This section deals with design changes and the various associativity mechanisms provided with Machining products.
| For information about... | Please refer to... |
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Methodology for Design Changes. |
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| Status for operation creation and modification, Geometry not up to date, Geometry not found, tool path status, and so on. |
The following example illustrates the methodology for Design/Manufacturing reconciliation after a design change.
Consider a Part Operation which references a CATProduct (Product1), which in turn references a CATPart (Part1).
Product.1, which is the component visible to the user in the interactive session, is stored in the document Product1.CATProduct.
Part.1, which is the component visible to the user in the interactive session, is stored in the document Part1.CATPart.
In order to modify the design of the CATPart proceed as follows.
Modify the design in Part1.
Save Part1 as Part2 (rename Part1.CATPart as Part2.CATPart).
Open Product1.
Replace the component Part1 by Part2.
Save Product1 as Product2 (rename Product1.CATProduct as Product2.CATProduct).
Note that component instance names of Product1 should be unique and they should be identical to the component instance names of Product2. Product part numbers may be different.
Then there are two ways for reconciliation of the design and manufacturing:
by direct selection using the Part Operation editor
by Edit Links.
Open the CATProcess.
Edit the Part Operation that references the old design. Click
Product or Part
in the Part Operation dialog box and select the new product.
Click OK to quit the Part Operation dialog box. The various
machining operations are updated.
Notes
Depending on the document environment setting (Tools > Options > General > Document tab), the new product can be selected from a file, a catalog, and so on.
The impacts of the reconciliation are global with respect to the CATProcess and not local to the Part Operation. This means that all the Part Operations that referenced the old design will now reference the new design.
If the design change was performed through the edition of a part operation, a message informs you that the design change will also impact other part operation(s). You can choose to continue or refuse the design change.
Select Edit > Links.
In the Links tab, select the line corresponding to the link of the Part Operation that references the old design, then click the Replace button.
Notes
Depending on the document environment setting (Tools > Options > General > Document tab), the new product can be selected from a file, a catalog, and so on.
You must use the Links tab to replace the old design. Do not use the Pointed Documents tab to do this.
You must not do a Replace on the line corresponding to the Product > CATProduct link. This link is not managed by Machining products and so cannot be used in design/manufacturing reconciliation.
The impacts of the reconciliation are global with respect to the CATProcess and not local to the Part Operation. This means that all the Part Operations that referenced the old design will now reference the new design.
In case of design changes, the designer provides the NC programmer with one or more new CATParts and CATProducts. The programmer has to replace the old CATProduct referenced by the CATProcess by a new one including the new CATParts and CATProducts. As described in the previous chapter, the programmer can use either the Edit Links capability or the Part Operation editor for this.
A CATProcess can be linked to CATProduct/CATPart in several ways:
There are links between Part Operation and the CATProduct containing the geometry to be machined.
There are links between operations and the geometry to be machined contained in the different CATParts/CATProducts included in the CATProduct linked to the Part Operation.
There are links between formulas used by the operations and CATParts/CATProducts included in the CATProduct linked to the Part Operation through the formula parameters.
When a design referenced by the CATProcess is modified, the NC programmer has to reconcile the CATProcess with the new CATProduct using the Edit Links capability.
After reconciliation using the Edit Links capability:
The new CATProduct should appear in the ProductList and be linked to each Part Operation that was linked to the old one.
Each operation that pointed a geometry that was included in the old CATProduct:
should now be linked to the equivalent geometry in the new CATProduct if it exists
or be in Geometry not found status, if the equivalent is not found in the new CATProduct.
Each formula that referenced an element of a CATPart of the old CATProduct, should now reference the equivalent element in the new CATProduct.
That is, if a formula points to parameters that are defined in the CATProduct you want to replace, after reconciliation the formula will point to the corresponding parameters in the new CATProduct.
If some of these parameters are not found, the behavior will be the same as when a parameter is deleted. A clone of the parameter will be aggregated under the formula. It will take the value of the old parameter and becomes fixed. The formula will be not broken and will continue to be associative with the other parameters.
Note that this rerouting is possible only if the new CATParts and CATProducts are created by a Save As of the old ones. The instance names in the new CATProduct must be the same as in the old CATProduct.
All links on published geometric elements can be retrieved using the Edit Links capability or the Part Operation editor even when the replaced part is new compared to the previous one. This means that associativity is assured in design change scenarios even when CATProduct/CATPart B is a New From of CATProduct/CATPart A.
Consider the following scenario where the NC programmer receives a CATProduct, in which some geometric elements have been published.
The programmer defines the process by selecting either the published elements in the specification tree or the geometry in the geometry visualization area.
The publication name of the published reference geometry is displayed in the Geometry Analyser dialog box. This enables the programmer to be sure that the selected geometry has been published.
The NC programmer receives a new version of this CATProduct. To reconcile the original CATProcess with this new version, the programmer can use the Edit Links capability or modify the CATProduct using the Part Operation editor.
To be sure there are no positioning problems in the old and new CATProducts, each instance corresponding to an old one should have the same instance name.
Then the NC programmer must select the new CATProduct.
For each operation pointing to published geometry, the system searches for the same publication name in the corresponding product instance (same instance name). If the corresponding publication is found, the operation will be rerouted to the new geometry.
Manual rerouting is proposed for publications that have not been solved automatically in the following dialog box.
The NC programmer must select the new publication in the new CATProduct inserted the ProductList that corresponds to the old publication.
In this case, all operations that pointed to the geometry under the old publication will be rerouted to the geometry under the new one.
Publications that are not solved at this time will be lost and operations that pointed to geometry in this old publication will be in Geometry not found status.
The NC programmer obtains a new CATProcess with operations whose status is Not up to date (or Geometry not found if some selected geometry was not published or have no corresponding publications in the new CATProduct). The programmer must then validate the reconciliation by analyzing geometry and replaying the tool path.
Geometry in axial operations is defined by a machining pattern and a geometrical feature. The geometrical feature is automatically linked to a design geometry when the first position of the machining pattern is selected. If this position is a design pattern, then the geometrical feature is linked to the design pattern's reference.
An axial operation is geometrically complete when:
its geometrical feature is linked to a design geometry
its machining pattern contains at least one point.
In the following example, Drilling.1 contains a machining pattern whose referenced geometry is RectPattern.1. When RectPattern.1 is selected, Hole.1 (reference of RectPattern.1) is linked to the geometrical feature of Drilling.1.
If you want to make a design change by replacing the Part or Product in the Part Operation, both RectPattern.1 and Hole.1 must be published. Then all geometrical links in the axial operation can be resolved.
The rules described below describe the various status of the elements referenced by machining operations and how to recognize these status. It deals with the following:
Elements referenced in a machining operation, which are colored according to the Color and Highlight settings specified in Tools > Options > Machining > General.
Status lights on machining operation tabs, for example
.
Symbols used on the specification tree icons, for example
.
Texts used in the specification tree, for example Computed.
Useful settings in Tools > Options > Machining > General for tracking design changes are:
Smart NC mode
Optimized detection of design changes
Update activity status automatically.
Before selection, a required element is colored according to the color setting for Required parameters. Once selected, it is colored according to the color setting for Valuated parameters.
Before selection, an optional element is colored according to the color setting for Optional parameters. Once selected, it is colored according to the color setting for Valuated parameters.
The status light on a tab is Red when all the required elements of that tab have not been selected. Once selected, the status light becomes Green.
The Replay is not available when the status light on a tab is Red.
After a successful Replay, the status of the operation becomes Computed. Depending on the Machining product and/or type of operation, a tool path node may be added to the computed operation in the specification tree.
Once modified, a selected element is colored according to the color setting
for Geometry not up to date.
This allows quick recognition of impacted machining features.
The Analysis of the element is then possible: its status becomes Not up to date. Its Smart Geometry is visible.
The status light of the corresponding tab is Orange.
In the specification tree, the operation icon has an Update symbol
. If the operation had
Computed status, it remains in this state.
The Replay is available.
Once deleted (or no longer present), a selected element is colored according to the color setting for Geometry not found. This allows quick recognition of deleted machined geometry.
The Analysis of the element is then possible: its status becomes Not found. Its Smart Geometry is visible.
The status light of the corresponding tab is Red.
In the specification tree, the operation icon has an Exclamation symbol
. If the operation had
Computed status, it remains in this state.
The Replay is not available.
The status light of the corresponding tab becomes Green when all the elements with the Geometry not found or Required parameters color setting are:
The Replay is not available when the status light on a tab is Red.
An Update symbol means that
at least one selected element has been modified. In the corresponding tab the
status color is Orange and the color setting is Geometry not up to date.
An Exclamation symbol
means one of the following:
A Locked symbol
means that a computed operation
and its tool path is in a Locked state. The OK button of the operation editor
is not available. This is the result of a deliberate user action and the
operation remains in this state until it is unlocked by the user.
Please refer to Lock/Unlock Mechanisms for more
information.
Status are obtained when Update Activity Status Automatically
is not set in
Tools > Options > Machining > General. To know the status of one, several
or all operations of a program, you must click Status of Selected
Activities
in the Auxiliary Commands toolbar.
Note: Machining operations that were created just before a system crash, are regenerated during Warm Start with status Not up to date.
The Computed text in the specification tree means that the operation has been computed (that is, the tool path is present).
It does not guarantee the coherence of the operation with respect to the context. Its coherence is guaranteed by a replay when this available.
When there is no text, this means that the operation has not been computed (that is, the tool path is not present). This status is obtained after creating an operation without a tool path replay or after removing a tool path.
