Working With Large Assemblies How to work with Large Assemblies in almost any version of NX. The following Best Practices show how to increase performance, reduce time spent, reduce system demand, and eliminate loading not needed components. Working with Large Assemblies, Best Practices REDUCE OVERHEAD Load Options: Use "Partial Loading” NX can l oad components 3 different ways, Fully loaded, Partially loaded, with/with out wave data. Partial Loading loads enough information to show the part, but does not evaluate expression or interpart expressions Downside is if parts rely on other parts via interpart expressions and it has changed since last time it was fully loaded, you will not see the change. Making the part the work or displayed part causes NX to fully load the part Load only Need Components: Large assemblies you may want to load no components and only turn on the necessary components as needed This may be a slow process picking and choosing the right component. For companies that deal with large assemblies and open them a lot it is more efficient to use "Design in Context". Design in Context is a Teamcenter Engineering application Reference Sets: Use Reference sets to Display only the needed geometry. Usually reference sets only consist of solid geometry, occasionally it may contain wireframe to show a centerline or other similiar information Component Filters/Sets: When working on specific assemblies for an extended period of time create a Component Filter so that you can quickly return to the previous configuration Faceted Bodies: Loading a component with a specific reference set that is only a faceted body will lower the resources needed to start NX Faceted bodies consist of the outer skin of the body and approximations of the solid bod INCREASE PERFORMANCE Work Part Emphasis Assembly Preference: Making a component the work part, the system “grays-out” the non-work parts. To save on resources you can turning on Preferences -> Assemblies -> Emphasize. When enabled, the work part remains displayed in its current color, but the rest of the assembly is dimmed in the color specified in the color option.
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
How to work with Large Assemblies in almost any version of NX. The following BestPractices show how to increase performance, reduce time spent, reduce system demand,and eliminate loading not needed components.
Working with Large Assemblies, Best Practices
REDUCE OVERHEAD
Load Options: Use "Partial Loading” NX can load components 3 different ways, Fullyloaded, Partially loaded, with/with out wave data. Partial Loading loads enough informationto show the part, but does not evaluate expression or interpart expressions Downside is ifparts rely on other parts via interpart expressions and it has changed since last time it was
fully loaded, you will not see the change. Making the part the work or displayed part causesNX to fully load the part
Load only Need Components: Large assemblies you may want to load no components andonly turn on the necessary components as needed This may be a slow process picking andchoosing the right component. For companies that deal with large assemblies and openthem a lot it is more efficient to use "Design in Context". Design in Context is a TeamcenterEngineering application
Reference Sets: Use Reference sets to Display only the needed geometry. Usuallyreference sets only consist of solid geometry, occasionally it may contain wireframe to showa centerline or other similiar information Component
Filters/Sets: When working on specific assemblies for an extended period of time create aComponent Filter so that you can quickly return to the previous configuration
Faceted Bodies: Loading a component with a specific reference set that is only a facetedbody will lower the resources needed to start NX Faceted bodies consist of the outer skin ofthe body and approximations of the solid bod
INCREASE PERFORMANCE
Work Part Emphasis Assembly Preference: Making a component the work part, the system“grays-out” the non-work parts. To save on resources you can turning on Preferences ->Assemblies -> Emphasize. When enabled, the work part remains displayed in its currentcolor, but the rest of the assembly is dimmed in the color specified in the color option.
Disable Smooth View Change: When switching between views, NX has eye candy tosmoothly transition between views. This feature helps keep the user orientated to what viewthey are coming from and going to. The downside is that it requires more resources. Insingle parts and small assemblies this is not an issue but with large assemblies this mayhave a performance hit.
Backface Culling: Specifies whether the graphics driver should disable rendering ofbackfacing polygons in shaded views. When backface culling is enabled, any surface facetsthat have normals directed away from the viewer are not rendered. This reduction in thenumber of facets rendered can significantly improve graphics performance, especially onlow-end and mid-range graphics devices. This should be enabled for large assemblies.Fixed
Frame Rate: Improve zoom, pan, and rotate by turning on Preferences -> VisualPerformance -> Fixed Frame Rate. This will make Objects like components to be convertedto cubes or hidden. Depending on the current zoom small features and components may be
hidden or greatly simplified The lower the frames per second is best for performance.
Scene Reduction Method: If enabled, when rotating this will hide objects. When you stopthe rotation NX will render the components correctly back to recognizable parts instead ofcubes
Learn How to Work With Unigraphics Top Down Assembly
The Unigraphics assembly, like any other 3D CAD assembly is made up of 3D CADparts. This Unigraphics tutorial will discuss about the top down method of UG
assembly. An e!ample of the top down assembly will also be discussed.
"ike #ro$, Unigraphics also permits you to create an assembly using two differentapproaches% top down assembly and bottom up assembly. &n this UG tutorial we willdiscuss the top down approach of UG assembly and its application.
What is the Top Down 3D CAD Assembly Approach?
&n short, in the top down approach you ha'e to create the blank assembly first and thenyou ha'e to go on creating the sub(assemblies and parts in it. o, if the main assembly
is at the top most le'el and the components are in bottom most le'el, then you arecoming from top to bottom and it)s top down assembly.
How to Do it actually in Unigraphics
"et*s say we ha'e to create a Unigraphics assembly of three rectangular plates likebelow%
• ow, let*s create the first rectangular plate. Go to Assemblies → Components → Create New
Component and you will get a window similar to the New file creation window, select the %oel template and
change the name to Plate1 and click !&#
• ou will find the Create New Component window open, 6ust click !&# ou will find the 'late( has
added in the assembly naigator under the assembly.
• 7ight click the 'late( and click the ma"e wor" part#
• 7ight click the Datum( and select in" to wor" part.
• ow go to insert → !esign "eat#re → e$tr#!e and select the Datum( as sketching plane and
sketch the rectangular outline of the plate(# 1inish the sketch.
• Change the *n limits option from +alue to until selecte and select the Datum, and click o"#
ou ha'e 6ust finished modeling 'late(#
• imilarly, create the model of 'late, by taking the Datum3 as sketching plane and the Datum- for
end limit.
• Also repeat the procedure for plate3 by using Datum. and Datum/#
• a'e the file and your top down assembly is ready.
• ow, the best part, if you wish to change the thickness of the plates or the distance between them,
no need to remodeling each of the plates 6ust change the distances between the datum planes and you can see
the change.
Reference Sets allow you to control what content from a Component will be displayed in an
Assembly. Typically, you create a component part and have construction geometry, sketches,
etc. in the part that allow you to generate the solid body (or bodies) representing the actual
finished part. When you add the component to an assembly, you really only want to see thesolid body of the finished part without all the other construction ob!ects. "ou can create a
#eference $et which designates only the ob!ects you need to represent the component in the
assembly.
$ee% &ormat ' #eference $ets ' click on Add ew #eference $et ' enter a name in the
#eference $et ame window ' hit nter ' select the ob!ects which you want to include in the
#eference $et ' click close. *Why #eference sets is now under &ormat and not under
Assemblies is beyond me+.
ote% one #eference $et name we use is A$T#-/0.
When you insert the component into an assembly, you can select the #eference $et and only its
$ettings ' #eference $et ' select the name of the #eference $et you created in the
component part ' click on 3
Aside from standard use cases of hiding datum4s, curves, and sketches from view in an
assembly, they can also allow you to build in reference geometry to use for constructing your
assembly for e5ample, adding an ring into a specified groove may be difficult due to the
geometry of the features so adding a reference point to the ring component makes it easier to
locate it within the assembly. These types of 6reference geometry6 can be used for the
assembly while maintaining a solidonly reference set for the component model or drawing,
eliminating unwanted or unnecessary information.
Another use 7 have seen for reference sets, though it is not as typical among most 8 users
because it violates the aster odel concept, is to reference different models within the same
component for e5ample an uncompressed versus a compressed spring or ring. The two can
be modeled on different layers within the component file, and then referenced separately using
custom reference sets (such as Constrained $tate and &ree $tate). This allows a component to
be shown in either state within an assembly or other file of which it is a component (i.e. adrawing file).
2ow to find center of mass of an - assembly8
& ha'e tried )solid properties check) and )measure bodies)
Analysis (9 :easure ;odies...
...function is the way to do that. <ust make sure that the )election cope) is set to )$ntire Assembly) and
that the )Associati'e) option is toggled +. This will result in not only the creation of your typical :ass
#roperty e!pressions, but also a #oint ob6ect at the centroid of the Assembly. And if you also toggle +the )how &nformation =indow) you)ll get all of the mass property data in the listing window including the
-> coordinates of the centroid. +f course, you can also use...
&nformation (9 #oint...
...to get the -> coordinates of that )centroid) #oint ob6ect any time that you wish.
Also note that this :ass #roperty data /in the form of e!pressions0, including the )centroid) point, will
update as the Components which make up the Assembly are modified. 2owe'er, if new components are
added to the Assembly, you will need to update the ;ody :easurement feature, adding the new
Component/s0 to the measurement.
Q. I want to show the Weight (Kg) of a part in the assembly navigator window.
I know that you can assign a material and then calculate the MASS of the part; however I need to
see the actual Weight (Kg) in the column in the assembly navigator window.
Right click the part in Assembly Navigator, click Properties . Select Weight tab. Check ON "UpdateData on Save" and click "Update Weight Data Now".
-o! e'eryone !ill be looking at the same :achinery ;ibrary. &lso, if you select the (e!sable
+omponent tab, you !ill see a setting that allo!s you to establish custom naming rules and also
allo!s you to specify !here the /eusable )omponents are sa'e !ith the are added to your assembly.This directory should be uni5ue for each user, but should be a net!ork folder. Using the same net!ork
dri'e that you used for the :achinery ;ibrary, create a folder called something like ,art )amily %ae
Directory and in that folder create a folder for each user using their logon name and then set the
default to Networ"Drie#,art )amily %ae Directory#U%'(N$M' and this !ill !ork for e'eryone.
So a couple things to go o'er !ith the $dd (e!sable +omponent Bialog. The first is the ,lacement
section and the +ositioning 6ptions !hich are explained belo!
y +onstraints opens the constraints dialog Aust as if the /eusable )omponent !ere a
standard assembly component = the only difference, there are /emembered )onstraints in the/eusable )omponent that -4 !ill ask you to define first and then from there, you can defineany additional constraints. *f you select Use *nferred )onstraints, then -4 !ill try to define the/emembered )onstraints for you based on the face that face that you select !hen you dragthe /eusable )omponent into your assembly. 0or example if you drag a bolt or scre! into yourassembly and select the cylindrical face of a hole, -4 !ill align the fastener !ith the hole andtouch the top face of the hole to the fastener head there is also the option to create acomponent pattern !hen you select a hole and this !ill place a fastener in all of the relatedholes?.
Inferred 0nly is more or less the same as using )onstraints and selecting Use *nferred)onstraints.
$bsol!te 0rigin and %elect 0rigin are fairly straightfor!ard.
Moe !ill place the component !here'er you let it go and then open the :o'e )omponentdialog !ith the /eusable )omponent selected.