The Pro/TOOLKIT application APNCUDF has the following objectives:
- Possibly automated placement of NC_UDF in the model according to references of existing CAD_UDF's in Pro/E model.
- Easy usage of extended set of UDF pairs internally in company.
Prerequisites
- All CAD_UDF_instances and NC_UDF_instances have unique names.
- All instances of a CAD_UDF_generic are related to instances from only one NC_UDF_generic. So that there are UDF pairs (one CAD_UDF and appropriate NC_UDF, both include family tables).
- There are generally more NC_UDF instances which can be automatically placed according to a concrete CAD_UDF instance. That is why the configuration file can include the second, third, fourth, .. lines for certain CAD_UDF instances.
- ALL MISSING REFERENCES for placement of NC_UDF's CANNOT BE ADDED into CAD_UDF's from some design/technological reasons and so they will be asked in interactive dialog.
General functionality
The APNCUDF application explores the model tree of selected Pro/E model to find the placed groups, i.e. CAD_UDF instances and their existing references. All found references of features from the placed CAD_UDF instance is sorted out to external and internal references. Only external references (i.e. outside the placed group) will be used for the following placement of NC_UDF instance.
NC_UDF instance which is related to the placed CAD_UDF instance is searched in configuration file apncudf_config.txt in the install directory. All recognized external references of a found CAD_UDF instance will be used for fulfilling the needed ref_prompts by the automated placement of the related NC_UDF instance. The order in which the recognized references will be assigned to NC_UDF instance ref_prompts is defined also in configuration file apncudf_config.txt by reference indexes.
All unfulfilled ref_prompts will be asked interactively from Pro/E user during the running of the application.
The CAD_UDF (which is just used for automated NC_UDF placement) will be highlighted for better Pro/E user understanding and his easy selection of eventual missing reference.
