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dmorg1-Visitor
1-Visitor
February 6, 2017
Question

Pro/Program and Windchill

  • February 6, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 3533 views

We are heavily into using Pro/Program along with Pro/Notebooks to drive large assembly model automation.

In the past we were told that Pro/Program and Windchill are not a good match for design iterations and modifications

and automation. (currently using CREO 2.0)

Does anyone know if this is still the case?

3 replies

T
TomU23-Emerald IV
23-Emerald IV
February 8, 2017

If I had to guess, I would say the concern probably has to do with models getting marked as changed (or modified) any time the upstream data is changed (when driven from Pro/Notebook, relations, etc.)  Windchill is going to flag anything that Creo marks as changed, even if the model has no visible changes to its geometry or parameters.  This same issue also occurs with shared references (copy geometry, merge, inheritance, etc.)  If the parent model changes in any way, all of the downstream models will get flagged as modified as well (assuming they're in session, regenerated, and saved.)  There are definitely ways to both manage and control this behavior.

Using automation to drive changes to objects that are new or that you want to change works fine.  On the other hand, if you want to use a "dynamic" assembly over and over again without creating copies but showing it in different configurations, you might want to look at flexible modeling (or family tables).  It's fairly straight forward to "flex" dimensions and parameters (even those that drive automation) to allow an assembly to appear different without actually altering the underlying original assembly.

    R
    rmcboaty1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    February 10, 2017

    what are these pro/notebooks, mathCAD notebooks?

    T
    TomU23-Emerald IV
    23-Emerald IV
    February 16, 2017

    Think of them like drawings but with both parameters AND relations, and with the ability to link their parameters to the same parameters in other models (drive the model from the notebook.)  They used to be called layouts buy now they are called notebooks (even though they still have the .lay extension.)  They can only be created if you have the Advanced Assembly Extension.  You can read more about them here:  http://support.ptc.com/help/creo/creo_pma/usascii/assembly/asm/asm_three_sub/About_Notebooks.html#

    B
    BrianMartin13-Aquamarine
    13-Aquamarine
    February 24, 2017

    My reaction to Notebook has always been the same... RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN!

    I'd love to know more about the original poster's application. Over time the need for Pro/PROGRAM and Notebook has been severely cut with the advent of more flexible techniques which require less overhead and hassle.

    V
    vzak12-Amethyst
    12-Amethyst
    May 7, 2017

    Few thoughts on the topic above , sorry for late comment.

    1. Usage of Pro/PROGRAM to push parameters from the top to bottom (I suppose using EXECUTE statement) definitely revision the model in WC. Still there should be a control possible over this this i.e. EXECUTE command can be put under additional IF condition. So that upon regeneration one can decide to execute certain model Yes/No. This can be done both via regeneration interruption, or by loading pre defined parameters file i.e. controlled by supervisor. Not saying this is simple - but request of that level of control is not simple by definition.

    2. Notebooks : here indeed all global parameters will be pushed, no news on this one.

    3. Still if you require more intelligent and fully controlled way of top-down propagation of parameters - you can use classical CopyGeoms for this, utilizing nice feature that CopyGeom copies surface / curve parameters along with entity itself. So you can create special "parameter holder" geometry at a top level skeleton (name it appropriately) and Copy it to lower levels by dedicated Copygeoms, named say "PARAM_PROPAGATOR".

    If it is important for you to have these parameters at a model level (and not at a quilt / curve level) this can be done by a relation MODEL_PARAM_A = COPIED_QUILT_PARAM_A.

    Then controlling these copygeoms dependency you can control top/down propagation of these parameters straight forward. This control is simple and visual by adding "Update Control" tree column.

    Hope this helps,

    - Vlad

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