Can't modify the thickness of a simple part. It is grayed out!

[JS_9824412]

Thanks for any hints for solving this efficiency issue.

[BenLoosli]

Which direction are you trying to modify the thickness, thicker or thinner?

Thicker should not be a problem.

Thinner may cause issues with your object tolerance settings. With a large diameter, you may not be able to get it as thin as you want with the default tolerance setting. Also, if Creo 7 or 8, the default tolerance has changed from relative to absolute. Is your start part a pre Creo 7 file where the tolerance has not been reset to the 'new' default.

Adjust your tolerance numbers and see if that changes the ability to make the part thinner.

[JS_9824412]

Thanks for your hint.

The part is created by "save as" in Windchill to duplicate an existing assembly and its drawing in CREO 6, one of its components is the "father" of this part. This new part is not locked in Windchill. Originally the part is 0.007" thick. I want to make it thicker. (Also curious about what is the point for PTC to gray the thickness cell out?)

[MartinHanak]

Hi,

modify dimension value in Part mode (not during Edit Definition mode) and check Message area - maybe Creo displays some error message.

[JS_9824412]

Thanks,

It was in Part mode. I also clicked on the dimension shown in the screen area. Creo didn't throw any error message.

Thanks,

Have a good day.

[pausob]

It really sounds like a feature-level relation is locking the thickness dimension of your disc extrusion.  Otherwise, it's some Windchill voodo, I'd say.

Clicking on a dimension in the graphics window will not throw a warning, but double-clicking (i.e. attempting to modify it) might show a message at the bottom of the screen such as Dimension in PART_MODEL is driven by relation d1=0.007.

Also, right-click on the feature containing the dimension and then select Information->Feature Information.  The resulting window has the Relation table at the bottom, and it might tell you something more.

Funny thing is, a feature-level relation can modify dimensions of other features (including the features that come AFTER), so you might have to check the 4 datum features ahead of this extrusion.

[JS_9824412 · Accepted solution]

I revisited the problem by duplicating again the assembly and the part, and found out the culprit is a relation created in the assembly. This relation is not shown in the part mode, but in the assembly mode. It turned out that the grayed out thickness is set to be proportional to a thickness of some other part in the assembly. (The batch of relations were created by myself one year ago).

Thanks for the hints! Especially the one to check the "message at the bottom of the screen" (and "check Message area -" from Martin).

[kdirth]

I would guess it is relation driven.  Check for relations in the feature.

[JS_9824412]

Thanks. I checked {Relations, Dependencies, Parameters, Lock/Unlock in Windchill, etc.} and couldn't find the cause. Maybe it was just a computer glitch or tiny virus. I ended up with creating a new part to Replace the "infected". Luckily it is a very simple geometry.

Thanks,

Have a good day.

A SolidWorks Lover