Summary: Material assignment in family table

[cfly]

Unfortunately, I've tried all the suggestions below and none has worked.
I've come to the conclusion that it is not possible in WF 2; the only
parameters that can be added to the family table or used in relations are
the user-defined ones.



Thanks to all who attempted to help!



Carol



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Applied Research Labs

University of Texas at Austin

Carol Fly

Mechanical Designer

(512) 835-3397

Fax (512) 835-3259

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I'm not sure about WIldfire 2, but in 3 (and I would assume 4 & 5) it is
possible. First, in the generic, add all the material files you might want
to assign to the generic or instances and assign the one you want Pro/E to
consider the generic to be made of. Then add the parameter
PTC_MATERIAL_NAME to the family table. For your instances, select in the
cell under the column for PTC_MATERIAL_NAME, you'll get a list of the
materials that you added to the generic. What you're doing with the family
table is changing what material file is assigned to each instance, not
changing material characteristics of the assigned file. Key is in the
generic you have to add all the material files you might want to switch your
instances to. Remember that Pro/E copies the material file definitions into
the model, it doesn't retain an active link back to your material library.

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[cfly]

One last suggestion from Brent. My problem is isolated to one part, though,
and the difference in properties between the two materials is negligible;
hardly worth all of this. Also, we're expected to move to WF 5 later this
year, so there's not much point in jumping through so many hoops when we'll
soon be able to do what I was looking for in a far more straightforward
manner.



Might be useful for others out there, though, so here it is.



Thanks,



Carol



efefefefefefef

Applied Research Labs

University of Texas at Austin

Carol Fly

Mechanical Designer

(512) 835-3397

Fax (512) 835-3259

efefefefefefef



_____

Hi Carol,

I fired up WF2 and it was a bit of a shock to see the limitation in
functionality there. In WF3 and beyond PTC changed the way material files
were used and probably most of the solutions suggested would work. Much
nicer in WF5!



But there may be another way to beat the system.



How about using the Inheritance Feature rather than Family tables. The way
I just tried this is to make a simple model (I already had one) and leave it
with no assigned material. Then make new blank parts and add the original
model as and Inheritance Feature using Insert > Shared data > Inheritance
from other model... and use your master model each time and locate at the
default. Then assign a material to each of the sub models you have made.

[I think you can go back and add a material to the master part and the sub
models should all be OK but I haven't tried this.]



The not so nice thing is you either have to do a complicated interchange to
swap these in you assembly or (easier) assemble each one into the assembly.
Then you make your Family Table and set each of these material models to it
so you can have them on or off (suppressed). Once you have done this
suppress all except for the original master model if you have assembled it.
This later master model would be better with a material in case you do
weight calculations or the like. Your family table will control which of
the material variants you want.



Complex method but should be robust.



I have some simple files that I used to test the first part of this in case
you want them. Attached as zip file but not sure if you can receive this.
If not I can resend with individual ProE files instead.


Regards, Brent Drysdale
Senior Mechanical Designer
Tait Radio Communications
New Zealand
DDI +64 3 358 1093
www.taitradio.com