Clearance Analysis in NX

What will be covered in this workshop is as

follows:
• Overview
• Perform Analysis
• Clearance Sets
• Properties
• Basic
• Advanced
• Analysis Reports
• Clearance Browser
Overview
The Assembly Clearance function performs a clearance check between solids,
sheets and faceted bodies. Clearance Analysis is utilized to identify when parts
are too close to each other. This may be the result of an actual interference
condition - where one part penetrates into another, or a clearance zone
violation - where two parts are closer together than the specified clearance
distance.

 It is important to note that the UG clearance analysis tool will identify all
clearance zone violations. You should review each of the violations to see if it is
really undesirable. Faceted reps may also lead to "false alarms".

* Please note that if you remove components from an assembly file that were
used in a clearance check, the reports interference information will be cleared
within the assembly file.

Interference Types
No Interference - the distance between the objects is greater than
the clearance zone
Hard Interference - the objects intersect each other.
Soft Interference - two objects are situated such that the minimum
distance between the bodies is less than the clearance zone, but the
objects do not touch
Perform Analysis performs the clearance analysis on the
current clearance set. When the analysis is complete, the program displays
the results in the Clearance Browser.
Selecting Perform Analysis before a clearance set is defined, displays the
Clearance Properties dialog so the user can define a clearance set on the
fly.
 Clearance Sets

Initially the only two options under Clearance Set are the “Set and
New”.
Set allows you to open a previously saved Clearance Set and New
allows you create a new set.

Once a set is opened and you navigate back to the Clearance Set menu,
you’ll have additional options. You can Copy the Clearance Set which
will make a duplicate of the set. Initially it gives it the same name, but
adds a numeric number at the end. Please note that you can change
the name then or later. You also have the ability to Delete the set.
Which ever set is opened, will be the set that gets deleted. And last is
Properties which takes us to the Clearance Properties Menu and the
 Basic Clearance
Properties

Clearance Set Name allows you to define the name for the
clearance set that is being created. The name of "SET" followed by a
number is the default.
The Clearance Set Type option defines how the clearance objects
are selected. The default and typical is Component type and setting it
to Body should only be necessary if there are components made up of
 Lists to Check
By default, the analysis runs in One List mode. In this
mode, NX checks every included object against every other included
object.
Using the Two Lists mode, you define two groups of
objects. NX checks every object on list 1 against every object on list
2. It does not check any object on list 1 with any other object on list
1, and the same goes for list 2. Two Lists mode can be useful for
checking two subassemblies against each other. The number of
component pairs in Two Lists mode is equal to the number of
components in List 1 multiplied by the number of components in List
2. This usually provides a much smaller set of pairs to check than
One List mode.

NOTE: Using Two Lists is the preferred method.

Show will display what currently
included in the list selected.

Selection Methods
when adding
components to a list
Default Clearance Zone
The Default Clearance Zone is the minimum distance between
objects (any positive value). If the minimum distance between
any two objects is less than the default clearance zone, a soft
interference is reported.
Analysis Mode
This option allows you to select the type of objects to evaluate during the
analysis. If the components have faceted bodies and the Facet Based
setting is used, the reference set of the components need to change to
display the faceted bodies. Likewise, if the setting is changed to Use Solids,
the reference sets of the components need to be changed to display the
solid bodies.

When set to Facet Based Analysis looks for a Facet Representation in each
component. If it finds none, Analysis will create them.

When set to Use Solids Where Available Analysis will look for a solid
body in each component.

Using Solids is the slowest, but most accurate. I recommend this for the
final analysis.
 Advanced Clearance
Properties

The advanced tab gives you options to speed up your

Analysis by specifying components to be ignored as well as
setting clearance zones on components to give you a more
intelligent analysis.
Pair Zones
Assign to Pairs
Allows you to assign a different clearance
zone for specific component pairs. When you
select Assign to Pairs, the Class Selection
dialog displays prompting the you to select
the component pairs to assign this clearance
zone to. For example, if most of the
components in the assembly have a minimum
clearance zone of 0.0254 but there are a
couple of components that are designed face-
to-face, Assign to Pairs allows you to assign a
0.0 clearance zone for only those components.
The analysis will apply the 0.0254 clearance
zone on the remaining components.

Reset Pair Zones

Removes an assigned zones from a
component pair. Once a defined zone is
removed, the objects reverts to the clearance
zone value that was defined for the clearance
set.

List Pair Zones

Object Zones
This allows you to define a
clearance zone to one or more
selected components. The
options on this dialog are
identical to those on the Pair
Clearance Zones dialog except it
is for individual components.
Additional Pairs:
Allows you to select additional pairs of objects to
analyze using the Class Selection menu.
Ignored Pairs
Allows you to select pairs of objects to exclude from
future analysis runs using the Class Selection menu.
 Explicitly Ignored
This option provides a variety of
methods to ignore objects during
the analysis. If the assembly is
particularly large, this can speed
up the analysis.

Mated Pairs: Ignores all pairs of components that have

been mated.
Pairs Within the Same Subassembly: Ignores all pairs of
components that are part of the same Subassembly.
Pairs Within the Same Group: Ignores all pairs of
components that are part of group defined under Format
Group.
Pairs Within the Same Part: Ignores all pairs of
components that are part of the same file.
Clear Results
This option deletes the results from the analysis
and marks the clearance set as out-of-date.
Save Interference Solids
This option after the Analysis is ran,
creates solid bodies that show all
hard or containment interferences.
These solid bodies are created as
unparameterized features and must
not be saved in the assembly file.
The default is set to OFF. If this
option is toggled on, place the solids
on a layer that only contains these
solids and that has a user defined
name starting with an underscore.

Layer
Allows you to specify a layer on
which to place the interference
solids if the option Save Interference
Solids is toggled on.

Interference Color
This option allows you to control the
color of the created interference
solids.
 Analysis
Reports
After performing an analysis, there are two options for displaying the results
and two options for saving the results.

Summary
Displays an overview of the number of objects analyzed and the number of
interferences.
Report
Displays an information window with a summary, along with the details of the
interferences found.
Save Report
A copy of the report can be saved outside of NX2 using the Save Report
command.
Save Bookmark
This is the same as selecting File | Save Bookmark. It saves the current
session in its current state.
Store Component Visibility
Saves components' current blank and shade status.
Restore Component Visibility
Returns the component to its original stored visibility.
 Clearance Browser

The Clearance Browser provides an easy access to the tools required to

perform Assembly Clearance operations. Including creating and
managing clearance sets and evaluating clearance analysis results.
If there are no existing clearance sets the browser will be empty
otherwise the browser will display the current clearance set.
Folders in the Clearance Browser
The folders contain the information generated from the Analysis and
are displayed in the Selected Component column.

Interferences: Contains the components that the system found when

running the analysis check.
Ignored: This folder contains the items you determined to be ignored in
the analysis. After an analysis is run, you can drag items from the
Interference Folder to the Ignored Folder for avoidance in future runs.
Analysis Exceptions: This folder only gets created when there is a
problem during the Analysis run.
List One: When a one list check is used this folder will contain the
components being checked against each other.
List Two: When a two list check is used this folder will contain the
components being checked against the components in List 2.
Additional Pairs to Check: The component pairs in this list are ones the
program would normally exclude due to the options checked by you under
the Advanced Tab.
 Several columns are displayed in the Clearance Browser,
communicating all the information regarding a clearance
analysis. The Clearance Browser can be sorted in either
ascending or descending order by clicking on a column title.

Selected Component- Part Number of component checked

Interfering Component- Which component interferes with the
selected component
Type- What type of interference was found
Distance- The minimum distance of the Soft Interference found.
0.0000 will be displayed for other Interferences found.
Clearance- The clearance zone initially determined by the user.
Identifier- A unique number is assigned to each interference for
your reference.
Out of Date- I a component previously checked has been
modified a icon will be displayed.
Unloaded Objects- A icon lets you know if a component has not
 Right-clicking over the Clearance Set
node in the Clearance Browser
displays a pop-up menu that provides
quick access to pertinent commands
from the submenu.

Right-clicking over a
Interference will bring up this
Sub-Menu to enable you to
browse and rapidly evaluate
interferences.
 Sub-Menu of Interferences

Study Interference: Blanks all components except components in

interference
Restore Component Visibility: Unblanks all components from previous
state.
Redraw interference: Redisplays interference after a view refresh is
done.
Reanalyze: Rechecks component pair if changes have been made.
Do Solid Check: Performs most accurate method of analysis when facets
were used prior.
Create Interference Geometry: Creates a unparametized solid
representing the interference.
Blank Left: Blanks component on the left hand side of component pair
list.
 Clearance Analysis
the Inner and Outer Door PanelExercise
In this exercise we’re going to check a couple of things. Overlap between
and the Reinforcements to each other.

Load the file ahd84535/001 in TcAE Pontiac database.

Check to see if the Reference Sets displayed are REP. If not, you can
change this easily and quickly under Assemblies>Components>Replace
Reference Sets.
Create a Clearance set called "Panel1".
Using 2 lists put the PANEL-RR S/D OUTER-RH (15752589) and
REINFORCEMENT-ASM RR S/D INR PNL (15752594) on list 1 using the Class
Selection method. Put all others on list 2 using the All But Selected
method selecting the two parts we just put on list 1.
As the designer, you want 1mm overlap interference between the PANEL-
RR S/D OUTER-RH (15752589) and the PANEL-RR S/D INR RH (15752593).  
Also, you want to know if (15151047) and (15151048) come within 15mm
of (15752594). You’ll need to create two Pair Zones for those checks.
Save your interferences on layer 252.
Use Facet Based mode to calculate your clearances. Analyze your
clearances and add text to any interference by typing in the text column of
the Clearance Browser.
Click Here to see a snapshot of the results
Now copy the Clearance Set) Panel1 to Panel2 and repeat the
above procedure, but change the Mode to Solid and the layer
for interferences to 253.
Click Here to see a snapshot of the results.
1. Did you end up with the same results?
Analysis Results using Facet
Based

Go Back to Exercise
Analysis Results using Solid
Based

Go Back to Exercise