Assemblies Concepts

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.

Assembly Concept-Introduction

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.

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.

Terminology

Overview: There are six terms to be familiar with when working in the Assemblies application: Top-Down, Bottom-Up, Work Part, Displayed Part, Loaded Part, and Design In Context.

Top-Down Top-Down assembly modeling allows you to create and/or edit component geometry (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.

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.

Terminology
Work Part The Work Part is the current part in which you can create or edit geometry. When you are working in 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. 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.

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.

Design In Context NX makes it possible to create and edit components while 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.

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.

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 best way to think of an assembly file is to consider it as a collection of components and other subassemblies 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.

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.

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

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.

Assembly Navigation
Assembly Navigator The Assembly Navigator window contains a treestructure 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 panel Preview panel

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Assembly Navigation
Dependencies Panel This 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.

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.

Assembly Navigator Component Pop-up Menu

If you place the cursor over a component and rightclick, a pop-up menu displays allowing you to perform operations on the assembly structure.

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.

Assembly Navigator Component Pop-up Menu

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 of some 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.

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.

Assembly Navigator Component Pop-up Menu

Open Selecting Open displays a submenu listing the open commands. This allows you to work with an assembly structure 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.

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.

Assembly Navigator Component Pop-up Menu

Child Components This command is available when a component such as a sub-assembly is opened but has one or several unloaded child components. This loads all of the child components.

Assembly Opens the entire assembly and all components regardless 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.

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.

Component Fully Loads the complete part file for a partially loaded component.

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.
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.

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 selected object 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
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.

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 an assembly. 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 unnecessary geometry from the assembly display.

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.

Common Reference Set Practices

By default, every part has three reference sets: Entire Part, which contains all the part's geometry; Empty, which contains no geometry 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.

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.