I am using SW2014 SP5.
A coworker asked a "how to" and I can't seem to come up with the answer.
I am trying to have a balloon reference a part that does not have any geometry. This is an externally-saved part file that represents some adhesive.
I fully expected to see the "non-visible" components list in the balloon property manager. But this seems to only work for part files saved internally to the assembly.
Your help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Daen
Hello Daen,
I don't think I've tried this to make sure it works, but I've seen people here say that if you activate the Balloon function, then scroll down in the tree to the non-geometry part and click on it's origin it will pick up the part number from the BOM. Again, I haven't tried this, but it's worth a shot.
Glenn,
Many thanks for the tip! My experimentation shows that your method works with STACKED balloons but not standards balloons. With Stacked, you need to select a visible component first and then you can click the non-visible part's origin and it will be added to the stack. You can not select the non-visible part as the first part in the stack. You can however DELETE the first visible component from the stack leaving ONLY the non-visible part by editing the stacked balloon after it has been created.
Sounds like a good enhancement request...
Daen
If you don't want to add the balloon to a stack and delete things and go though that whole mess, there is an easier way to do this. In my case, I wanted a balloon without a circular border, which is not possible on a stacked balloon. Virtual parts were not an option in my case either.
The easier way is to place a blank balloon anywhere on the drawing so that it shows up with a question mark, then right click it and choose reattach. You can then click on the origin of the part in the feature tree and it will link it to its part number from the BOM.
Update: Make sure when you are clicking on the part in the featuer tree, you click on the origin and not the part itself. For some reason selecting the part itself works temporarily, but when you close and reopen the document the balloon loses the link and you're left with a "?"
"The easier way is to place a blank balloon anywhere on the drawing so that it shows up with a question mark, then right click it and choose reattach. You can then click on the part in the feature tree and it will link it to its part number from the BOM."
This worked, thanks
Hello Daen,
I don't think I've tried this to make sure it works, but I've seen people here say that if you activate the Balloon function, then scroll down in the tree to the non-geometry part and click on it's origin it will pick up the part number from the BOM. Again, I haven't tried this, but it's worth a shot.