NX-CAM retrieve tools from library: Use specific revisions for MRL tool items
This document describes two use cases:
NX-CAM – use of revisions with MRL tool library
1) Search resources based on revision rule
2) Update revisions for existing resources
The first use case explains how to filter the search to show specific resource revisions.
The second use case shows how to check for new revisions for existing tools in the CAM setup.
Note the following functionality requires at least NX 10.0.3 with newer maintenance pack (e.g. MP6).
1) Search resources based on revision rule
The user can revise resources in Teamcenter (e.g., A, B, C or 001, 002 and 003).
Once he searches for tools, machines and devices in NX-CAM, the system presents all revisions.
Following an example. The tool assembly has 4 revisions A, B, C and D.
The first 3 revisions (A, B, C) have a release status assigned:
By default the system will present ALL available revisions once the NC programmer searches for resources in the library. For the example above all tool revisions are present in the search result:
The user can control what revisions should be used for the NX/Library resource search.
This functionality needs to be turned on using the customer default “Filter Search Result Revisions”:
Customer Defaults Manufacturing Tools [x] Filter Search Result Revisions
The system will now only show ONE revision for each resource in the search result list:
For this example the revision “D” is listed in the table as the default revision use is “Latest Working”.
The user can change the revision rule using the “Assembly Load Options”.
File Open Assembly Load Options…
If you for example prefer to use the latest “released” tool (in this case revision “C”),
you can switch the rule to “Any Status, Working”:
2) Update revisions for existing resources
The previous use case explained how to use a specific revision to retrieve tools, machines and devices from the MRL library. These selected revisions are used in the CAM setup part file. The revision ID (= library reference) and tool parameters are stored in the NX part file.
The CAM setup uses these specific revisions even if you later change the revision rule in NX.
This ensures that the same tool parameters are used once you reopen the CAM setup later.
Note: The system does NOT automatically check for new or different resource revisions.
The user can use the function “Update Resource Revisions” to update the resource revisions based on a revision rule:
Menu Tools Update Resource Revisions
The system cycles over all resources and checks if the revision in the CAM setup is different to the revision configures by the revision rule. If this is the case, the new revision is “re-retrieved” from the library.
NX replaces the resources with the correct revisions, updates the library reference, replaces the 3D tool model (if required) and flags the status of related CAM operations.
The following example illustrates this behavior:
Left: The existing tool revisions. Right: Updated revisions (based on rule “Any Status, Working”).
The function “Update Resource Revisions” uses the currently selected revision rule (defined in the Assembly Load Options) to check if new resource revisions are available in the database.
Another example using the revision rule “Latest Working”:
Left: The existing tool revisions. Right: Updated revisions (based on rule “Latest Working”).
Note: The system behaves slightly different for the machine and tools assigned to a tool pocket.
Following an example listing the components that are part of the CAM setup assembly structure:
The machine and two tools (that are assigned to a pocket) are part of the CAM assembly BOM.
All parts of the assembly structure will only be updated once to CAM setup part is opened in NX.
The correct revision rule needs to be selected BEFORE the CAM setup part is loaded.
The following procedure should be followed to make sure that the assembly structure and resource lists are in sync:
1) Close the CAM setup part in NX.
2) Select the desired revision rule using the Assembly Load Options.
3) Open the CAM setup and switch to the Manufacturing application.
4) Now the user can execute the function “Update Resource Revisions”.
If the revision rule needs to be changed, the same procedure should be executed:
First close the CAM setup part BEFORE the revision rule is switched…
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