Generate Inspection Definitions from a part with product and manufacturing

information

For a Control Plan or an operation in the Control Plan, you can generate Inspection Definitions from a part that contains product and manufacturing information (PMI). This type of part is available when your Teamcenter environment is integrated with BCT Inspector and the PMI objects are imported into the appropriate parts.

Procedure

1. In the folder where you created the Control Plan, select and open the Control Plan that you want to edit.

2. Select the Control Plan or the operation where you want to generate Inspection Definitions.

3. In the right pane, click the PMI tab.

4. To search for and preview the parts with PMI, click Find Parts in the work area toolbar, and specify the search criteria.

When you select a part in the Find panel, the drawing is rendered in the PMI tab. The Find panel remains open for you select other parts and view their drawings. The parts displayed in the Find panel depend on the Dataset Type and Relation specified in the ACP_OBJECT_SEARCH_TO_RENDER_DATASET_INFO preference. Your administrator can configure this preference to display additional types of parts. Based on the default values defined in the preference, the Find panel displays only the following types of parts:

Parts with 3D data (JT) with the Direct Model type and a relation of Rendering Note JT file format versions 10.5 and earlier are supported for 3D model rendering.

Parts with the IPXML dataset with the PMI XML type and a relation of PMI XML Relation

5. To add PMI from the reference parts attached to the Control Plan, click the Reference tab, and select the required part.

6. After you select the required part, close the Find panel, and review the drawing.

The Drawing toolbar appears next to the main work area toolbar as long as the drawing is selected. To detach the Drawing toolbar from the main work area toolbar, click . To attach the toolbar back, click . To improve visibility in the work area, you can use the following options:

Preview all the matching parts before importing the required part's PMI. You can choose to preview a part with one of the following options:

Only Drawing: Displays a part’s PMI in a drawing view.

Only Table: Displays a part’s PMI in a table view.

Drawing with Table: Displays a part’s PMI in a drawing with table view.

Increase the work area by hiding the Linked Parts panel. To hide the panel, click Linked Parts in the pane's toolbar.

Hide the balloons if a part has multiple balloons that cover the geometry of the part. To do this, click Hide Balloons in the pane's toolbar. To view the balloons again, click Show Balloons. This allows you to view which balloon belongs to a particular characteristic on the part.

Drag the table view up and down or drag the Linked Parts panel to the left to increase the image work area.

Select the required sheet from the list of sheets if the part has multiple sheets.

Select the type of view for the part from the Model Views list. The view of the part is positioned to the selected view. The different views allow you to easily identify which section of the part is associated with a specific balloon. This is helpful when the part has multiple balloons that cover the geometry of the part, and you need to view only a specific section. To select multiple balloons in different views, hold the Ctrl key as you select them to retain the selections from the previous view. You can also add your own custom views.

View a legend for the types of balloons by clicking Balloon Information .

Use the roller on your mouse to zoom in and out of the part drawing. Hold the Ctrl key and drag with the left mouse button to move the drawing in the work area.

7. In the rendered part drawing, select the balloons that contain the PMI to be imported.

You can select multiple balloons using any of the following options:

Click Select Balloons > All to select all balloons.

Click Select Balloons > FAI Marked to select only FAI Marked balloons. These balloons have a yellow border. It indicates that these balloons are marked for First Article Inspection (FAI). If you import FAI Marked balloons, then the FAI Required property is set to True in the generated Inspection Definitions.

Click Select Balloons > Clear Selection to clear any selections you have made.

When you select a balloon in the drawing, a red border appears on the balloon to indicate that the balloon is selected. Additionally, the corresponding characteristic is also selected in the table below the drawing. If you select a row in the table, the corresponding balloon is selected in the drawing. Subsequently, Import Balloons is displayed in the pane's toolbar.

8. Select a Grouped Balloon to select all instances of the Group Characteristics in the table view.

Group Characteristics are a collection of related attributes or features that are inspected or measured together as a group. They are often associated with specific geometric dimensions, tolerances, surface finishes, or other critical features of a part or assembly. An example of Group Characteristics is a group of dimensions related to the hole pattern on a flange, including hole diameter, spacing, and position. Note A Grouped Balloon is indicated by a double outline. When you select a Grouped Balloon, a red border appears on the balloon to indicate that the balloon is selected. The balloon remains selected until you clear the selection of all characteristics in the group.

9. Click Import Balloons in the pane's toolbar.

Note If you select less than 20 balloons, Control and Inspection Planning imports the balloons in the synchronous mode. If you select more than 20 balloons, Control and Inspection Planning imports the balloons in the asynchronous mode, and a notification is displayed in the Alerts panel when the import is complete. The administrator can configure the number of balloons to be used for the synchronous mode.

For each selected balloon, the following is generated for the selected Control Plan or operation:

Inspection Definition If you select the generated Inspection Definition, you can view additional information about the Inspection Definition in the following tabs:

In the Overview tab, you can view Inspection Definition details, such as the Characteristic Number property that displays the number of the imported balloon and the Remark property that displays the remarks of the imported balloon. After you import the balloon, the Preview section displays a Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) control frame image that is imported from the balloon. The image is in the SVG format, and it is added as an attachment to the Inspection Definition in the Attachments tab. If the source balloon is updated, and you import the updated PMI, the image is updated in the Preview section. Note The SVG file is attached to the Inspection Definition only if it is available in IPXML as an embedded file. NX can generate control frame SVG files that can be embedded while generating IPXML files.

The GD&T control frame is a rectangular box that contains specific GD&T information for controlling a particular feature of a part. The control frame is divided into compartments that convey the following information:

Geometric Characteristic Symbol: This is the first compartment and contains a symbol that represents the type of geometric control being specified, such as flatness, concentricity, or positional tolerance.

Tolerance Value: The second compartment specifies the numerical tolerance associated with the geometric characteristic. This defines the allowable variation for the feature.

Datum Reference (if applicable): Subsequent compartments may include letters that refer to datum features on the part. Datums are reference points, lines, or planes used to establish the origin for dimensional measurement, and to define the part's orientation and location.

Material Condition Modifiers (if applicable): These are symbols such as MMC (Maximum Material Condition) or LMC (Least Material Condition) that may be included to specify how the tolerance varies with the size of the feature.

Additional Requirements: Any other requirements, such as the tolerance zone shape or specific instructions for inspection, can also be included in the control frame.

In the PMI tab, you can view the PMI details. The drawing is rendered in the PMI tab, and the selected balloons are displayed in the dark blue color.

In the Where Used tab, you can view the details about where the Inspection Definition is used, such as the parent Control Plan or operation.

In the Characteristic tab, you can view the details of the Quality Characteristic generated from the source balloon in the part drawing. For a part in NX, when you publish the part’s Characteristics from NX to Teamcenter, the Characteristics are populated in the Characteristics tab of the part. If you have imported a balloon from this part, the source Characteristic of the part is displayed in the Characteristic Instance section. If you have imported Characteristics with annotations, it uses the Annotation_Group naming convention. The Name and Description of the Quality Characteristic is populated from the Remarks property of the part’s Characteristics. Note For a part in NX, the design engineer updates the properties of PMI, and publishes the Characteristics to Teamcenter. Now, if a quality engineer imports the PMI into an Inspection Definition before the update, then this Inspection Definition has the older version of the PMI properties. In this scenario, an alert is displayed to the quality engineer about this update. The alert informs the quality engineer that the source Characteristic of the part has been updated. Additionally, the attached log file provides detailed information, including the name and ID of the updated Characteristic, the name of the consuming Inspection Definition, and both the old and new values. If the Characteristic is deleted, the alert message informs the quality engineer that the Characteristic is deleted.

If you open the part's Characteristic from the Characteristic Instance section, in the Where Used tab, you can view the source part and the Inspection Definitions where the Characteristic is used.

In this tab, you can also add Reaction Plans and potential defects from the Failure Catalog to an Inspection Definition.

In the Reference tab, you can view the part that is added to the Part Reference section. If you have imported balloons from a stage of a staged model set created in NX, the PMI is imported and the final part of the staged model set is displayed in the Final Stage of the Reference Part section of this tab. This helps you identify the final part of the staged model set.

In the Attachments tab, you can add supporting files, documents, and links for the Inspection Definition.

The administrator defines the mapping between the Inspection Definition properties and the balloon properties, and can also define the mapping for any custom properties added to Inspection Definitions. Note

If you copy this Inspection Definition and paste it on another operation, the Inspection Definition and its part and PMI are copied to the operation.

When you select an Inspection Definition, its corresponding Model View is displayed in the PMI tab, and its associated balloon is highlighted in the drawing.

Quality Characteristic in the associated Inspection Definition and Characteristics Group If the selected PMI matches one of the conditions defined in the active Import PMI Rule, a Characteristics Group is created by using the naming convention specified in active Import PMI Rule. The name and type of the Characteristics Group is assigned from the naming convention. In this Characteristics Group, Quality Characteristics are generated for each balloon that matches the conditions defined in the active Import PMI Rule. The name of the Quality Characteristics is generated from the values specified in the Characteristic Name Definition section of the naming convention. To view the source naming convention, click it in the Naming Convention field of the Quality Characteristic.

If the imported PMI does not match any of the conditions defined in the active Import PMI Rule, the Characteristics Group and Quality Characteristics are generated by using the Default Naming Convention specified for the active Import PMI Rule. In the Where Used tab of the Quality Characteristic, you can view the details of the Inspection Definition that is using the Quality Characteristic.

While importing PMI, in some cases, the Quality Characteristics already exist in the Quality Master Data. In such cases, Control and Inspection Planning does not create new Quality Characteristics, but uses the existing Quality Characteristics, and attaches them to the generated Inspection Definitions. The Quality Characteristic is created in the TCM Released status. For more information, see **Create a naming convention to organize the Quality Characteristics generated from imported PMI and **Create an Import PMI Rule to process the imported PMI.

Additionally, the part is added to the Linked Parts panel of the PMI tab. The imported balloons are displayed in dark blue.

Note If the base Teamcenter version is 12.x, the parts are added to the Drawings section.