Making UDFs with annotation features that are independent of a annotation plane

[Chris3]

I have a UDF that has annotation features

When I use this UDF in another part, if the annotation plane is different from the one that the UDF was created in then the annotations come in with the suppressed icon next to them and while you can see them briefly if you edit the dimension they are associated to they will not show up using the show annotations button.

I opened up a ticket and PTCs response was that I need to place the UDF in the same annotation plane that it was originally made in. This means that I would need 6 different UDFs that all have the same features. My users would need to figure out what annotation plane they are working in and then pick the correct UDF that corresponds.

Am I missing something? Does anyone know of a work around for this? If there is none then I can open an idea, seems like PTC should be able to auto change the annotation plane to correspond to one that the UDF placement is parallel to.

[tbraxton]

I have been facing a similar issue with the use of annotations within UDF shown in drawing views. I gather that you are not working with drawings, but the issue may share elements leading to a common solution. In my case the annotations are created in a section view. I have created a simplified drawing for each UDF that I am importing into design drawings that use the UDF. This is a workaround for 2D.

If you can post the UDF models or at least pictures of the UDF and the annotations captured for re-use that would be helpful.

I am not sure I follow the response from PTC;

"need to place the UDF in the same annotation plane that it was originally made in"

Can you place a link to the call log on the support site?

With UDFs the intent is to have all needed references (for features) within the UDF definition. I expect that PTC would follow the same paradigm for annotations defined within the UDF. If this is the case, then perhaps we should consider the definition of a combined state within the UDF and having this propagate to any model receiving the UDF. I am not sure this is currently supported, have you tried this?

[Chris3 · Accepted solution]

I opened a call with PTC and the confirmed the behavior. They stated that if you select the suppressed annotations and then click "move to plane" then it will unsupress and show on the plane you picked. The text is often not in the orientation you want but this does work.

If the annotations were made on the front annotation plan and the UDF in the next part is also made on the front plane everything is great. The issue is when the UDF is used on the right annotation plane for instance when it was originally defined in the front annotation plane.