened, it used the previous load options for that file. Does this exist and I am just missing it? This is different than "As Saved" but would be more like "As previously loaded" or something. Right now I save individual load options sets for different customers which works great but it isn't ideal to have to change load options all the time. Example:

I open a file for customer A and set to search directories A, D, E, 1, 2, & 3 to get everything to load. I save the file and it gets moved to an archive. I go on working on customer B's project for a while and set load options for it to B, C, D, 1 & 3. Now I need to open customer A's file. If I load "As Saved" it pulls in nothing because the main file got moved. If I load "From Folder" it only gets what was moved with it, not common folders like hardware, etc. And if I set the load options to a higher up directory it takes forever to search and may load an incorrect file if its file name is duplicated in a directory that it searches first. So I have to go point back to the load options file that I saved to get it to open. This isn't too difficult to do but it seems like it would be easy to tie a saved load options file to a .prt file so most every time you go to open a part it loads correctly. Seems as though if a feature like this was included in NX a user could leave it as the default load options and files would load fully 99% of the time.

 

[JohnRBaker]

I would take a look at using Assembly Bookmarks as this might give you the behavior that you're looking for. They can be saved like a Part file but unlike saving the Assembly file, it only remembers what components were ACTUALLY open and active at the time the bookmark was saved, irrespective of what you would get if you opened the actual Assembly file. When going to File -> Open... in the list of 'Files of types:' you'll find a 'Bookmark Files and PLM XML (*plmxml)' option. Use it to select previously saved 'Bookmarks'.

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.

 

[MoeMoe7]

We have used bookmarks and they work fine.
Except...
If you want to send a bookmark to a person whose computer's drives are mapped differently (even though they have access to the exact same files in the same location) the bookmark fails.
For example:
bookmark is in
P:\MyDesign\MyBookMark.plmxml
If I open it...it works great. But when I tell my foreman to open it...that same drive is mapped to Q: (not P therefore it fails.
Re-organizing the drive letters is not an option.

Is there any way around this?

Moe Haliska
Metrican Manufacturing Inc.

 

[JohnRBaker]

As long as the original directories/folders are accessible from the other workstation, it should work as the bookmark file does not contain anything with respect to where the bookmark was saved, but rather, only where the Assembly and the relevant Components are located.

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.

 

[MoeMoe7]

Actually,

If you open the bookmark (via a text editor) you will see that the full path is given. Unfortunately, this path includes the drive letter, rather than the network path. For this reason, it does not work. (at least I think so...)

Here is an excerpt from a sample bookmark: (notice the highlighted areas)
********************
[tt]<ApplicationRef application="Unigraphics" label="563961"></ApplicationRef>
<Transform id="id145">0 -1 0 0 1 0 -0 0 0 0 1 0 -0.4660485309101879 7.402412016688231e-017 -0.3683 1</Transform></ProductInstance>
<ProductRevisionView id="id8" name="OP20 BOT ASSY" instanceRefs="id12 id17 id22 id27 id30 id34 id39 id42 id44 id46 id50 id55 id59 id61 id65 id69 id73 id83 id85 id89 id94 id97 id99 id103 id108 id113 id140 id144" type="assembly" representationRefs="id159">
<ApplicationRef application="Unigraphics" label="[highlight #FCE94F]P:[/highlight]\PRODUCTION TOOLS\_DICKSON\E-4262_MS-07\DESIGN\OP20 BOT ASSY.prt"></ApplicationRef>
<UserData id="id9">
<UserValue value="Fully" title="LoadState"></UserValue></UserData></ProductRevisionView>
<ProductRevisionView id="id10" name="240_M" type="solid" representationRefs="id154">
<ApplicationRef application="Unigraphics" label="[highlight #FCE94F]P:[/highlight]\PRODUCTION TOOLS\_DICKSON\E-4262_MS-07\DESIGN\240_M.prt"></ApplicationRef>
<UserData id="id11">[/tt]
*************************
The bookmark resides in the same directory it was created and in the same directory as the files it refers to.
I can open it from any machine that has that directory as the P: drive
I cannot open it from any machine that has that directory as any other assignment.
I cannot open it if I manually navigate to it (from a machine that does not have that drive assignment.)

So, it would seem that it is indeed drive dependent.

Or, am I overlooking something? Perhaps we should be using the "As Saved" option?





Mauricio Haliska
Eng. Mgr.

http://www.Metrican.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

You may be right. I'll check with our experts to see if there's any way around this and if I learn anything I'll post it here.

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.

 

[cowski]

MoeMoe7,

I put together a small utility that will edit a bookmark file to change the drive references to the UNC path. After you save a bookmark file, run the utility; browse to the bookmark file and press OK. Now your coworker should be able to use the same bookmark file (assuming he has access to the same network drives, just mapped to different drive letters). One side effect of note: when you open the bookmark file, your assembly load options will change (so the parts the bookmark refers to will open correctly); you may want to change your load options back after opening the bookmark file.

Not heavily tested, let me know if you run into issues.
NX bookmark UNC

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[looslib]

How do you even function efficiently if your users have network drives mapped to different drive letters? Where I used to work, standradized drive mapping was one of the first things we put in place when we installed a network file storage solution. Everything related to Unigraphics was on the U: drive, Peo/Engineer things on the P: drive, user folders were on the the Z: drive, etc. This way anyone from anywhere can access the data and know where to find it.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[MoeMoe7]

Looslib,

We do have standard drive letters, but there are not enough of them.

As far as engineering is concerned, we use a range of letters, but the shop uses drives we don't need. That is easy enough and we are very strict regarding their usage.

But the fact that we have 5 plants in 3 countries and we have a common server base. It becomes very difficult if not impossible. In my case, I have access to Quoting Department, Proj Managment department, CNC department, Engineering, Quality Control and Accounting department...plus Corporate drives. Each plant has it's own smaller eng, cnc, accounting etc....but we are linked together. Ain't enough letters. (In the English alphabet)

Drive letters must die and we should use drive NAMES instead.

Mauricio Haliska
Eng. Mgr.

http://www.Metrican.com

 

[MoeMoe7]

Cowski,

Thanks!!

Actually, I tried to do something like that using a simple macro in a text editor. I would search for "p:\" and replace it with the appropriate drives....

It was failing on me and I did not have much time to investigate.

I am looking forward to testing yours! I really appreciate it.

Mauricio Haliska
Eng. Mgr.

http://www.Metrican.com

 

[cowski]

Did you have a chance to try it?
If so, did it work for you? My own testing was fairly limited...

www.nxjournaling.com