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Mastering Layers Q&A

I was afraid that would be the case. I can start my mental preparations for answering colleagues who will be coming to me, because the way ProE handlers layers is not understood
smiley2.gif
.

The layers handling seemed complicated to me at first, but isn't bad at all for the most part. If offers a lot of freedom and options to customise. Some little improvements could be made though, to make it 'almost perfect'.
I'm missing some def_layer settings, e.g. for imported geometry from STEP/IGES and to ignore layers from import features (as in my previous post).

Also the handling of entities vs. features is not always that practical, but I must admit it would be very hard to make that intuitive and easy all the way...

For now I'm satisfied with the way I have the layers setup: as little layers and rules as necessary/desired for easy understanding and handling, but enough for satisfying easy of work:

01_DEF_COORDINATE_SYSTEMS
02_DEF_PLANES
03_DEF_AXES
04_COORDINATE_SYSTEMS
05_PLANES
06_AXES
07_POINTS
08_COPY_GEOMETRY
09_SKELETON
10_SURFACES_QUILTS
11_CURVES
12_COSMETIC
13_GEOMETRIC_TOLERANCES
14_NOTES
15_SYMBOLS
___WORK___ -> deleted before checking in the part
 
Can I create a mapkey to rename a given layer? I'm
assuming it will not work since the mapkey will rely on a
mouse pick and if the layer is in the wrong position, it
won't be renamed.

Thanks,
Matt
 
Yes you can, There are functions that let you search for and select a layer by name.
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
edit: wild cards can be used but I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to use the rename function with several different layers selected.
</div>
The first of the three pull down menus just above the active layer tree has those functions in it.

<div style="margin-left: 40px;">edit: In the layer tree, select the SHOW drop down and select FIND then SEARCH. You can search for layers by name.
</div>
One of the mapkeys I posted, uses this to find several layers by name then sets the layer status to hidden or those layer. The one I'm thinking of sets the default layer status for layers within a drawing.




Edited by: gkbeer
 
Is there a def_layer config setting for automatically
adding the axis created by a revolve or an extruded circle
to a layer?
Edited by: MGortner
 
The option layer_axis and layer_axis_ent work butthey do seem to have a problem initially adding the axis of an extrude or revolve if the axis intersects two datum planes.One way around this is to create the feature with the axis off of one of the references, complete the feature, and then redefine the feature so the axis is on the other datum plane reference. Another way is to create a rule layer.
Edited by: kdem
 
MGortner said:
Is there a def_layer config setting for automatically

adding the axis created by a revolve or an extruded circle

to a layer?
Click to expand...

Layer rule sets can be created to specifically select the geometric entities that are the axis associated with hole features. Same is true of axis that are geometric entities of revolved features.
 
I have a cosmetic layer that I put all cosmetic features on. However, I'd like to change this so that it only adds the thread (quilt) entitiesof a hole rather than the hole feature (if it contains threads). If I do "look for quilt, by quilt" then it gets the thread entities, but also adds other quilts (from extruded or revolved surfaces for example), which I don't want in my cosmetic layer. Is there any way to acomplish this?
 
That's also what I'm using currently, but I'd like to change so thatthe axis of the holes are not in my cosmetic layer. Therefore I can't layer off the entire feature; I need the thread entities to be layered off instead. However, I'm not sure this is possible.
 
mekaneck said:
That's also what I'm using currently, but I'd like to change so thatthe axis of the holes are not in my cosmetic layer. Therefore I can't layer off the entire feature; I need the thread entities to be layered off instead. However, I'm not sure this is possible.
Click to expand...

It never made any sense to me that I'm not able, using rules, to put the axis of a hole or a thread on a layer independent of the feature it's self.

This is one operation I've been frustrated on. For some reason when a hole is threaded, the axis is made submissive to the thread instead of the tap hole. When the cosmetic thread is made invisible, it takes the axis with it. This is not a problem if the cosmetic thread is added as a separate feature.

This is something that PTC's developers choose to do for some reason. I never received an adequate, why for, on that.

There was one pre-release version of Pro/E, shown at the 07 conference where I was able to setup rules that allowed the axis of threads to be put on one layer and the cosmetic on another. I was able to have the axis or the thread made invisible independently.

I was really happy to see that, and disgusted when PTC reverted it before the release version came out. I asked the hotline about that, never received an acceptable reply. My suspicion is that some, enough, customers responded badly, rejecting, the change without thinking it through.

My guess is that unless enough customers fight for a change, accepting what issues this might cause with past data, this will continue to be a problem.
 
Unless I'm missunderstanding what you are talking about with holes you can put the hole axis on a separate layer. Try the rule settings Look for: Axis, Look by: Feature, Attributes: Type, and Criteria: Hole.
 
Glenn, I'm able to get the axis of a hole on a layer without the hole feature. I use "look for axis, look by axis" but you can also do as kdem suggested if you want the axis of only hole features.


The problem is that the axis is also layered on my cosmetic layer, because currently my cosmetic layer includes a rule of "look for/by feature, type=has thread". This grabs the hole feature, which of course includes the hole's axis.


The only way I know of to grab the thread separately is to use "look for quilt, look by quilt" but unfortunately this also grabs all my surfaces that aren't threads. I have a separate layer for surface entities.


What I want is the following:
<UL>
<LI>Axis layer: contains allaxis entities (this rule is easy)</LI>
<LI>Cosmetic layer: contains all cosmetic entities and all thread entities (and thereforeno axes)</LI>
<LI>Surface layer: containsquilt entities excludingthreads (and therefore no axes)</LI>[/list]
 
Yep, that's pretty much the problem.

No way to search for quilts that are entities within hole features. I.E. threads.

They can be selected manually. Just no one has found a way to craft rule(s) that will filter for the quilts that represent threads.
 
Thereare someways but it could be tedious depending on how much you have to do_One way would be to namethe surfaces associated with threaded holes. You use Edit>Setup>Name>Other. An easier and quicker way might be to search Quilts by history and specify ranges for the feature ID.
 
I know this is no consolation but I just found you can do this in Creo Elements Pro 5. The filter for Quilt allows you to search by feature whichlets you then set up rules for searching by hole and cosmetic. I think you wrote before you were using WF3 right? Anyway here are some pics from 5.


View attachment 5121


View attachment 5122
Edited by: kdem
 
That's good to know.

Recently we were able to update to wf4.

WF5 is in the works soon as the enterprise can generate a migration from WF4/intralink/enovia to WF5/PDMlink/enovia. Rumored to be "Real Soon Now"
 
Nice! Something to look forward to. Unfortunately I'm on WF4 and my company generally skips releases, so it will be a while until we upgrade to WF6 (or Creo 6 or whatever)
 
What date codes are you guys using? I was able to get access to WF4 M140 and Quilts can be searched for using the same rules in my last post. Might have been an update that's not in earlier date codes.
 
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