<!DOCTYPE html
  PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

<!--
Copyright (c) 2006 UGS Corp.

All Rights Reserved.

This software and related documentation are proprietary to UGS Corp.
-->
<html>
   <head>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
      <title>Spools overview</title>
      <script language="javaScript">
        abridged="false";
        displayConditions=new Array();
      </script>
      <link type="text/css" href="../css/main_styles.css" rel="stylesheet">
   </head>
   <body class="bodydocs" onload="top.pageLoader()" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
      <div class="title_topic3" id="xps10_pagetitle">Spools overview</div>
      <hr noshade="true">
      <table cellspacing="4" align="center">
         <colgroup span="1">
            <col span="1" width="99*">
            <col span="1" width="100*">
         </colgroup>
         <tr valign="top">
            <td bgcolor="#f7f7f7" colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Spools Overview</p>
            </td>
            <td bgcolor="#F7F7F7" colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td"><a class="links" href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="top.openFile('routingtools/member_id.html');return(false);">How To</a></p>
            </td>
         </tr>
      </table><br><p class="para_topic"><b class="uiTerm">Run Positions</b> and <b class="uiTerm">Spool Positions</b> are independent. &nbsp;A Routing Mechanical design may have one or the other, or both.
      </p>
      <p class="para_topic">Because different customers may require vastly different numbering schemes, the <b class="uiTerm">Run Position Numbering</b> and <b class="uiTerm">Spool Position Numbering</b> algorithms are provided as NX Open plug-in programs.&nbsp;This allows any customer to modify or replace the default algorithms.
      </p>
      <p class="para_topic">Spools are automatically detected by the system based on certain fitting ports being designated as <b class="uiTerm">Spool Delimiters</b>. When you request that spools be generated for a defined Run, the members of each spool detected are assigned the characteristic SPOOL_ID with a sequence of values generated by the default plug&ndash;in, under the user control.
      </p>
      <p class="para_topic">Run members are not required to be spool members.&nbsp;Runs may have some members that do belong to spools and some that do not. Spool detection assigns every member of a run to a Spool, but subsequent operations may result in Run members not being spool members (<b class="uiTerm">Remove Spool</b>, <b class="uiTerm">Place Part</b>, <b class="uiTerm">Edit Characteristics</b>, etc.).
      </p>
      <p class="para_topic">A branch point does not begin or end a spool, unless the branch is a spool delimiter fitting.</p>
      <div class="title_division">Delimiter designation</div>
      <p class="para_division">A Fitting is designated to be a spool delimiter item by having the characteristic SPOOL_DELIMITER=1 assigned to one or more of the fitting's ports. &nbsp;This characteristic may be an object attribute (defined within the component part), or may be an attribute assigned to the port occurrence in the Routing work part.</p>
      <p class="para_division">If you assign the characteristic to both the prototype and the occurrence, the one assigned to the occurrence takes precedence. This allows a fitting, such as a flange, to be pre&ndash;designated as a spool delimiter through <b class="uiTerm">Qualify Part</b>, but the designation may then be overridden within the work part by the assignment of the characteristic SPOOL_DELIMITER=0 to the occurrence of the port. &nbsp;Rather than having the user go into the attributes interface and create a characteristic or change the value, a dialog box is available to make the change.
      </p>
      <p class="para_division">The characteristic SPOOL_DELIMITER is assigned to fitting ports (not fixture or multiports) &nbsp;through the <b class="uiTerm">Qualify Part</b> Interface. This is performed when the port is created in the component port, or may be added afterwards. Ports belonging to components created before NX 3 may be edited in <b class="uiTerm">Qualify Part</b> to add the spool delimiter designation.
      </p>
      <p class="para_division">The image below shows the <b class="uiTerm">Qualify Part Fitting Port</b> dialog box with the <b class="uiTerm">Spool Delimiter</b> option added for the Routing Mechanical program only. &nbsp;The default is No, which means the port does not specify a spool delimitation. A port that is not qualified to be a spool delimiter does not have the characteristic SPOOL_DELIMITER assigned to it.
      </p>
      <p class="para_division">If you place a fitting that has Spool Delimiter defined for a port, that definition may be overridden in the work part by assigning the characteristic SPOOL_DELIMITER to the port occurrence in the work part.</p>
   </body>
</html>