Product-Setup Link in Manufacturing Hub Context

As from V5R16, association or replacement of the NC Setup Assembly (or Product) referenced by the Part Operation (or Setup) by selecting it in the Product List is possible in the Manufacturing Hub context.
Now, when an NC detailing application handles Process Engineer project data in the Manufacturing Hub context, only product instances are managed using the Product List.

Prior to V5R16, NC product replacement or association to Part Operation could only be done in a file based context.

Manufacturing Hub context

Allows NC detailing in CATIA V5 environment and process planning in Process Engineer E5 environment.
V5/E5 interoperability allows transferring project data from Process Engineer to NC detailing and saving NC detailing data in a Process Engineer project.

Product-Setup Link Issues (Prior to V5R16)

Prior to V5R16, the Part Operation (or Setup) references either product references or product instances according to how these components are linked. In the Manufacturing Hub context, this is the source of two major issues:

• NC product association to Part Operation
• NC product replacement (design change scenario).

NC Product Association to Part Operation

Design Products are created and managed through the Engineering Hub. Machining Processes are defined and managed through the Manufacturing Hub.

In the figure below, the design (Product V1) was associated to the Product View in E5 (1). Only the product instances are available in this context.

In V5R15, association by drag and drop in E5 (2a) is the only one which enables to associate a NC product to a Part Operation. The association through Part Operation (2b) in V5 does not work.

NC Product Replacement (Design Change Scenario)

In the figure below, Product V2 is a second version of Product V1 (1).

A new Subassembly is created in E5 and Product V2 is associated to this new one (2). However, it is not possible to support a Design Change scenario with V5R15 services (Part Operation editor or Edit/Links) whose mechanism is based on links to product reference (3).

Product-Setup Link Solutions (As from V5R16)

To solve these problems in V5R16, the Product-Setup link will be the same since Part Operations will always be associated to product instances. This enables to associate or replace a Product whatever the methodology used.

In addition, the link to product instances enables the following:

• Making the Product-Setup link persistent after save in IPD.
• Managing several machining phases of the same Product in a unique Process, each phase corresponding to one instance of the Product. You can manage different setups or constraints for the same Product.
• Making design changes local to the Setup and not necessarily global to the Process.

The different ways to associate a Product to a Part Operation and to replace a Product by a new one are discussed below. Most of the services described here already exist in V5R15 but they can only work in Manufacturing Hub context if there is a link to a product instance.

How to Associate a NC Setup Assembly to the Part Operation

This can be done as follows:

• NC Setup Assembly instance selection through Part Operation editor.
• Drag and drop in Process Engineer.
• Drag and drop in CATIA/DELMIA.

In what follows, we assume that you have already created a Process Engineer Project including a Process View and a Product View. In the Process View, you have already created a WorkPlan (machining process) including a ManufacturingSetUp (Part Operation). In the Product View, you have already created a NC subassembly.

NC Setup Assembly Instance Selection through Part Operation Editor

There are two ways to achieve this association:

Methodology 1:

• Drag and drop of the NC Setup Assembly to the Workplan (machining process) in the Process Engineer Project (1).
• Load this Project in CATIA\DELMIA by using the PPR Hub toolbar (2-3).
  NC Setup Assembly is inserted in the ProductList (4).
• To associate this NC Setup Assembly to the Part Operation, edit the Part Operation by clicking on the Product Instance Selection icon and selecting the NC Setup Assembly in the ProductList (5-6).

Methodology 2:

• Load the Project in CATIA\DELMIA (1-2-3).
• Load the NC Setup Assembly in the ProductList in CATIA/DELMIA by using the PPR Hub toolbar (4).
  NC Setup Assembly is inserted in the ProductList (5).
• To associate this NC Setup Assembly to the Part Operation, edit the Part Operation by clicking on the new Product Instance Selection icon and selecting the NC Setup Assembly in the ProductList (6-7).

Drag and Drop in Process Engineer

You can associate the NC Setup Assembly directly in the Process Engineer Project. In the Project you have already created a Subassembly (NC Setup Assembly) in the Design View and you have created a ManufacturingSetup (Part Operation).

• Select the Subassembly and drag and drop (1) it to the ManufacturingSetup.
• Create a Process Processes Product type link (2).

Drag and Drop in CATIA/DELMIA

Assuming you already made either the steps (1) to (4) of Methodology 1 or the steps (1) to (5) of second Methodology 2.
In CATIA/DELMIA, to associate this NC Setup Assembly to the Part Operation, drag and drop the NC Setup Assembly instance from the ProductList to the Part Operation.

How to Replace a NC Setup Assembly in the Part Operation

In CATIA V5, note that it becomes impossible to use Edit/Links functionality to replace the Product in the Machining context. In fact, Edit/Links is based on the exposition of an external link between the Part Operation and the product reference (Product/Part). This link no longer exists so it is impossible to expose it. The Part Operation now points to a product instance not to a product reference.

In what follows Revision means when the document is modified and saved on the same document and Version means when the document is modified and saved as a new document.

In Manufacturing Hub context, there are two ways to manage the NC Setup Assembly. In both cases you have to create a Product View, a Design View and a Subassembly in the Process Engineer Project. The Subassembly corresponds to the NC Setup Assembly.

Then you have two different modes to create the Subassembly:

• You can directly link this Subassembly to a Product (the structure of the NC Setup Assembly is not visible through Process Engineer):
  Double-click the Subassembly (1)
  Select the Graphic tab (2)
  Associate the Product to the Subassembly (3).
  
• You can split the Subassembly into subelements (Parts, IPMs, and so on) and associate Parts to these subelements (the structure of the NC Setup Assembly is visible through Process Engineer).
  Double-click a subelement of the Subassembly (1)
  Select the Graphic tab (2)
  Associate the Product to the Subassembly (3).
  

New Revisions of NC Setup Assembly or Part

If you just do revisions of your design documents, reconciliation is automatic. You just have to compute the tool path again if it is necessary.

New Versions of NC Setup Assembly

In the following methodologies the Subassembly is linked directly to a Product.

Methodology 1:

• In E5: You can directly replace the current NC Setup Assembly (ProductV1) associated to IPD Subassembly (Subassembly V1) by a new one (1-2-3) and save the Project.
• In V5: Open the Project in V5 and synchronize the Process (4). Here, the machining operation is no longer synchronized because the design change scenario was processed in E5 environment.
  Refer to NC Synchronization in Manufacturing Hub Context.

Methodology 2:

• In E5: You can create a new IPD Subassembly under the same Production View (1) and link it to the new version of the NC Setup Assembly (2-3-4). Then you save the Project in IPD.
• In V5: Open the Project in V5, and edit the Part Operation (5). Click on Product Instance Selection icon and select the new NC Subassembly: Subassembly V2 (6). The replacement is done (7).
  Note that the Machining Operation is always synchronized because the design change scenario was processed in V5.

New Versioning of Part when the Subassembly is Linked Directly to a Product

In V5: You just have to replace the NC Part in the NC Setup Assembly (Product) and synchronize the Process.
Refer to NC Synchronization in Manufacturing Hub Context.

New Versioning of Part when the Subassembly is Split into Subelements

Methodology 1:

• In E5: You can directly replace the current Part (PartV1) associated to IPD Part (Part, 1) by a new one (1-2-3) and save the Project.
• In V5: Open the Project in V5 and synchronize the Process (4). Here, the machining operation is no longer synchronized because the design change scenario was processed in E5 environment.
  Refer to NC Synchronization in Manufacturing Hub Context.

Methodology 2:

• In E5: You can create a new IPD Subassembly and new IPD Part under the same Production View (1). Note that the name of the IPD Part must be the same in the both IPD Subassemblies.
  Then, link the new NC Part (PartV2) to the IPD Part of the new version of IPD Subassembly (2-3-4) and save the Project in IPD.
• In V5: Open the Project in V5, edit the Part Operation (5). Click on Product Instance Selection icon and select the new Subassembly (6). The replacement is done (7).
  Note that the Machining Operations are always synchronized.

Multi-replacement of NC Setup Assembly

In V5, it is possible to locally replace the Part Operation or globally replace all Part Operations pointing to the same NC Setup Assembly.

Case 1: In selected Part Operation only
If you choose a local replacement, even if there are several Part Operations pointing to the same NC Setup Assembly, the design changes will impact only the edited Part Operation. All the other Part Operations, pointing to the same NC Setup Assembly, continue to point to that one.
Nevertheless, if the other Part Operations reference some activities using some shared elements that are also used by the edited Part Operation (such as formula, Patterns, and Machining Areas) they will also be impacted by the design changes.

Case 2: In whole Process
If you choose a global replacement, all Part Operations pointing to the same NC Setup Assembly will be impacted by the replacement.
If the selected Part Operation is the only one pointing to a given NC Setup Assembly, the global mode is automatically applied.

As an example of this, imagine that several Part Operations point to "New Subassembly 1".

1. Edit the first one.
2. Replace the current NC Setup Assembly by "New Subassembly 2".
   The Product Replacement dialog box appears.
3. If you select In selected Part Operation only then only the edited Part Operation will be impacted. If you select In whole Process then all the Part operations will be impacted.

How to Copy Activities Between Projects

This section deals with the inter-project copy of activities (that is, machining operations).

Reminder: In V5 application in Manufacturing Hub context, it is not possible to copy an activity from a Project A to a Project B if the Part Operation included in Project B is not already associated to a NC Setup Assembly.

When you copy activities from a Project A (1) to a Project B (2) in a Part Operation with an associated NC Setup Assembly, three different cases can occur according to NC Setup Assembly associated to the origin Part Operation and NC Setup Assembly associated to the target Part Operation (3).

Case 1: The target NC Setup Assembly is the same as the origin NC Setup Assembly. In this case the activities will be rerouted on the new NC Setup Assembly instance. The status of the NC geometries does not change.

Case 2: The target NC Setup Assembly is a Save As from the origin NC Setup Assembly. The status of NC geometries are "Not up to date" for geometries that have changed.

Case 3: The target NC Setup Assembly is completely different from the origin NC Setup Assembly (or a New From). In this case, the status of all NC geometries are "Not Found".

If you do not use the Duplicate geometry links option, all the activities will be disconnected in any case.