"Save as" question

[stormyb]

NX 7.5.5.4
TC 2007


Hello,
Just wondering to ease some things:
I'm creating some concepts where i have several parts, at the beginning they were the same. Through time they got minor changer to eachother, in other words: they became different parts.

My question: is there a way, when i make a save as of a part in an pretty big assembly, to keep the original part instead of all parts being replaced by the new one?
example:
4 same parts in assembly, one changes. When i make a save as, all parts are replaced by new part.
4 parts are also used in other concept assemblies and i want it to keep it the same.

The path i follow at this moment:

save assembly.
edit part
"save as" on part
go back to assembly
replace part with the original one (3x) (My mind goes like this: 3x ? i just want to change 1 part!)
save assembly.

What i miss here is the command : save copy as. <- this is the action i want to do. To get there i have to do a lot more....
That would result in:
Nothing being replaced in assemblies. So i have to replace only one part. The other parts stay the same and the structure remains unchanged. Less chance to create mistakes by forgetting to replace one part with the original one.
The unchanged parts are the same as previous concepts.

I don't know if this function is available in NX8 or later?

 

[kapmnit123]

Hi,
Not sure if cloning can help in this case.Go for save as for all the changed compoennts and then use clone to replace all those from a single window.
I am attaching a image.
Best REgards
Kapil

 

[PSI-CAD]

Hi,

This function is available in NX8. The acces is Assemnlies Component Make Unike


Regards
Didier Psaltopoulos

http://www.psi-cad.com

 

[looslib]

Save As in NX will replace the new part number in all open assemblies in your session of NX.

If you only need to replace the new component in one location of your assembly, I would use a different work flow.
Close all assemblies and open only the part you need to change.
Do your Save As and make any changes.
Open your assembly that uses the changed part and replace the original component with your new component.
This should only replace the one instance of the component in your assembly, leaving the other 3 alone.


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

Ben Loosli

 

[multicaduser]

You can also copy the component to a new name at the os level (windows exporer or a dos window) and do a substitute for only a specific component instance. This as with all methods has both bennefits and drawbacks.

 

[looslib]

Multicaduser, you missed the part where the OP is in TeamCenter. Extra care is required when doing a Save As in a PDM environment.


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

Ben Loosli

 

[carlharr]

Hello,

Does anyone know why NX replaces a component in all open assemblies when you do a save-as on the component?

Personally, I'd much prefer if it only replaced the component inside the work assembly.
And didn't do any replacing at all if the component was made work part.

I'd be interested to know anyone elses thoughts on this.

Regards, Carl

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3

 

[carlharr]

Edit:

Personally, I'd much prefer if it only replaced the component inside the work assembly.
And didn't do any replacing at all if the component was made work displayed part.

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3

 

[JohnRBaker]

Perhaps, but as far as the system is concerned, the 'work assembly' as well as any other assembly that is open and shares the same Component that is being saved (note that if two DIFFERENT assemblies are open in the same session and they share a Component, that Component will only have been opened ONCE), they are all open at once and so they are all treated equally. The fact the one assembly is currently displayed is really irrelevant when you're basically 'replacing' a COMMON Component with another Component, which in essence is what's happening when you do a 'Save-As'. Now as long as you don't actually 'Save' ANY of those other Assemblies, once you've exited your session it will be as if nothing had ever changed as far as those other Assemblies are concerned.

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.

 

[carlharr]

Hi John,

Yes, I learned that lesson the hard way once, and had to go through all my schemes replacing components back with the original part (except in the one assembly I'd intended to change). The same thing happened last week to one of our users, and I wondered why NX behaves like this.

When working with many large assemblies open in a session, it's not practical to close all assemblies that you don't want a part to change in, either before the save-as (large time penalty) or after the save-as (likelihood of losing other changes made).

As a workaround, I began carrying out my "save-as" operations in Teamcenter, and then using replace component. This is the only way I found to change a part number in only the assemblies (and instances) that I wanted.

Perhaps in a future version it might be possible to include an option during "save-as" for which instances should be replaced.
Something like - this instance only / all in displayed assembly / all in loaded assemblies.

Regards,
Carl

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3

 

[JohnRBaker]

Actually, your Teamcenter approach is probably the most practical solution for people who are consistently "...working with many large assemblies open in a session,...". Since that approach already works, and since making NX work in a similar fashion would require significant changes to the way NX is architected, I wouldn't hold my breath expecting us to expend resources on that effort rather then something more useful.

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.

 

[carlharr]

Hi John, that's pretty similar to the message I've sent to our user!

Thanks very much for the info.

Carl

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3