Select/Load only items visible to the eye

[pamakela]

Hi,

we have a rather large (~20.000 item) assembly of a product that we would like to have 3D-printed, painted and of course shown to our management with great pride. Selecting only those items that are visible to the eye seems like a daunting task, especially if done manually.. So is there any way to perform this automatically on NX 8.0? Or TC 9 for that matter?

Any other pointers how to prepare for such a large assembly's 3D-print?

Thanks!

 

[NutAce]

Hi...

One tip could be to use the "Simplify Assembly" feature in NX... You can find it under Assemblies - advanced (needs an advanced assemblies license).
With this function you can create a single body from your assembly. This way you will only see the components which are touched by light...(I like to call it like this).

If possible it would be nice to print single parts which can move as they are intended...Gives some extra to the printed result.
When you do this keep in mind that components which need to move have enough clearence..in you CAD model you usually don't have to take that into account..

Ronald van den Broek
Mechanical Engineer
Cad Environment Coordinator
Wärtsilä, Propulsion Services
NX8.5.2 / TC9.1.2
HPZ420 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 0 @ 3.60GHz, 32 Gb Win7 64B
Nvidea Quadro4000 2048MB DDR5