Setting up the NX search dialogs to include new classification classes and attributes

The search dialogs that are displayed when you search for tools or machines in NX are referred to as the NX search dialogs. They consist of three dialog boxes, the Library Class Selection, the Search Criteria, and Search Results dialog boxes. When you search in NX, these dialogs provide you with information about the tools and machines saved in the Teamcenter database. If you modify classes or attributes in the Teamcenter database, you must update the NX search dialogs to be able to search for the changed objects.

The content of the NX search dialogs is specified by definition (DEF) files. This mechanism is thoroughly explained in the CAM libraries→Library definition files section of the Manufacturing General documentation in NX.

You can export the classification hierarchy, its classes and attributes, as well as class and hierarchy images to such a DEF file using the mrm_export_resources utility.

By default, when you export the classification hierarchy and use the resulting DEF file in NX, all Teamcenter attributes are shown in the Search Criteria and Search Results dialog boxes. You can limit the number of attributes shown in these dialog boxes by creating mapping views of your tool assembly classes in Classification Admin that only contain the attributes that you need in the NX dialog boxes. To assist you, two mapping view types are delivered in Classification Admin that are used by the mrm_export_resources utility to create the appropriate DEF files.

View type	Description
NXLIB_SearchCriteria	Specifies which attributes are displayed in the Search Criteria dialog box in NX.
NXLIB_SearchResult	Specifies which attributes are displayed in the Search Result dialog box in NX.

Teamcenter lists the attributes that you specify in the NXLIB_SearchCriteria view as parameters of the DIALOG statement in the DEF file. It writes the attributes that you specify in the NXLIB_SearchResult view as parameters of the RSET statement. If you do not create an NXLIB_SearchResult view, Teamcenter automatically uses the same attributes for the Search Result dialog box as it does for the Search Criteria dialog box. If you do not specify either of these views, all Teamcenter attributes are displayed in both dialog boxes.

Any time you make changes to the classification hierarchy, you must run the mrm_export_resources utility to ascertain that these changes are reflected in the NX search dialogs.

Tip

Use the mrm_export_resources utility to export hierarchy images for use in the NX dialog boxes.

In the Manufacturing Resource Library, the NXLIB_SearchCriteria and NXLIB_SearchResult mapping views are delivered by default. The NX Search Result dialog does not include site-specific properties.

By default in NX, you cannot search for attributes when searching for machines. To turn on the display of the NX Search Criteria dialog box where you can search for site-specific properties for the machines, you must add the following two lines to the ugii_env.dat file:

UGII_CAM_MACHINE_QUERY_DIALOG=yes UGII_CAM_DEVICE_QUERY_DIALOG=yes