The Immediate Parent(s)?

[carlharr]

Hi,

Is there a way in the assembly navigator "display parent" command to highlight or otherwise know which parts are the immediate parent(s) i.e. one-level up? This would save a great deal of wasted time displaying the wrong level assemblies.

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3

 

[cowski]

Take a look at:
thread561-351988
CNSZU has made a tool you may be interested in.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[carlharr]

Hi cowski, I've seen the tool in testing and it looks excellent.

My question is more assuming we didn't have this new tool, can we just go "up one level" when using current display parent command?

I used to use the "piece of scrap paper on my desk" method for navigating assemblies, but one of our users has asked this and I think its a fair question.

Regards, Carl

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3

 

[cowski]

Using plain-vanilla OOTB NX, I know of no good way to get the info you are after.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

Just select the Component of interest and then press the 'U' key.

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,

Just had a look in Change Window, and yes the "up one level" button lights up when an immediate parent is selected.

But the problem is that we don't know which the immediate parents are, to select them in the first place.

Using the normal RMB > display parent method, we see all parents and there is no indication of which parts are "up one level" (see OP attachment).
And change window typically displays hundreds or thousands of parts, so we wouldn't have a chance of finding the correct item.



Is there a way that NX can inform the user of which parts are the immediate parents?

Thanks, Carl

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3

 

[carlharr]

Hello cowski just spotted your reply.

Agreed, it looks like there isn't a way to have NX highlight immediate parents in the list of parent parts.

Maybe I'll suggest it to someone as a future enhancement... you never know!

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3

 

[Toost]

If you submit an Enhancement Request to Siemens GTAC, post the ER number here and we can "add to this" meaning that more of us would like to see the enhancement. ( The more people we are adding to the ER the sooner it will appear in production.)
You have to write this ER, writing the post on this site will not give us the desired feature. ( - I.e it would require John or some other Siemens employee to write it for you.)

Do not forget to motivate the ER since all enhancements must be justified inside Siemens in terms of development costs, can we provide a very good reason why its needed ( = $ saved /day) then its more likely to appear in production. - If you say that you might save 1$ every third year by the enhancement, Siemens will .... place the ER in "will not do" stack.

Another desired option in this aspect would be to see 2 attributes on the Display Parent popup , for example both "Item name AND Item Description" ( Where the latter should be customizable). 2 Attributes would also be desirable to see in other dialogs such as the "Window" )

Regards,
Tomas

 

[carlharr]

Thanks for the info Tomas.

As you know we can change the attribute displayed to description (e.g. mounting bracket), I was never a big fan because only part numbers are unique. But seeing both would definitely be an advantage.

WRT the original question (highlighting immediate parents when RMB > display parent is used), I guess for justification all I could really do is ask users to estimate the amount of time they spend waiting for the wrong part to display.

I'll add this to my list of jobs to do - shame there's no 'Siemens Suggestions Box' as this isn't a huge issue, just a useful improvement.

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3

 

[Toost]

I fully agree, i have been trying to verbally convince a few of Siemens product managers to implement some of my ideas, and their common response is , "-have you submitted a written ER ? -How much work ($) will you save by this ?,-we have to consider on what spend the development budget."

Regards,
Tomas

 

[carlharr]

It's a tricky one isn't it Tomas.

How best to ask the question / propose the improvement without doing too much work, since I do have other (more pressing) things to work on.

I'll keep it on the list and hope a suitable opportunity comes up, really don't fancy the paperwork for this one.

Regards, Carl

http://www.jcb.com

NX 7.5 with TC 8.3

 

[CNSZU]

Hi Carl,

I've made a tool you might be interested in which I believe does what you want (not the Switch Part tool), check the attached image.
In the image example, the displayed part is a PCB board, and there are two immediate parents (highlighted in bold font), "pcb" and "pcb3". Why two? Because both assemblies contain the same pcb board part. The tool also displays all parents above, including the top level parent (highlighted in blue font). So if you want to switch the display part to an immediate parent, just click on a part name in bold, and the display part will change to that part.

Actually, this is the tool I use the most, it's been saving me tons of time every day. It's posted here Link as a dll. If you're interested in it, I can make it into a journal, but if it will work in Teamcenter I'm not sure.

NX8.5 Win7SP1 64bit i7-3770K@4.3Ghz 16GB Quadro2000