Regenerating Assemblies

So you open an assembly that you know needs to be regenerated (in my
case because I have a master part that I have modified which is
referenced into about 20 child parts). How do you stop the assembly
from regenerating? Ever since I have used ProE that "stop" button
comes up and you are supposed to be able to stop regen by clicking on
it. And ever since I have used ProE all it does is say, "Do you really
want to abort regeneration?" You click on "yes" and it ignores you and
continues regenerating.

 

I seem to recall three possible responses to the 'abort' query, two of which
didn't prevent the regen and the least obvious (naturally) was the only one
that did. But I can't remember what the three are or the proper response. I
do recall, though, that I have successfully suspended the regen (or did I
just quit the retrieve). Short of suspending the regen, I've taken to
setting 'freeze_failed_assy_comp' to yes so that changing component geometry
(or any other cause of damaged constraints) doesn't throw one into assembly
resolve mode. Frozen components are a lot easier to deal with. This is also
one of the best arguments I know of for using skeleton models, publish geoms
and copy geoms for transmitting feature references between models: with a
skeleton, it can be done without regen failures.

David Janes

 

David,

how do you tell frozen components from normal ones later on
without deep digging into some info/component/etc. dialog?

Whenever I find some unexpectedly frozen component during
a later redefinition it tends to be - just a little - out of place,
which is totally inconvenient of course.

Funny that a "freeze" option is handy but there is no such
thing as a "thaw" button! And like things frozen in a glacier,
ProE seems to allow frozen components to slightly move...

I confess I still don´t fully understand all the concepts in ProE,
though I have been using it for quite a couple of years now.

Walther

 

You can set your model tree to show the status of assembly components.
One of the think it will show is 'frozen'. Personally, I think this
should be a default 'out of the box' setting & have told PTC so,
precisely because so many small companies don't have the time to hire
someone to look after their system full time, & so end up using the
decidedly ropy default settings. Think about it: Microsoft office
works pretty well out of the box, so it can't be that hard.

 

If a component is frozen then it shows up in the tree. I think there's
a couple of little bars next to it. My problem is not that the
component's assembly needs to be redefined (the parts in question are
usually assembled by default because they reference a master part),
it's that the feature within the parts need to be regenerated. In the
example I gave above they usually regenerate successfully, it's just
that it takes forever and I'm only interested in the first 3 or 4
components. What I'd like to do is go into insert mode up to those
first few components but I can't do that until it's all regenerated.

Anyway, now that it's regenerated I have suppressed all the stuff I
don't want ATM. I guess I just need to think ahead.

 

The Search tool (binoculars) is great for this. Select Component in the
'Look for' box and click on the Status tab. For the Criteria Value, pick
Frozen, Packaged, Suppressed or any other condition. If you leave the
'Include submodels' box checked, it'll burrow into every level of the
assembly. Pick components from the found items list and 'arrow' them into
the selection list. These will expand and highlight in the model tree,
making them easy to identify and deal with.

David Janes

 

If a component is frozen then it shows up in the tree. I think there's
a couple of little bars next to it. My problem is not that the
component's assembly needs to be redefined (the parts in question are
usually assembled by default because they reference a master part),
it's that the feature within the parts need to be regenerated. In the
example I gave above they usually regenerate successfully, it's just
that it takes forever and I'm only interested in the first 3 or 4
components. What I'd like to do is go into insert mode up to those
first few components but I can't do that until it's all regenerated.

Anyway, now that it's regenerated I have suppressed all the stuff I
don't want ATM. I guess I just need to think ahead.

________________________________________

Well, I don't think that going into Insert Mode is a bad idea, providing you think to do that before you change the Master Model. And Simp Reps, even on the fly, will ease the business of opening the assembly. I was even wondering what would happen if you opened the components before you opened the assembly, would that ease the regen burden. Problem with these scenarios is that you're eventually going to have to regen these parts that are taking so long to regen. But what really bothers me is why modifying the Master Model would cause so much grief in the first place. And no error messages!?! That's strange. Did any of the individual parts have difficulty merging/solidifying? One component, taking an inordinate length of time to regen, can slow down the whole assembly regen. That's the main reason I thought to open and regen individually.

David Janes

 

In your assembly just above the tree, select 'settings' then 'tree
columns' under the 'info' box select 'status' and move it to the
right.
this will show the status on all parts wheather they are suppressed,
frozen, regened, children etc..
If you want then you can save the tree to load always.
good luck,
Gary

 

That's good thinking. Since the first post I have been careful to
retrieve a Simplified Rep instead of the whole thing, but I forgot
that I can make one on the fly.

 

No, they didn't fail in this instance. That's because I'm goooood! ;-)

Actually it's because I added some geometry to the master, some curves
or surfaces, which had no effect on existing geometry, but because it
was the master file the child parts had to regenerate. And we know
that when you do that the model can't possibly fail regeneration
because that wouldn't make sense, now would it?

The child parts won't regenerate unless the assembly is in session. I
have done this before though. If the assy is in session I will open a
particular child part and regenerate it, or I'll right-click on it
(and maybe other parts) in the assy and regenerate those only. The OP
situation only occurs when I have made changes to the master file and
then I open the master assembly for the first time since the change.

"Horse's Ass" had the right answer - make a Simplified Rep on the fly.
That's the way around it.

 

you´re right! The binoculars is one of the icons I tried once,
not again because I didn´t get the concept in the first place.
Pretty useful function, this one...

.... do frozen components thaw by themselves eventually?
Or am I supposed to look for them from time to time?

Walther

 

In your assembly just above the tree, select 'settings' then 'tree
columns' under the 'info' box select 'status' and move it to the
right.
this will show the status on all parts wheather they are suppressed,
frozen, regened, children etc..
If you want then you can save the tree to load always.
_______________________

A couple points:
1.. To load each time, you must point the option mdl_tree_cfg_file to your tree.cfg file by browsing to it
2.. There are limitations to what it will show as frozen. For example, it will show a group as regenerated while every component in the group is frozen. You will have to show the tree in fully expanded form to see this.

3.. Same with subassemblies: the subassembly may regenerate while components within it are frozen, suppressed, etc, so, to see their status, expand all.

David Janes

 

Pro/e assemblies are not experiencing climate change and spontaneous
thawing. But, sometimes, redefining one will cause the others to suddenly
wake out of their comatose state and assemble normally. But, as to what you
do with frozen components in assemblies depends mostly on what you use the
assemblies for. A drawing BOM is not affected by a component's frozen
status. But it may be by other status anomolies (suppressed, suspended). And
other functions like Mechanisms or analysis functions balk at frozen
components. So, I've just gotten into the habit of maintaining clean
assemblies, running Model Check and doing searches of anomolous components.

David Janes

 

As Dave said, a frozen component will "thaw" "automatically" if its
references are resumed in some other action. For example, if Component
B is assembled to Component A and you suppress Component A, you can
chose to freeze Component B (or suppress/delete it or redefine it). It
will kind of hover in space without references. But if later on you
resume A, then B will no longer be frozen, assuming the geometry is
still there.

 

"And we know that when you do that the model can't possibly fail
regeneration because that wouldn't make sense, now would it? "

Feh....

 

From theory, I´d agree. Practically, I run into some invalid refs
of a component from time to time when I decide to manually redefine.

To my surprise ProE does not nag about it beforehand and I suspect
this has to do with an earlier "freeze" - in order to get ahead
to things I wanted to fix in a failed assembly primarily.

Forgotten´n´frozen components seem to stay in place until "thawed",
i. e. selected to redefine... but, unfortunately (dangerously)
not quite exact, though: there always seems to be a bit of drift.

Walther

 

Frozen components for me are always temporary. I always make sure
everything is regenerated when it's going out, not because I'm a
goodie two shoes, but because if it's not then I'll have egg on my
face later on if something doesn't fit properly.

 

The small amount that they go out of alignment is quite mysterious. When the
assembly first opens and regens, if you look closely, you'll see a message
that says "Component ID X placement references missing. Using previous
placement". If it is, as I suspect, using some offset from the default
assembly csys, how could it be off at all, much less by the small amount
that it's off? I don't get it either, but it would be just enough to do a
major screw up of an interference check with fasteners in place. Wierd and
just enough that I suspect Pro/GOOFY, the built in joke module of Pro/e. And
you thought it was just random strangeness. Like converting unitless factors
when changing systems of units. Stuff you'd hardly even notice but that
cause a ripping good time when you do. Yup, lotsa laughs.

David Janes

 

that´s what my boss would tell me ... if I had one In reality,
deadline is always close and I *have* to brush aside minor nags.

With insert mode activated in sub-assemblies the freeze nag appears
far to often to not ignore it in order to get ahead to the real work.

Later on, I´d like a button "thaw all frozen components", or, better:
automatically suggest refs to realign previously frozen components to.
I frequently find that refs of dangling components are still there,
but somehow ProE missed them and wants additional point´n´click work.

The hidden Pro/GOOFY module some frustrated outsourced el-cheapo coder
freshman has hidden inside ProE´s Advanced Deadline Thwart Package
(as David suggested) explains a lot... many thanks! I needed a laugh.

Walther

 

When Pro/Goofy activates I find that I often call upon the Pro/Fanity
module, much to the disgust of my work colleagues.