NX NX Tips & Tricks - Locate Assembly components in NX 'Assembly Navigator' from Graphics area selection

User requirements: - When multiple users are working on large assemblies, with multiple levels & hierarchy, many situations may arise, where users need to locate components in the ‘Assembly Navigator’, by selecting the same in the NX Graphics area. This helps in better understanding the Assembly structure. However Users may face problems in following scenarios:

·        Finding out the Parent Assembly of a component, in the ‘Assembly Navigator’, by selecting the same in the NX Graphics area. This may not be easy in Multi-level assemblies.

·      Locating a component residing in the lower levels of a Multi-level Assembly, in the ‘Assembly Navigator’, by selecting the same in the NX Graphics area.

The methods & steps given below, lists the tricks to address the above-mentioned requirements, with least number of clicks.

Scenario 1: - Let us see how to find out the Parent Assembly of a component selected from the graphics area, in the ‘Assembly Navigator’, by selecting the same in the NX Graphics area.  

The trick is to correctly Interpret the component listing in the ‘Quick Pick’ list appearing in NX graphics area. Let us take an example of a multi-level assembly as shown below:

Step 1: Hover the mouse over the desired component, for 2-3 seconds & the cursor changes, as shown in figure below. This indicates that, NX will now bring up the ‘Quick pick’ list.

Step 2: - Click, to bring up the list of components in the ‘Quick pick’ dialogue box.

The list in the quick-pick is arranged in sequence of the Hierarchy in the Assembly tree in the ‘Assembly Navigator’  ..ie..

1  Component

2  First level Parent (Immediate assembly in which the component resides)

3  Second level Parent (Assembly in which ‘First level parent’ resides)

…. So on & so forth

Scenario 2: - Locating a component residing in the lower levels of Multi level Assembly, in the ‘Assembly Navigator’, by selecting the same in the NX Graphics area.

Step 1: - Select a component of the Assembly in the Graphics Area, as shown in the figure below.

Step 2 (Optional): - Wait for the ‘Quick pick’, in case lot of components are visible in the graphics area. Select the component from the ‘Quick pick’ list.

Step 3:- Right mouse click in the ‘Assembly Navigator’ & select the ‘Expand to selected’ option.

NX will expand the assembly tree to display the exact hierarchy level in which the selected component resides & highlight the component, in the ‘Assembly Navigator’. This action works for multiple component selections too. NX will expand the assembly tree to all the components selected.

Summary:- In the above document, we have seen how to:

·        Method to find out the parent assembly of a component, in the ‘Assembly Navigator’, by selecting the same in the NX Graphics area.   

·        Method to navigate quickly to a component residing in the lower levels of Multi level Assembly, in the ‘Assembly Navigator’, by selecting the same in the NX Graphics area.