PDF problem.

CM10 · ‎Sep 09, 2009

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 12:40 pm Post subject: PDF problem:

Since the company I'm with now does not use separate part numbers for every different part, and a lot of times the description is the same (i.e. "TUBE"), many times everything with the description of "TUBE" comes in on the parts list in the same row with a quantity equal to everything with "TUBE" as a description. Needless to say, this causes a lot of problems with balloons etc. So, I added the parameter "&asm.mbr.name" to one of the cells to force a separate row for each unique filename, but made the text height .000001 so it wouldn't print. This works fine in printig from Pro/E directly, or making a PDF using the "TrueType" font option. But when we use the "Stroke All Fonts" option, the values for the parameter "&asm.mbr.name" show up as dots, which our checkers are demanding we remove. We can't simply use the "TrueType" font option as we want the font proportions we have on the format because the default .8 width text then bleeds over into other cells. I tried to put that one piece of text for the parameter in the repeat region on a layer to turn off at the dwg level, but Pro/E won't let me even pick the text string. So, does anyone know a setting for creating the PDF's that will ignore things under a certain threshold?

Thanks.
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davehaigh · ‎Sep 09, 2009

Frank,
You need to approach this a different way.

Each of these items should have a part number. Lets say your assy, or weldment, whatever it is, has a part number of 123456. Then each of the components should have a dash number of -001, -002, -003, etc. You can either show that in the BOM as 123456-001, 123456-002, 123456-003, etc. or just the dash numbers.

This will make each item unique in the BOM so it has it's own line. No need do any hokey stuff with text size.

Chapter 7 of Global's Drawing Requirements Manual goes over this.

David Haigh
Phone: 925-424-3931
Fax: 925-423-7496
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
7000 East Ave, L-362
Livermore, CA 94550

CBenner · ‎Sep 10, 2009

Another approach is to leave the part number alone, and add a description field. Our example here is CPVC pipe spools. CPVC has one part number, regardless of the spool size. So we added a description parameter and in that field we give each spool a number. ie: 4" CPVC SPOOL 1, 2, 3 etc. Then in your BOM each piece will show up, with the same part number but as a separate line item due to the description field.

Just another thought.

Chris Benner
Designer II
Powell Fabrication & Manufacturing, Inc.

www.powellfab.com

Chris Benner
Autodesk ® Expert Elite

CM10 · ‎Sep 15, 2009

In Reply to Chris Benner:

Another approach is to leave the part number alone, and add a description field. Our example here is CPVC pipe spools. CPVC has one part number, regardless of the spool size. So we added a description parameter and in that field we give each spool a number. ie: 4" CPVC SPOOL 1, 2, 3 etc. Then in your BOM each piece will show up, with the same part number but as a separate line item due to the description field.
Just another thought.
Chris Benner
Designer II
Powell Fabrication & Manufacturing, Inc.
www.powellfab.com


Chris,
We DO have a description field, it's just that since we do a lot of weldments, many times the description is just "TUBE" or something. and, if there's nothing else to sort by (&asm.mbr.name), everything that simply says "TUBE" ends up in one row.

CM10 · ‎Sep 29, 2009

Ok, problem solved. Originally I added 2 parameters to the table in 2 different cells, one to sort by (whether it was an assembly, a fabricated part, a purchased component, bulk item, fastener, etc.), and another (asm.mbr.name) to force the BOM to have a separate row for each unique part since we don't use that in our BOM (don't ask...). I added them to cells that already had similar parameters in them and to keep from printing just made the text height extremely small. But, while not visible in Pro/E the PDF's still printed a dot there. I originally added them to the cells in the repeat region because I thought that you needed them there for the sort and just to force the separate rows. I found by experimentation that this is not true. I added the "asm.mbr.name" parameter to the sort list at the bottom (the other was already in there at the top of the list), and deleted the parameters from the cells themselves. Now, since those parameters are no longer in the repeat region itself, they can't print, but the sorting and separate row functionality still exist.
Now, if we can only get the flexible part problem with repeat regions solved........ 😞