Part Family - Adding Component Column 1

[marksummers]

I am using NX 7,5 and have a part family that turns on/off some features. Later, I added two different components in the assembly, and I want some to show up in one instance and the other in teh second instance.

When I try to add a column for the components, it seems to want to take them all. How do I get a Y/N column or columns for each instance of these newly added components.

 

[JohnRBaker]

So you're saying that AFTER you defined a FamilY Table part that you went back to the master template part and added some Components making it an Assembly, which is wasn't at the time that the Part Family spreadsheet was originally defined correct? And now you're editing the Part Family definition wishing to add columns to the spreadsheet to allow you to control which of these newly added Components will be included with which Family member, correct?

I don't see the problem. I was able to add Columns for one OR more of the Components. Now remember, the ONLY Components which you will have control over will be the ones that actually have a column defined in the Family Table spreadsheet. So if there are 10 Components, but none of them will be in every family member then you will need to include a column for all the Components and then in each column you'll need to indicate whether to include that Cimponent or not. And this is done by simply keeping or deleting the name of the component from the particular Family Member's row in the spreadsheet.

John R. Baker, P.E.
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[crecore]

John, If I read Marks problem correctly he has multiples of the same components in the part fmaily master. The component will only show up under the available column (components) once. They can all be toggled on or all be toggled off.

Unfortunately, in NX8 at least, your components would need different part numbers to be able to do this with control in the spreadsheet as you indicate.

I have done some fairly complex part families. Even part families within part families. I turned in an error to GTAC which was elevated to a bug and a year later just recently became PR Number 6756229 and is supposedly fixed in NX9.0. It involved components generated from a components arrays not displaying correctly in the part family generated components when the master component was toggled on our off in the part family spreadsheet. So, I would stay away from this.

If you are not concerned with the parts list or can control that with other means (edit levels) another trick would be to put those components on seperate layers, say one on 1, one on 2, one on 3 and one on 4. When you insert the part family component use original layers instead of work layer and you can control their display this way.

I am sure there are other work arounds. I wish to try assembly arrangements and then toggle those in a part family. This may be a good case to try this but I cannot comment further on it at this time.

NX 8.0.1.5

 

[marksummers]

Thanks for the prompt responses John and crecore. As you surmised (and I should have explained better) crecore, I have (for example) (10) #8-32 PEMs in the "master" and want (5) in one family member and (5) in the other family member.

I appreciate the suggestions, but making different part numbers for each individual PEM is going to be problematic, especially since I was thinking of making them into their own family table. Also, I suspect the layer idea would work as well, but am worried since I am over my head as it is, that might end up being become problematic as well.

 

[marksummers]

What would happen if I forgot about the PEMs in the "master" and just did part families with columns of the features (PEM holes). Then after generating the family parts, go into those separate files and add the PEMs there. Does this sound like good option? Any idea on what would happen when I updated and/or created the family members later on?

 

[JohnRBaker]

Actually there IS a way to make this work WITHOUT having to create duplicate components. If this is the problem that the OP (marksummers) is having, being able to control in the Part Family spreadsheet which occurrence of a duplicated component gets included or not, there is a way to do this. What you have to do is after you've loaded all the components into your assembly, you then select all of the duplicates at once (it's easier to do in the Assembly Navigator if you first 'Pack' the list so that you only have to make one selection and it gets all the occurrences), press MB3 and select the 'Properties' option, select the 'General' tab and you will see the name of the Component in the 'Name' field. Now you can either accept that name or type in anything that you wish. Then toggle ON the 'Add index to name' option (you will see that the start number defaults to 1 but you can change it if you wish). Now, and this is critical, you need to push the button labeled 'Apply Name to ALL Occurrences'. Now it will look like nothing happened, but it did. Now hit the OK button and if you go back to the Assembly Navigator and if you had enabled a column with shows the Component names (and you've unpacked the list) you will now see a different name for each occurance of the duplicated Component.

NOW when you go and define your Part Family and select the 'Component' option you will see all of the names of the occurrences listed. Now you can add a separate column for EACH occurrence and while those columns in the spreadsheet will show the same Component names they are in actuality just saying which occurrence of THAT particular Component am I going to load. You can now control them like you did before, leaving the Component name in place where you want it to be included and removing the names where you don't want it to be included.

Anwyay, that may look a bit complicated but it works.

John R. Baker, P.E.
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Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
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[marksummers]

That is an interesting solution, and it works as described. Thanks John.

Do you know what will happen in the Parts List? Will it have individual entries for each separate PEM or will it roll them up into a single part?

 

[JohnRBaker]

That depends on how your Part List was set-up. If the column was defined to show the 'Part Name' then is will only show a single entry with a total Qty. However, if the column in your Parts List was set to 'Component Name' then yes, there would separate entries for each occurrence even though they were all created from the same Part file.

Please keep in mind that these occurrence names ONLY applies to the Assembly where they were defined. In other words, these names exist in that one single Assembly ONLY. The Part files themselves have NO idea whatsoever that occurrence names were even assigned nor in which Assemblies were these assignments made.

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.

 

[crecore]

Ooh, I will have to try this myself. I learned something here as well. Thanks John.

NX 8.0.1.5