NX Tip
of the Week
October
24, 2014
NX
8.5 and NX 9.0 - Sketch Constraint Tips and Tricks
In this week's tip, we are going to take a look at how to apply
constraints to a sketch in NX 8.5/9.0. Starting in NX 8.5 a new look sketch
constraint tool was introduced. When clicking the new sketch constraint
command, it requires you to select the desired geometric constraint first then
define the geometry. In prior versions, you selected the desired geometry and
the available inferred constraints would only be displayed. A new floating
toolbar called the shortcut toolbar can help us achieve this behavior without
even going into the sketch constraints command.
Before we dive into that workflow, let's investigate how the new Geometric
Constraints command works.
1) Click on the Geometric Constraints Tool:
2) When you first go into the command, the dialog below is presented (NX 9). This tells us that there are other methods to apply constraints and this dialog is helpful when doing multiple items in one session of the constraint type. One that is mentioned is the shortcut toolbar which we will investigate later:
3) Notice we are prompted
to select the constraint type first, then the geometry:
4) If you are doing a
one-to-one constraint, you will need to advance the dialog. This means I'm
picking one item in my first step to constrain and one item in the second step
to constrain to.
a. For example, I want to create a midpoint
constraint to make my rectangle symmetric. I'm going to select the
midpoint constraint first:
b. Then I will select the
left vertical line for the "Select Object to Constrain" step:
c. I need to select the
"Select Object to Constrain to" to make active. I need to
advance the dialog. If you are constraining one object to one object, you might
forget to advance the dialog (remember middle mouse button will also advance
the dialog onto the next step). I will select the origin for the second
select set:
d. The constraint is now applied.
e.
Now let's do the other midpoint constraint. Notice the option
"Automatic Selection Progression". This will automatically advance
the dialog for us after the first selection is made. Let's turn on this
option. In NX 8.5, this option is under the "Settings" group:
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f. I will select the top horizontal line for the
"Select Object to Constrain" step:
g. Notice the dialog is
automatically advanced to the "Select Object to Constrain to"
step:
h. I will now select the origin. The constraint is now placed.
5) The purpose of the
previous steps was to show the natural interaction with the Geometric
Constraints dialog when constraining sketches. Keep in mind you need to
advance the dialog or turn on the "Automatic Selection
Progression". If you need to select multiple items in the
"Select Object to Constrain" step, you will want to turn off
"Automatic Selection Progression".
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Now we are going to look at
the inferred Geometric Constraints workflow by interacting with the shortcut
toolbar. With this method, we will not even go into the Geometric
Constraints command.
1) I'm going to create the
same midpoint constraint as I did earlier.
2) This time just select the
left vertical line. Notice a floating toolbar called the shortcut
toolbar comes up. To the left of the divider, you see typical right click
menu commands. To the right of the divider you see possible geometric
constraints that were inferred based on the geometry type (line/arc) and that
only one item was selected. I'm not going to select anything from the
shortcut toolbar yet:
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3) Now I'm going to select
the origin. Notice the shortcut toolbar changes the available geometric
constraints because I have 2 items selected. Different constraints are
inferred similar to what we did prior to NX 8.5. Here I'm going to select
the midpoint constraint:
4) The shortcut toolbar is
dismissed and the midpoint constraint is applied:
5) In this example, we just
selected the desired geometry for the constraints and the proper constraint is
inferred and presented in the floating toolbar. We didn't use the
Geometric Constraints command.
That concludes this week's Ally PLM Tip and
Trick. We looked at the natural progression of using the Geometric
Constraints dialog as well as the option to automatically advance the dialog.
We also looked at using the floating shortcut toolbar to apply geometric
constraints.
Brandon Carter
Senior Application Engineer
Ally PLM Solutions, Inc.
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