ZONES

Use the Zones command to partition an assembly into meaningful regions bounding by boxes or planes.

Zones are:
Created in the displayed part with reference to its absolute coordinate system.
Named uniquely with upper case letters.
Available for use in component groups.

Where do I find it?

Application Assemblies
Prerequisite Advanced Assemblies
Menu

AssembliesAdvancedZones

Automatically create box zones

Note:
Use similar steps to create plane zones.
1. Choose AssembliesAdvancedZones.
2. In the Zones dialog box, click Auto-Generate Zones

3. In the Choose Zone Type dialog box, click Boxes.

4. In the Auto-Generate Box dialog box, type the number of box zones in the X, Y, and Z directions.
5. (Optional) In the Name Prefix box, type a name to replace the default name.
6. Select Use Existing Part Volume.
7. Click OK.
The zones are listed in the Zones dialog box.

8. (Optional) From the list of zones, select one of the zones.

o Click Delete
o Click Rename
o Click Edit

to delete the zone.

to edit the name of the zone.
to change parameters of the zone.

9. On the Zones dialog box, click Cancel.

Zones dialog box

Option
Displayed Part

Description
Displays the name and type of existing zones.
Opens the Edit Zone dialog box that lets you edit the selected zone.

Edit
Lets you divide the assembly into a regular set of box or plane zones.
Opens the Choose Zone Type that lets you select the type of zone to create:
Auto-Generate
Zones

Boxes: Useful for irregular assembly shapes or an assembly of well understood dimensions. Opens the AutoGenerate Box dialog box.
Planes: useful for a growing assembly or one which is long in one direction. Opens the Auto-Generate
Plane dialog box.
Opens the Zone Creation Method dialog box that lets you select a method to create a box zone.

Create Box Zone

Opens the Plane dialog box that lets you define a plane zone.
Create Plane Zone
Deletes one or more selected zones.
Delete
Lets you rename a selected zone.
Rename

Auto-Generate Box dialog box

Note:
See Common dialog box options for common options not discussed here.
Option
Box Count in X
Direction

Description
Sets the number of box zones in the X, Y, and Z directions.

Box Count in Y
Direction
Box Count in Z
Direction
Name Prefix

Sets the prefix name for zones. NX adds a number that indicates the order of creation.

Use Existing Part

Volume

Sets the volume of box zones to be based on the existing part volume.

Use Specified Volume Lets you set the dimension and origin for box zones.
Specify Volume to be Available when Use Specified Volume is selected.
Zoned
Opens the Enter Values dialog box where you set X, Y, Z lengths of the current set of box zones, and the Point
dialog box where you specify the origin of the current set of box zones.

Auto-Generate Plane dialog box

Note:
See Common dialog box options for common options not discussed here.
Option

Description

Plane Count in Z Direction of

WCS

Sets the number of plane zones to create.

Name Prefix

Sets the name for zones. NX adds a number that indicates the order of creation.

Use Existing Part Z

Displacement

Sets the displacement of plane zones in the Z direction, based on the displacement of the part.

Use Specified Z Displacement

Lets you set a distance between plane zones in the Z direction and an origin point for the Z location of
the first plane in the set.

Z Displacement to be Zoned

Available when Use Specified Z Displacement is selected.

Sets the value in the Z direction for the distance between plane zones.

Zone Creation Method dialog box

Note:
See Common dialog box options for common options not discussed here.
Option
Edge Lengths, Corner

Description
Lets you set X, Y, and Z lengths for a box zone and specify the minimum X, Y, and Z corner location.

Height, Two Points

Lets you set a height for a box zone and specify the minimum X, Y, and Z corner location.

Two Diagonal Points

Lets you select two diagonal points to specify the size and placement for the box zone.

Edit Zone dialog box

Note:
See Common dialog box options for common options not discussed here.
Option
Change Box Lengths

Description
Available only for box zones.
Lets you change the X, Y, and Z edge lengths for a selected box zone.

Flip Normal

Available only for plane zones.

Reverses the normal vector of the selected plane zone.

Transform

Opens the Transformations dialog box that lets you move a selected zone.

Transformations dialog box

Note:
See Common dialog box options for common options not discussed here.
Option

Description

Translate

Lets you move the zone to a selected point, or by a specified delta distance.

Rotate About a Point

Lets you rotate the zone about a selected point.

Rotate About a Line

Lets you rotate the zone about a line that you define.

Reposition

Lets you reposition the zone.

Rotate Between Two Axes

Lets you rotate the zone between two specified axes.

Component Groups

Component groups allow selecting logical subsets of assemblies. Primarily, they are used for loading and unloading
operations, but many hundreds of other operations are conceivable. A component group, for example, can be those
components larger than a certain size, in a certain region, those that share a certain property (e.g. matching a certain
attribute), or simply those named X, Y, and Z. They are dynamically evaluated, and can also be combined for powerful logical
results. Large assemblies depend on component groups to efficiently navigate throughout large amounts of data.
You can save component groups in the part or for just the current session. The advantages of session component groups are
that you do not need write access to the assembly, and you can create as many temporary component groups as desired
without fear of cluttering the main assembly. Users can save them in bookmarks, though.
The owner of large assemblies should create a set of generally useful component groups to be saved with the file. Examples
might include:
Major and minor functional areas; for example, all pneumatics and just Cylinder-A pneumatics.
Zones or plane-based component groups; for example, through a particular section of a submarine.
Size based component groups; for example, larger than 2 inches.
Attribute or name-based component groups; for example, all those matching TYPE = FASTENER. Other attributes to
consider include SIZE, SUPPLIER, STATUS, DESIGNER, etc.
Components used for a product outline
For access to component groups in the Assembly Navigator, select Show Component Groups.
If, in a multiuser environment, there are volatile stages of development where the assembly structure changes frequently at
lower levels while the assembly is open, you should ensure that the assembly tree is up-to-date before creating or using
component groups. You should frequently run ToolsAssembly NavigatorUpdate Structure. This will check the
Teamcenter database (or file timestamps in native NX mode) to see if anyone has changed the structure since the assembly
was opened, and to update the assembly tree and component grouping information accordingly.
Component groups can contain subassemblies as well as explicit references to components. If you want a component group
to select all of the components in a subassembly (whatever structure it may have in the future), then include the subassembly,
but not its components. However, if you do not want the component group to select any new components that might be added
to the subassembly in the future, then you should define the component group using only the components in the subassembly.

Find Component and Open by Proximity

Find Component and Open By Proximity are probably the simplest context control tools that help you work effectively in large
assemblies. If nothing else, all users working in such assemblies should know these. To use them, first open assemblies with
No Components, then find the component(s) of interest, and (finally) open the context around them with Open by Proximity. In
this way, you can open even huge assemblies and establish the working context in minutes.
Note:
By default, Open by Proximity uses bounding boxes to quickly determine nearby components. This can pick up some
undesired distant components, such as enclosures or long tubing, when their bounding boxes intersect the area of interest.
You can avoid this by switching on the True Shape filtering option. This uses a more accurate representation than bounding
boxes to determine spatial proximity, and generates more accurate Open by Proximity results.
These context accelerators, as they are sometimes called, are well suited for interactive one-off operations while you work in
different areas of an assembly. You can save the results in bookmarks for sharing or returning to later. For repetitive or more
logically complex operations, however, component groups may be more practical.

Assembly Bookmarks
Assembly bookmarks provide a convenient way of saving and restoring any particular working context (except for
pack/unpack status). They are text-based, making them easy to share and inexpensive to keep. There are three basic ways
bookmarks are made that you can take advantage of:
1.

Explicit manually saving a bookmark

Project leaders and even designers can and should maintain a set bookmarks to quickly return to particular areas of
large assemblies.

2.

Assemblies toolbar quick save and restore context

Within a session, one can use these options to save and return to working context areas. Actually, this bookmark is
saved to disk in the TEMP directory under <username>.bkm so it can be used the next day or across sessions.

3.

End-of-session bookmark
If you exit NX with parts still loaded (i.e., not closing all parts after filing), a bookmark is saved in the current TEMP
directory under your name in the format "usersname_last_context.bkm". This removes the need to remember to save a
bookmark at the end of each day. It can also be used to always restart NX in the same context as the last session.
a.

On Windows start ugraf.exe with this argument:

-retrieve:%UGII_TMP_DIR%\%username%_last_context.bkm
4.

On non-Windows start ugraf.exe with this argument:

-retrieve = /$UGII_TMP_DIR/${USERNAME}_last_context.bkm

This can be a valuable system automation tool if all users must logout every night for, say, backup purposes. With this tool, a
CRON job or scheduled task could restore everyone's context before they came in the next morning.

Product Outlines
While working in context on larger or filtered assemblies, it may be helpful to quickly display a frame of reference. Rather than
finding and loading more parts of the assembly, you can use the Product Outline function to conveniently maintain a set of
lightweight representations. Typically, you only need a few main and/or external components to become easily oriented. Some
recommendations include:
1.

Ensure that the layer used for the product outline is free and not used by any other geometric objects. The layer is
controlled by the number placed in the Product Outline Layer customer default. See the Customer Defaults Help for
more information.

2.

The owner of the top level assembly should define and maintain the product outline. It is usually best to select a fairly
small number of objects from the assembly to define the outline to limit the number of heavyweight occurrences. During
creation, the color and/or translucency should be changed to make it easier to differentiate between the faceted
representations and actual components.
Once defined, you can turn Product Outlines on and off with a single toolbar button push.

Visual Performance
When working with particularly large assemblies, you should consider at least setting a fixed frame rate, and disabling the
work part emphasis.

Fixed Frame Rate Visualization Performance Preference

You can greatly improve the effectiveness of zoom, pan, and rotate by selecting the PreferencesVisualization
PerformanceLarge Model tabFixed Frame Rate check box. Objects can be automatically hidden, or shown as simple
boxes, during view manipulation to provide fast and maintain smooth view transitions.

Work Part Emphasis Assembly Preference

When you are working in context of large assemblies (making a component the work part), the display overhead increases
when NX "grays-out" the non-work parts. You can avoid this by clearing the PreferencesAssembliesEmphasize check
box.

Avoiding Heavyweight Occurrences

Components added to assemblies usually include only references (pointers) to the real geometry. These "lightweight
occurrences" take up minimal space and overhead.
Certain operations, however, require more information to be copied up into the assembly changing the occurrences to
"heavyweight". Some operations can even require making an entire copy of the occurrence. Such operations affect
performance.

The following chart summarizes ways to avoid the more common cases.
Note:
Performing the reverse of an operation that creates heavyweight occurrences will not usually remove the added overhead.
You will need to run FileUtilitiesPart CleanupRemove Redundant Changes or Remove All Changes.
Operation in Assembly
Changing body color,
translucency, or partial
shading
Hiding portions of
drawings
Creating drawings

Workaround
Make the component the Displayed Part before changing anything or in an assembly. Also, make sure only the
component (not the body or any portion of it) is selected.
Use reference sets or layers, or hide the entire component (rather than hiding just portions).

The need to create drawings is obviously unavoidable, but everything referenced in the drawing causes
heavyweight occurrence creation. Using a master-model structure is the best way of separating the overhead for
just the disciplines that need it. This can provide efficiencies all the way up an assembly tree.
Deleting drawings
Deleting drawings does not demote heavyweight occurrences automatically; see note above.
Creating exploded views Exploded views create shadow lightweight occurrences, basically duplicating all the original references. Using
a master-model structure is the best way of separating the overhead.
Creating sequences
Sequences create shadow lightweight occurrences basically duplicating all the original references. Using a
master-model structure is the best way of separating the overhead.

Reducing Complex Assembly Displays

Working with Large Assemblies Overview

Using Reference Sets

When you add a component to an assembly, you can specify a reference set to be used to display that component part. You
can specify any reference set previously defined in that component part. This causes the component to be displayed with only
the geometry contained within the reference set. The default option is that no reference set is used. This means that all
geometry in the component part is displayed when representing that component within the assembly.
You can specify a reference set when adding a component to the assembly using Add Components from the Assemblies
toolbar, or choose AssembliesComponentsAdd Component.
You can change reference sets for previously created components using Replace Reference Set on the
AssembliesComponents menu, the Assemblies toolbar, or the graphics window shortcut menu. You can also change the
reference sets used in the assembly by setting the reference set defaults under Load Options, before opening the assembly.

Erasing an Entire Component or Subassembly

To simplify the display of a complicated assembly, you can use one of two methods to make components invisible. You can
accomplish this using either reference sets or a show/hide option (i.e., EditShow and HideHide, clicking on the
component's check box in the Assembly Navigator, or using the hiding options from the Assembly Navigator shortcut
menu) . Using reference sets has the advantage of reducing load time, where hiding components does not. Load time is
reduced using reference sets because when you open an assembly part, only the component geometry required for the
reference set is loaded. These parts are then referred to as partially loaded. This helps keep the amount of data in memory
smaller than it would be and helps increase performance.
Every part has a predefined reference set called EMPTY which, as its name implies, contains no geometry. Specifying the
EMPTY reference set for a component effectively erases that component and all subordinate components from the display of
the assembly. Changing reference sets, including using EMPTY, has no effect on the assembly structure. It merely alters the
graphical representation of the assembly.
The hiding options let you erase portions of the assembly by selecting the individual components which are to be hidden.
Hidden components can be shown at a later time. Hiding has no effect on the assembly structure -- the component reports list
erased components as well as displayed ones.

Creating and Modifying Reference Sets

Reference sets are named collections of geometry and are created in the component part itself, not in the assembly using the
component. For example, to create a reference set called OUTLINE in part bracket.prt, first make bracket.prt the work part.
Then, using FormatReference Sets, specify OUTLINE as the name of the new reference set and select the geometry to be
included.
To modify a reference set, first set the work part or displayed part to the part containing the reference set. Then use the
various FormatReference Sets options to add or remove geometry, as well as to rename or delete the reference set itself.

Suppressing Features and Components

From the work part, you can remove features in a particular component part from the display using the
EditFeatureSuppress Feature option (in the Modeling application). Note that this operation physically modifies the
model. Therefore, saving the part with features suppressed affects all assemblies which use that part.
You can suppress components in an assembly with the AssembliesComponentsSuppress Component option and the
suppress by expression option (on the Parameters page of the Component Properties dialog box). You can suppress one or
more components, which causes them and their children to be ignored in many assemblies functions. Like Suppress
Feature, this operation physically modifies the model, unlike hiding, which only removes the components from the display.
You can control the suppression state of selected components in different arrangements with the Suppression dialog box,
which is located at AssembliesComponentsEdit Suppression State.

Component Groups overview

Use the Component Grouping commands to create groups that help you organize and manage your assembly.
You can create component groups that either select specific components in the assembly or that select components based on
criteria such as part attribute, part name, and so on. You can also combine component groups to create a more complex
component group. For example, you can create a component group that collects parts that satisfy all of the following criteria:
Within a specified distance from the current work part.
Larger than a specified size.
Above a specified plane.
You can create component groups for the duration of the current session, or save them in bookmarks or part files.
Note:
A component group does not identify solids in a part file. To do this, you can use a reference set.
In order to use a component group in a script, the component group name must have no spaces.
Before NX 4, component groups were known as filters. The names of pre-NX 4 filters retain their names.

Where do I find it?

Prerequisite

Show Component Groups must be selected in the Assembly Navigator menu or on the Assembly Navigator
toolbar.

Toolbar

Component Grouping

Menu

ToolsAssembly NavigatorComponent Grouping

Assembly
Navigator

Right-click any component group node.

Add to Component Group overview

Use the Add to Component Group command to define selection component groups that match parts by the following criteria:
Name
Load State
Attributes such as designer, engineering purpose, and so on.
Size

Where do I find it?

Prerequisite

Show Component Groups must be selected in the Assembly Navigator menu or on the Assembly Navigator
toolbar.

Toolbar

Component Grouping Add to Component Group

Menu

Tools Assembly Navigator Component Grouping Add to

Assembly

Right-click a component group node Add to Component Group

Navigator

Add to Component Group By Name tab

Option
Description
Component or Part Name Sets the characters or regular expression to be matched.
Begins with
Contains
Exactly
Regular Expression

Creates part and component name match criteria to match names that begin with the specified characters.
Creates part and component name match criteria to match names that contain the specified characters.
Creates part and component name match criteria to exactly match the specified characters.
Creates part and component name match criteria to match the specified regular expression.