NX and measuring distances 1

[MoeMoe7]

In NX 8.5 (and 9) there is the option to measure distances (not simple distance).

Since we do generally two types of distance measuring it always bothers us that we have to constantly select "Measure Type" from the drop down in the Measure Distance dialogue.

Is there anyway to assign each measurement type to a button, shortcut, anything that can be accessed with a single click? We measure either "Projected distance" or "distance" and almost never use the others (save for diameter and radius every once in a blue moon) it would be nice to have a single click access right off the tool bar or shortcut.

Any options?

Thanks!

Mauricio Haliska
Eng. Mgr.

http://www.Metrican.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes there is. It's called creating a 'Favorite'. In fact, that's exactly how we created those so-called 'Simple Measurements'. They're actually pared-down (i.e. simplified) versions of the regular Measure Distance/Angle dialogs. In fact you can create favorites of most any NX dialog.

In the case you're asking about, first you need to set-up a user folder, if you haven't already, where you can place templates and modified .men and .tbr files, then once you start creating 'favorites', you'll find a folder there named 'Favorites' and that's where these '.fav' files will be found. Note that the 'User' folder is known to NX by setting the environment variable UGII_USER_DIR equal to the path with points to where your 'User' folder is located. BTW, if you've set up 'Group' and 'Site' folders, you can also create favorites there as well, making them available to others in your organization as well.

Anyway, what you do for your example it that once you've got your 'User' directory set up, while in NX Modeling go to....

Analysis -> Measure Distance...

...and when the dialog comes up set all of the options in all of the sections exactly the way that you would if you were about make one of those measurements that you say you do often. Now collapse ALL of the sections of the dialog, including 'Measure Type', until the ones which contain red asterisks are still open and available (note that you can include other options as well such as perhaps the 'Display Results' section if there's a chance that you might want to print out the results in the listing window or not). Once you've done this, select the the 'gear' icon in the upper Left corner of the dialog and select the 'Hide Collapsed Groups' option. Now the only things that you'll see are the parts of the dialog that you've decided are relevant. Now go back to the 'Gear' icon only this time select the 'Save Favorite As...' option. You'll first be asked what 'Level' you wish to save it, 'User', 'Group' or 'Site', and then you'll enter a name for the new 'favorite' and then hit OK.

Now that you've got your favorite lets say you wish to add it to the current list of 'Simple Measurements' accessible from the Analysis drop-down menu. Go into Customize and select the 'Command' tab and then near the bottom of the list the 'New Button' item and then from the 'Commands' window, drag the 'New User Command' item up onto the Analysis -> Measure drop down menu. Now, while still in Customize, select this new command, press MB3 and when the dialog comes up you'll note that you can now edit the name of the command, decide how it appears, as only text or with an icon, etc. But you first need to go to the last item, 'Edit Action', where you can define what happens when a user selects that item, in this case you select in the 'Type' field a 'Favorite' and you'lll be given a list of 'Favorite' files to assign to this new menu item (note that you could of added teh User Command to a tool bar as well). Once you're done, just 'Close' the Customize dialog and you're good to go. Just remember to resave your Role so that these change to your User Interface are remembered.

Anyway, this should give you what you're looking for.

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]

John,


Excellent! I tried it; it worked great...except that 8.5 "forgets" things! So, the dialogue favourites are forgotten. That is, the same options don't appear even though they WERE working just a few moments ago.

BTW....what size .bmp files are needed for the icons? (pixels/colours/kb size?)

I need more than the simple options give to us.


Mauricio Haliska
Eng. Mgr.

http://www.Metrican.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

You're implying that they are working in NX 9.0, is that correct? If your problem with NX 'forgetting' the favorites and it's only happening in NX 8.5, I don't really know what to say about that. If this is critical, perhaps you should take this up with GTAC.

As for what size bitmaps to use for user-defined icons, up thru NX 9.0, the out-of-the-box rule was:

[pre]'Extra Small' = 16x16
'Small' = 24x24
'Medium' = 32x32
'Large' = 48x48[/pre]
Note that in the NEXT version of NX, we're trying to anticipate the wider usage of the so-called 4K (3840x2160) monitors, so we've added an additional standard icon size:

[pre]'Extra Large' = 64x64[/pre]
Anyway, I hope this helps.

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]

John,

I've not tried it on NX9 yet. We are about to do a change-over soon.

What I mean about "forgets" is that I created the shortcuts and they worked fine. Then, for no reason (and only a few minutes later) the short-cut no longer has the same options. That is, instead of "vector" distance type it has pre-chosen "length" type. I rarely if ever use that at all, so I don't know what happened to change the shortcut. Then some time later....boom! it works again.

Actually, NX SHOULD have remembered what the last type choice was (using the regular distance command). But even then, it reverts to other choices for some reason that only higher being can understand.

Anyway....thanks for the help...I plan to make a whole slew of commands like that!
(and if you happen to know why NX 8.5 forgets things, let me know!)



Mauricio Haliska
Eng. Mgr.

http://www.Metrican.com

 

[MoeMoe7]

Ok,

So, I have now tried the favorites in NX9. Our whole team has switched over.

They favourite is acting that same way. This is what happens....

1) I open the desired command...then set all the things to the way I want it...then I create the favorite. In my case, I am interested in create a distance with vector and a regular distance. I make sure that the collapsed sections are removed (including the choose distance type)
2) Now that I have the two favourites, I add them to command buttons. In my case, I make two buttons, one for each favourite.

So, what happens next is that the dialog does two things:
1) it actually SHOWS the Distance type option even though I had collapsed it at favourte creation.
2) it remembers the last option chosen..thus rendering the whole concept of a dedicated button useless. (This is what I mean about forgets)
Any ideas? Am I missing as step?



Mauricio Haliska
Eng. Mgr.

http://www.Metrican.com

 

[carlharr]

I had the same problem with NX9, following the tutorial for creating a simple extrude.

Testing by using "extrude" or "simple extrude", it felt like using one affected the options available in the other (and weirdly, it's name as well).

In the end I decided not to bother with saving favourites until they seemed more robust.

http://www.jcb.com

NX 8.5 with TC 8.3

 

[studiotreccani]

moldwizard have a lot of tool in this way,
for example the command: molded part validation.
But you have to start from a solid (of the plastic)
probably I did not understand the kind of work you are doing.

NX 7.5

http://www.studiotreccani.com

 

[studiotreccani]

oops
sorry wrong thread

NX 7.5

http://www.studiotreccani.com