Merging component quantities from different models?

[cstarnes]

Been fighting with this issue off and on for decades, and never really found a good solution...so I've always just winged it. Now that I'm starting from scratch on a new automation project in Creo 3, I figured I'd ask again.  🙂

I have an assembly (think of a wall framing assembly)... that is made up of several studs with various embedded window and door frames. Each window and door is a configurable subassembly with it's own components. Although the wall is built as a single assembly in the end, treating the doors, windows, and other types of "holes" as sub-assemblies allows for some pretty complex configuration and automation...so it's integral to modeling this side frame.

Here is the problem..

Door #1 for example has a it's own vertical post part on each side so that they can be lengthened or whatever. But, they may technically be the same part as other studs in the wall (or other sub-assemblies) unless the length changes. (Same description, same length, same part number parameters). 

If they match the other studs, they need to be merged into the repeat region and balloons as the same part...which in reality they are. For all practical purposes, manufacturing needs to cut 23 of these identical studs to build the wall. They are only different from the standpoint of having different model names in Creo. 

So...  how can I tell a repeat region to use a parameter called "Description" for example, to treat parts from separate sub-assemblies as one, with one line item and balloon representing the total quantity in the assembly?

Without this, I have tons of balloons and repeat region lines all calling out the same part, simply because they are in different subs. (My repeat region is a flat recursive view of the top assembly, filtering out sub-assemblies and only including their parts). That will never fly with manufacturing, and makes maintenance of the drawings very tedious.

[TomU]

Repeat regions (when set to no duplicates) will automatically merge any rows where all of the data between the rows matches.  The trick to making this work is to not choosing any repeat region parameters that will show differences between components you want merged. (asm.mbr.Name, asm.mbr.Type, etc.)

[cstarnes]

I'm not displaying asm.mbr.Name...only model parameters, and they all match. My repeat region header looks like this:

rpt.index, rpt.qty, asm.mbr.PART_NUMBER, asm.mbr.DESC, and asm.mbr.MATERIAL.

It acts as though it keeps them separate because asm.mbr.Name is different, which it obviously will be since they are separate models. I've never been able to keep it from looking at asm.mbr.Name even with No Duplicates... thus my problem.

[cstarnes]

Figured it out... sort of.

It only took 25 years or so, but it finally dawned on me that even though asm.mbr.Name isn't being used in my repeat region (visibly), maybe it was still a member of the repeat region's parameter collection that I could find and get rid of. (duh)

I opened the relations editor and switched to the repeat region, and then looked at the parameters. There it was... staring at me ominously....  asm.mbr.Name.

Deleted that parameter, and ta da..  no dupes works as I need it too.

BUT...  Creo adds it back when I regen the model or table. WTH?

So the answer is to remove the asm.mbr.name parameter so it can't be used to compare table values.... but how do I KEEP it removed?

[James62]

Try overriding it inside the relations window.

asm_mbr_name=""

Not sure if that'd work, but it's worth a shot.

[cstarnes · Accepted solution]

Thought I would update this for future reference. Deleting asm.mbr.Name from the repeat region's parameter collection definitely fixes the problem of parts with identical shown parameters not being merged. But, Creo will sometimes add the parameter again automatically, usually if you edit the repeat region in certain ways.

The key is to delete that parameter (if it exists) as the last step after making any changes to a repeat region. Following that process, I haven't had any more issues with it.