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The information in this document is confidential and may not be disclosed without the permission of B/E Aerospace. 2011 B/E Aerospace, Inc. All rights reserved.

Assemblies Concepts


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Learn the basics of creating and managing assemblies.

Understand the terms and concepts used in the NX Assemblies application.Comprehend the way NX organizes assembly files and structures.

Grasp the advantage of setting preferences for assemblies.

Master the best methods to navigate through the Assemblies application and

toolbar.

Assembly Concept-Introduction


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Overview: There are six terms to be familiar with whenworking in the Assemblies application: Top-Down,

Bottom-Up, Work Part, Displayed Part, Loaded Part,

and Design In Context.

Terminology

Top-Down

Top-Down assembly modeling allows you to create and/or edit componentgeometry (piece parts) at the assembly level. Because you can create and edit

directly in the assembly, you can take advantage of each existing component's

geometry and location in the design of new component parts. All creation and/or

editing done at the component level automatically reflects in the component's

part file.

Bottom-Up

Bottom-Up assembly modeling implies that all individual part files (piece parts)

comprising the assembly already exist. You simply add these existing parts to

create the assembly. Bottom-Up modeling is analogous to building a toy model,

the pieces are already created, and you need only to assemble them.


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Work Part

The Work Part is the current part in which you can create or edit geometry. When you are workingin a component part, the Work Part is the same as the Displayed Part. When working in an

assembly, you can make one of the components your Work Part; all other components become

temporarily unavailable. The Work Part name displays in the title bar of the Graphics window.

The Work Part is the part on which you are currently working. Select Assemblies | Context Control |

Set Work Part, or double-click the part in the Assembly Navigator to designate a part as the Work

Part. All new geometry is created in the Work Part. When you save a file, the Work Part and all

components of the Work Part save. The Work Part is also the part file to which components are

added, removed, repositioned, renamed, and substituted.

Displayed Part

The Displayed Part is the part currently displayed in

the Graphics window. The Displayed Part name

appears in the title bar of the Graphics window.

Terminology

Loaded Part

A Loaded Part refers to any open part. When an assembly file is opened, all of its

components also open when Load Components is set to All Components using File | Options |

Assembly Load Options. You can find out which parts are loaded by reviewing the contents of

the list in the Change Window dialog, which is accessed by selecting Window | More.


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Design In Context

NX makes it possible to create and edit componentswhile in the assembly. This functionality is known as

designing the part in the context of the assembly. This

approach causes the change to occur simultaneously at

both the assembly and the component level. In order to

modify a component in the assembly file, you must first

set the component as your Work Part.


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The Assembly File

The assembly file is nothing more than a part file that contains component geometry. It is

created by selecting File | New or Assemblies | Components | Create New Component. The bestway to think of an assembly file is to consider it as a collection of components and other sub-

assemblies with their own components. Assemblies can have many levels, where each level

contains components of some upper-level assembly, as shown in the above figure.

In this example, the assembly part file is at the top of the assembly tree. The sub-assembly files

are both components of the top level and assemblies themselves, containing other components.


7/19The information in this document is confidential and may not be disclosed without the permission of B/E Aerospace. 2011 B/E Aerospace, Inc. All rights reserved.

Assembly Application and Toolbar

Assemblies Application

An Assemblies license is accessed by selecting Start | Assemblies. A border displays around

the icon next to the Assemblies menu command when you have the license. This application is

different from Modeling or Drafting in that it is not exclusive. You can use the Assemblies

application while you use another application, such as Modeling or Gateway. With the

Assemblies application active, the Assemblies toolbar displays, and several options display on

the Assemblies menu. You can perform many basic assembly tasks without using the

Assemblies application, such as changing reference sets or using the Assembly Navigator.

Link
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Assembly Navigation

Assembly Navigator

The Assembly Navigator window contains a tree-structure representation of the assembly. Each

component in the assembly's tree displays as an entry,

or 'node', in the Assembly Navigator. Use these nodes

to select components as you would in the Graphics

window, whenever you are prompted for a selection.

When working in an assembly with more than a few

components, the Assembly Navigator is the most useful

tool you can have. It makes visualizing the assembly

structure vastly easier, and enables you to save time.

Use it as often as possible.

Columns

Dependencies panelPreview panel



Assembly Navigation

Columns

The Assembly Navigator has a multitude of columns

that can be activated to filtered information to meet your

specifications.

The latest addition to the column selection is the Info

column. It displays component information in the form

of an icon, or information that does not change the

default behavior of the part.



Assembly Navigation

Preview panel

A preview panel resides in the Assembly Navigator to

assist you in loading or adding the correct component

into the assembly. Selecting a component from the

Assembly Navigator loads an image of the component

in the preview panel. The image loads for part files

saved with a preview image in NX 1 or later.



Assembly Navigation

Dependencies PanelThis panel allows you to view the parent and child

relationship as well as the mating and WAVE

dependencies a given component has in the rest of the

assembly.



Assembly Navigator Component Pop-up Menu

If you place the cursor over a component and right-

click, a pop-up menu displays allowing you to perform

operations on the assembly structure.




Make Work Part

This command is the same as selecting Assemblies | Context Control | Set

Work Part or double-clicking the node in the Assembly Navigator.

Make Displayed Part

When you make a component the Displayed Part, only that part and its

components display in the assembly tree and the Graphics window.

Display Parent

This submenu is only available when you pick a part that is a component ofsome other part (i.e., at least a first level sub-assembly). It displays a list of the

component's parents. In the example, the component 'shcs5_13_55' is a piece

part of the assembly 'b_sub_ejector' which in turn is a component of a top level

assembly called "b_subassy" The part you select becomes the new Displayed

Part. All of the components of the Displayed Part become visible in both the

assembly tree and the Graphics window.




Open

Selecting Open displays a submenu listing the open

commands. This allows you to work with an assemblystructure in which the components are not loaded.

Component

This command is available when components are

unloaded in the assembly structure. The component is

partially loaded unless Use Partial Loading is inactive in

the Load Options dialog. This is the same as clicking an

empty check box.

Component As

This command is available when components are

unloaded in the assembly structure. It allows you to

open the component using a different version or name.The component selected must have the same internal

identifiers as the original component unless Allow

Substitution is active in the Load Options dialog. Note:

If the component is a sub-assembly and you want to

open the component's entire tree, use Assembly As.




Child Components

This command is available when a component such

as a sub-assembly is opened but has one or severalunloaded child components. This loads all of the child

components.

Assembly

Opens the entire assembly and all componentsregardless of the Load Components setting on the Load

Options dialog. The components are partially loaded

unless Use Partial Loading is inactive in the Load

Options dialog.

Assembly As

Works the same as Component As except that all

the components in the referenced sub-assembly file are

opened.



Component Fully

Loads the complete part file for a partially loadedcomponent.

Close

Selecting Close displays a submenu listing the close

commands.

Part

Closes the selected component.

Part (modified)

This command is only available if the part you are

about to close has been changed.

Assembly

Closes all of the parts in the current assembly.



Replace Reference Set

This submenu allows you to replace reference sets for components. These reference sets control what is

displayed and loaded into the assembly structure. You can select any created reference sets, for example,

SOLID, or you can use the default sets Empty or Entire Part to control the display. When you select Replace

Reference Set, the submenu lists the current available reference sets.

Substitute

Use this to replace a component with another component.

Mate

Use this to mate a loaded component to the assembly.

Reposition

Use this to reposition a component within an assembly.

Arrangements

Select this to switch from one assembly arrangement to another. You can also edit an arrangement.

Structure Editing

Delete removes the selected components from the assembly. The Cut, Copy, and Paste commands allow

you to move components from one level of the assembly structure to another. Hide hides the selectedobject in the Graphics window.

Show Degrees of Freedom

Show Degrees of Freedom displays the degrees of freedom indicator in the graphics window. This set of

arrows indicated the directions the component can freely move and is not constrained by Assembly

Constraints.

Properties

Properties lets you view and change information, parameters, and attributes for a selected component



Reference Sets

What is a Reference Set?

A reference set is a subset of a component's geometry that you

can use to control the way the component displays in an

assembly. Any given part has at least one solid body, probably

several sketches, datum planes and datum axes, and perhaps

other curves and geometry. To simplify the component's display

in the assembly, you can create a reference set named "SOLID,"

and define it to contain only the solid body.

A reference set is a subset of a component's geometry that you

can use to control the way the component displays in anassembly. Any given part has at least one solid body, probably

several sketches, datum planes, datum axes, and perhaps other

curves and geometry. In a component file, you can relegate all

this extra geometry to different layers, and then view only the

layers you want to see. In an assembly, however, using layers in

this manner can pose a problem. If you have an assembly with a

hundred components, moving the sketches, datums, and curves

for each component to different layers is not only tedious, but

you soon run out of layers to use.

The solution is to define a reference set for each component that

only contains the geometry you want to view in the assembly;

you can also activate the Add Components Automatically option

and specify if new components are to be automatically added to

the reference set. For example, you can create a reference set

named "SOLID" and define it to contain only the solid body.

When you add the part to the assembly, and tell it to use the

SOLID reference set, you eliminate all the unnecessarygeometry from the assembly display.


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Common Reference Set Practices

By default, every part has three reference sets: EntirePart,which contains all the part's geometry; Empty, which contains nogeometry at all; and Model, which contains the part's solid body.In legacy situations, many companies may still require you to

manually create a reference set called SOLID, containing only

the solid body. Beyond these types of reference sets, you can

create reference sets showing construction geometry, basic

outline curves, simplified representations, or datum's required for

mating. Furthermore, an assembly itself can use a reference set,

where you add only certain components to show different

assembly configurations.

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