BOM and Part Numbers Automation

Hello

I am working on automation of parts and assemblies for configurable air conditioning equipments.

With every variation of a configuration, part no's changes and I am required to create BOM in pro engineer every time with new part no,s. Now the configurations results in thousands of part nos, for just 20 basic components (whose dimension and assembly changes with each configuration defined). I am fell to Pro engineer Family Tables, but this is not very efficient and productive way for automation of such large configuration.

Is there any way i Pro engineer to generate part nos, based upon inputs. Please note that most of the aprt nos, are just series without any nomenclature to define them for automation

Thanks

Kami.

Reply to
Kami
Loading thread data ...

Hello

I am working on automation of parts and assemblies for configurable air conditioning equipments.

With every variation of a configuration, part no's changes and I am required to create BOM in pro engineer every time with new part no,s. Now the configurations results in thousands of part nos, for just 20 basic components (whose dimension and assembly changes with each configuration defined). I am fell to Pro engineer Family Tables, but this is not very efficient and productive way for automation of such large configuration.

Is there any way i Pro engineer to generate part nos, based upon inputs. Please note that most of the aprt nos, are just series without any nomenclature to define them for automation

Thanks

Kami.

If you had a spreadsheet with all the part numbers and other data you would need to have to define a part, you could generate instances in a family table from your spreadsheet. All you'd need to set up initially is a master part which can capture all the variations. Then you'd do 'File>Import table'. As long as your spreadsheet and family table were set up with the same columns of information, this could be a very efficient way to generate a lot of parts.

Outside of Pro/e, ProBATCH might be able to handle the batch creation of parts. However, the difficulty will be getting it to deal with the spreadsheet data and assigning existing names to newly created parts. You might be talking about some programming here such as a JAVA app that could be run with 'Tools>Program>J-link' to run a session where a bunch of parts are created. And Windchill PDMLink offers some programming capabilities to automate system tasks. I'm not sure if duplicating Pro/e files with new names is one of them, though. And it would require some mastery of JAVA programming.

Within Pro/e, mapkeys can automate the keystrokes needed to create a new file, but, again the difficulty is syncing this activity with data from a spreadsheet.

David Janes

Reply to
Janes

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@u14g2000yqg.googlegroups.com...

need to have to define a part, you could generate instances in a family table from your spreadsheet. All you'd need to set up initially is a master part which can capture all the variations. Then you'd do 'File>Import table'. As long as your spreadsheet and family table were set up with the same columns of information, this could be a very efficient way to generate a lot of parts.

parts. However, the difficulty will be getting it to deal with the spreadsheet data and assigning existing names to newly created parts. You might be talking about some programming here such as a JAVA app that could be run with 'Tools>Program>J-link' to run a session where a bunch of parts are created. And Windchill PDMLink offers some programming capabilities to automate system tasks. I'm not sure if duplicating Pro/e files with new names is one of them, though. And it would require some mastery of JAVA programming.

but, again the difficulty is syncing this activity with data from a spreadsheet.

Hi David

Thanks for the reply.

Well As far as the spread sheet and family instances is concerned, I also agree that Family Tables is the quick and efficient way to tactile this. In Automation. but if i want to retrieve/use this part no's data by storing this information into some data base, and interfacing this with pro engineer "pro program or parameters', which language will u advise to start with, I am thinking of Pro Weblink , (HTML and Java Script) to be help full, Now Pro Engineer support VB as well in WF4. Which one could be more effective, keeping in view the flexibility in automation design to incorporate future needs and also I am new to programming languages, so learning path should be very easy and fast as well.

Thanks and regards

Kami

Reply to
Kami

.com... > Hello >

Hi David

Thanks for the reply.

Well As far as the spread sheet and family instances is concerned, I also agree that Family Tables is the quick and efficient way to tactile this. In Automation. but if i want to retrieve/use this part no's data by storing this information into some data base, and interfacing this with pro engineer "pro program or parameters', which language will u advise to start with, I am thinking of Pro Weblink , (HTML and Java Script) to be help full, Now Pro Engineer support VB as well in WF4. Which one could be more effective, keeping in view the flexibility in automation design to incorporate future needs and also I am new to programming languages, so learning path should be very easy and fast as well.

Thanks and regards

Kami

JAVA vs VB, compare features and capabilities, ease of use and ease of mastery~questions I think you really ought to be asking PTC. I've been to a number of sites that discuss Pro/e, including the PTC/USER email "exploder" (like listserv). It even had a forum devoted to programming and it was one of the least used areas. Not much discussion at all, anywhere, on programming for Pro/e. And Pro/PROGRAM has about the same utility as Mapkeys~crude, primitive. As to VB integration, I'm still trying to install the Student Edition, to gain some familiarity with WF4. However, here's a link to the "What's New" document that gives a brief description of the VB api and says it has the same core functionality as J-link.

formatting link
Acutally, if you got the Student Edition, it has a J-link Users' Guide and a tutorial with half a dozen exercises that come with it. Also, the advantage of learning JAVA is that the file and internet browser built into the interface is built on JAVA, so I suspect that J-link would hook into it smoothly. PTC has so far licensed NO Microsoft Windows APIs for use within Pro/e, so I have no idea what or whose VB api they're using.

David Janes

Reply to
Janes

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.