RE: Pro Piping help? Please?!

CBenner · ‎Apr 22, 2009

Any piping gurus out there?

I have an existing assembly. Need to add a pipeline to it. No matter how I route this new pipeline, a fitting at the end of the previously existing pipeline somehow becomes a child of the new one, and loses it's references, leaving me with no choices other than suppress, delete or freeze. None of these are acceptable. I have never seen this before.

If I use the end of the existing pipeline as my start point,... it loses it's references... but not right away mind you.... later, after I've been working for a while. The same is true if I start the pipeline somewhere else, and route TO that point. This has caused me THREE times, to use the dreaded "Delete All Versions", and attemp to start over from scratch.

Please,... any ideas?

Chris Benner
Designer II
Powell Fabrication & Manufacturing, Inc.
www.powellfab.com
P: 989-681-2158
F: 989-681-5013

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Chris Benner
Autodesk ® Expert Elite

ahusain · ‎Apr 22, 2009

If you create an assembly component whose first solid feature is the placement constraint, I found that in the past, Pro/E considers that a circular reference. In other words, if you assemble a newly created part by default coordinate systems, then make the first solid/nonDatum feature as a complete child of existing geometry, that is ok. But if you don't locate it first, and the location AND first solid/nonDatum feature is based off existing geometry, it considers that a foul. Need to locate, then create first feature.

You could also try to eliminate any chain-reactions of parent-child references and make them a single level deep. Instead of referencing the previous pipeline end, create a skeleton coordinate system in space and let the previous pipeline end and new pipeline end both reference that. Having a clear driver-driven relationship that is not concatenated more than one level should also make your models regenerate faster.

Hope that helps!

Akbar Husain

Any piping gurus out there?
I have an existing assembly. Need to add a pipeline to it. No matter how I route this new pipeline, a fitting at the end of the previously existing pipeline somehow becomes a child of the new one, and loses it's references, leaving me with no choices other than suppress, delete or freeze. None of these are acceptable. I have never seen this before.
If I use the end of the existing pipeline as my start point,... it loses it's references... but not right away mind you.... later, after I've been working for a while. The same is true if I start the pipeline somewhere else, and route TO that point. This has caused me THREE times, to use the dreaded "Delete All Versions", and attemp to start over from scratch.
Please,... any ideas?

Chris Benner
Designer II
Powell Fabrication & Manufacturing, Inc.
www.powellfab.com
P: 989-681-2158
F: 989-681-5013

swschultz · ‎Apr 22, 2009

Chris,

It sounds like you have something squirrely going on there, but hopefully
this should solve your problem.

Are you using a coordinate system (entry port) as the start location for
your pipeline? Is this csys also the start or end location for your existing
pipeline or a csys in your existing fitting? Even if not, it should be
feasible to create another csys using a transformation matrix directly on
top of the other csys at the end of the existing pipeline (or at the
appropriate location within the fitting) without having this csys reference
the existing pipeline csys (or fitting) in any fashion. This new csys can
then be used as the starting location for your new pipeline. In doing this
you will not be creating any references to the existing geometry.

To accomplish this, make your new pipeline model your "active" model (or you
can do this within a skeleton part), and then start the creation of a new
coordinate system. For the new csys references, first select the existing
csys at the end of the existing pipeline (or in the fitting), and secondly
select the default csys in your new pipeline model (or the default csys in
your skeleton model). This completes the definition of the new csys defined
using a transformation matrix. It sounds much more difficult than it is.

As mentioned previously, this new csys has NO ties to the existing models.
If you use this new csys as the starting location for your new pipeline, it
won't matter what you do with the existing pipeline or fitting, you can
delete them, suppress them, or whatever you like, your new pipeline with
remain in tact. One thing to note in using this procedure is that if you
move the end of your existing pipeline (or fitting) the adjoining end of the
new pipeline will not automatically update to the appropriate location. You
will have to redefine the newly created csys described above and re-select
the two csys references (existing csys & default) based upon their new
location. I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Scott W. Schultz

Principal Consultant

3D Relief Inc.

Raleigh, NC

(919)259-0610

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