NX8.5 3dconnexion spaceball rotation reference

[KhimaniMohiki]

Going from NX7.5 at JCB to NX8.5 at Aston Martin the spaceball seems to behave differently in that its not updating the rotation reference to the geometry in view. Im constantly having to set rotation reference when examining components in assemblies, I dont recall having to do that in NX7.5, has something changed going to 8.5 or could it be the spaceball driver?

system info - NX8.5.1.3, 3DConnexion driver 6.17.6

Any help appreciated.

Khimani Mohiki
Design Engineer - Aston Martin
NX8.5

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, there was a change, but I'm not sure that this is what you're seeing. Prior to NX 8.5, the center of rotation, unless you had specified a specific point on the model/assembly, was always the center of the display no matter whether you were zoomed up or way out. Now, starting with MX 8.5, if you're not zoomed up, the center of rotation is the center of the 'bounding box' around the objects in the current Work part. In other words, center of rotation is now relative to the objects seen on the screen and NOT to the screen itself. And when you zoom in it behaves more like it did before since now the objects and what you see on the screen or basically the same.

As for setting a specific point of rotation relative to a point on the model/assembly, that pretty much works like it always did except that we've now preprogrammed a pair of control keys to enable/disable this specific point of roation, Ctrl+F2 to set the point and Ctrl+F3 to unset it.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
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To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[KhimaniMohiki]

OK I think I see what you mean, would it make any difference that we model components in vehicle position, ie component geometry can be several meters in XYZ away from its absolute, would this afect the bounding box and hence centre of rotation?

Khimani Mohiki
Design Engineer - Aston Martin
NX8.5

 

[JohnRBaker]

Not unless you have an actual Datum CSYS object at the 0,0,0 origin of your assembly. If it's just a displyed WCS it will NOT be considered when computing the 'bounding box' for determining the center of rotation. However, if it IS an actual Datum CSYS object, then it WILL be seen as part of the 'model' space and will impact the size of the bounding box.

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.

 

[KhimaniMohiki]

Yeah all parts and assemblies have a CSYS at 0,0,0 taken from the seed part, although its supressed in assemblies, is there anyway of viewing the bounding box to check if it capturing the supressed CSYS?

Khimani Mohiki
Design Engineer - Aston Martin
NX8.5

 

[JohnRBaker]

It's not easy (or evan possible without some sort of NX Open program) to see the 'bounding box' for the overall Assembly. However, the bounding boxes of individual Components can be seen by simply 'hiding' the Component(s) in the Assembly Navigator and then moving the cursor over the now grayed-out Component(s).

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.