NX Part Families

(NX 2212 Documentation)

Siemens NX offers part family functionality that enables users to efficiently manage and create variations of similar parts within a product family. Part families consist of a group of related components that share common features, dimensions, and design intent. With the part family functionality in Siemens NX, designers can define a master part (known as the template part) with customizable parameters that control the variations within the family. These parameters can include dimensions, features, materials, and other design specifications. By leveraging part families, designers can quickly generate and modify multiple variations of parts, reducing design time and effort while ensuring consistency across the product family. This functionality enhances design flexibility, promotes standardization, and streamlines the design process, making it an invaluable tool for organizations dealing with product families and variants.

Pre-requisites: Expressions and the Expressions Editor, Sketch Task Environment,

Part Family Structure – The part family is defined with a table of data. When it is saved this table becomes part of the template file.

Note: If you change the name of the template file, the part family name will change. Parts created under the old name will not be part of the new family.

  • Template Part
  • Family Table
    • Available Columns
      • Expressions
        • Expressions are created in the expressions editor (Ctrl+E)
      • Features
        • You can determine whether or not a feature is used in individual member parts. Value is YES or NO.
        • You can also (separately) add a suppress by expression attribute to the feature. This will create an expression that controls whether or not the feature is suppressed.
      • Mirror
      • etc.
    • Chosen Columns
    • DB_PART_NO
    • OS_PART_NAME – This column will be used to generate the filename for each member.
  • Family Member Parts
  • Family Save Directory (set this before generating member parts.!)

Part Family Drawings – Generally a chart drawing will define a part family. Dimensions can be overridden to display parameter names (A, B, C, etc.). A Part Family Table can be added (See the table group in the dimensioning app). The table can be edited to show or hide columns (by editing the table settings). Manual rows or columns can also be created.

Also, within the chart drawing, it is common to have to edit dimension text to represent parameter dimensions. To do this:

  • Right click on the dimension
  • Select “Settings”
  • Go to Text -> Format -> Check “Override Dimension Text”
  • You can then enter whatever text is necessary

Note 1: When changing the template file and updating parts, you will need to save before changes can be updated in the drawing file.

Note 2: Only data will be saved in part family table. Use the expressions editor if you want to build expressions that use formulas.