NC Synchronization in Manufacturing Hub Context

This section discusses NC Synchronization in the Manufacturing Hub context.

This capability enables you to delete at least one Part belonging to the NC Setup Assembly or replace the current version of it by a new version. You can manually or automatically synchronize the Process with the new version of the Part.

Detecting Synchronization Problems

New Not Synchronous Symbol on Activity in the Graph

The following status values are possible for an activity:

• Up To Date: In this case, no specific symbol is displayed.
• Not Up To Date: In this case, an Update symbol   is displayed on the graph node of this activity. This symbol appears when the geometry pointed has been modified (for example, if you made a new revision of the Part and, in this revision, you have modified a surface that is used by a facing operation).
• Not Complete: In this case, an Exclamation symbol   is displayed on the graph node of this activity. This symbol appears when the geometry pointed has been deleted (example: You made a new revision of the Part. In this revision you have deleted a surface that is used by a facing operation).
• Not Synchronous: In this case, a Red cross symbol is displayed (as from V5R16). This symbol will appear, when the geometry pointed belongs to a Document which does not correspond to the Product instance pointed in the ProductList.
  
  Example: You have made a new version of the Part and you have replaced it in the Product, but you have saved the Product without versioning. So in the ProductList the new version of the Part is visualized but the operation still points on the old Part.

As for the other statuses, the Not synchronous symbol will be visualized automatically only if the Update activity status automatically option is active. Otherwise, it will be displayed only if the user refreshes the activity status.

The priorities between the different statuses are the following.

• First, a check is done to see if the activity is synchronous, otherwise the symbol is displayed.
• Then, a check is done to see if the activity is complete, otherwise the symbol is displayed.
• Finally, a check is done to see if the activity is up to date, otherwise the symbol is displayed.

New Color of Geometry Manipulators

In order to help the user to understand the status defined on the operation, different colors are customizable to display the geometry manipulators in the editors.

By default, Up to date geometries are displayed in green, Not up to date geometries are displayed in brown, Not Found geometries are displayed in purple, and Not synchronous geometries are displayed in dark mauve.
All these colors are customizable in Tools/Options.

New Status in Process Table

In the Process Table, an operation can have the following statuses:

• Up To Date if the operation is up to date
• Not Up To Date if the operation is not up to date
• Missing Information if the operation is not complete
• Not Synchronous if the operation points on a design that does not correspond to the one defined in the Product List.

New Status in Analyze Geometry Dialog Box

The following statuses are displayed for each geometric element in the Analyze Geometry dialog box:

• Up to date
• Not up to date
• Not found
• Not synchronous.

Manual and Automatic Synchronization

Manual Synchronization

Prior to V5R16, when an operation was not synchronous, the only way to synchronize it was to remove all geometry links and manually select the new geometry.
It is still possible to synchronize this manually but it is easier to know the geometry links that need to be reselected thanks to the Not Synchronous color of the geometry manipulator and the Not Synchronous status in the Analyze Geometry dialog box.

Automatic Synchronization

As from V5R16, you can synchronize the CATProcess automatically with Synchronize Process in the Auxiliary Commands toolbar. The synchronization is global to the CATProcess.
This command takes into account the Optimized detection of design changes option. It is possible to undo the synchronization.

Synchronization corresponds to reconciliation between the operation and the document present in the Product List.

Concerning Geometry

Reroute will be possible in the following cases:

• Geometric element is not published and the Part A' is a Save As of the Part A.
• Geometric element pointed in Part A is published in Part A itself (not in the product).

In these cases, reroute will also take into account the Optimized detection of design changes option.

Reroute will not be possible and operation will be disconnected in the following cases:

• Part A has been removed from the Product.
• Geometric element is not published and the Part A' is not a Save As of Part A.
• Geometric element pointed in Part A was published in Product context but not directly in Part A.

Concerning Formula

When a formula points on a parameter defined in a document that is not present in the Product List, two cases may be considered:

1. If it is possible to find the equivalent parameter in one of the documents of the Product List, we reroute the formula on it.
2. If it is not possible, we create a clone of the old parameter set with its previous value in the formula. In this case, the formula is not parameterized any more.

Compute Tool Path, Replay, Simulation and CATMFG

When an activity is not synchronous the integrity of the computed tool path cannot be guaranteed. It is considered as not complete. Therefore, if an activity is not synchronous, then compute tool path, replay, simulation and CATMFG will not be available except if the tool path or the activity is locked.

In CATMFG a message is generated in the Log file to indicate the Not synchronous status of this activity.

Examples of Scenarios Resulting in a Non Synchronized Process

Refer to New Versioning of NC Setup Assembly (Methodology 1) and New Versioning of Part when the Subassembly is Split into Subelements (Methodology 1) for detail about scenarios which cause the de-synchronization of NC geometry.