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Object-action workflow

dougr

New member
Can anyone explain this ???


Don't think there's anyone at PTC who can, there's very little about this in the help...
 
What about object action workflow?


So you can do things 2 ways on certain features, Object-Action or Action-Object. Lets use the Round feature for example.


Object-Action -> select the edges you want to round then start the round tool


Action-Object -> select the round tool then select the edges to round


Many tools are like this, but some are not. Merge for example is only Object-Action, you must pick the quilts first then the tool.


Does that make sense?
 
One that is not - because of the workflow object-action I often pick a bunch of draft entities, and I then want to make a draft group. There I have to pick them all over again, because it doesn't recognize the picks you made.


Very irritating.


Sip
 
Warning - usability rant coming.
smiley4.gif



I love that many things are now O-A or A-O. It's very useful. However, what's very irritating is that it used to be that everything was A-O, period, and now some things must be done O-A. Surface merge is a good example. In 2001 it was feature -> create -> surface -> merge pick 2 quilts, done. Now I need to do the feature selection dance to select my quilts before I'm allowed to select merge. Why?


Frankly, I don't understand why (beyond programmer's convenience)every command can't be done either way. I'm sure there might be a good reason one or the other can't work for some specific command, but I can't think of it.
 
Okay, now I get it, thanks for all the replies.


The problem I'm having is in creating "composite curves" which are also O-A (definitely not A-O any more) now - or partially O-A as you can only select a single "primary" entity in a curve string and not the entire string.


In order to select additional entities for the same string you have to use shift and select.


Sometimes the shift key works, sometimes it doesn't - am I missing something ?


Sounds like PTC needs to seriously refine "Object-Action", it's not there yet.
Edited by: dougr
 
The problem lies in the semantics behind the shift-select. In the mind of PTC folk, that mean select a chain of items. Control-select selects individual items. Since a composite curve must be created from a chain, only shift-select works.


That understood, with shift-select, Pro|E is looking for chain - either a surface loop, intent chain or tangent chain. That's why you can only select certain edges with shift-select.


If you go into References (on the dashboard) and select the details button, you can then create your own chain using the control key.


I find the selection method in Pro|E WF broken because little idiosyncrasies like this. I understand the logic behind it, but it doesn't feel like it fits with the rest of Pro|E
 
I think the problem you are seeing is that the curve entities you are picking need to be tangent for the 'shift-and-pick-next' to work. If the entities are not tangent, you need to do a one-by-one selection where you;

pick the first curve entity
hold shift down and pick the entity again
Keep shift held down and pick whatever you want.

Also bear in mind you need to select geometry, not the feature - ie when the curve is a thick red after two picks.
 
It's also worth bearing in mind that to create an approximate composite curve the entities need to be tangent or very close to tangent.
Pretty obvious really but a common misconception.
 
blockandahole said:
I think the problem you are seeing is that the curve entities you are picking need to be tangent for the 'shift-and-pick-next' to work. If the entities are not tangent, you need to do a one-by-one selection where you;

pick the first curve entity
hold shift down and pick the entity again
Keep shift held down and pick whatever you want.

Also bear in mind you need to select geometry, not the feature - ie when the curve is a thick red after two picks.


My entities are all tangent, I've been using composite curves for years - the shift key only works sporadically.


It seems that "composite curves" are actually "O-A-O"
Edited by: dougr
 
Another way you can do it is;


pick one entity


ctrl c, ctrl v to get into composity curve dialogue


select reference/details


select the other entities holding ctrl down a la windows....
 
As I said earlier, they still need to be a chain, and tangent if you're doing and approximate curve.


Once you understand the semantic (see my earlier post), you'll better be able to use the shift key.
 
dgs said:
As I said earlier, they still need to be a chain, and tangent if you're doing and approximate curve.


Once you understand the semantic (see my earlier post), you'll better be able to use the shift key.


Like I said too, my curves are tangent - I don't think it's possible to have tangency without them being in a chain...........


The ctrl-c/v sounds promising.
 

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