Automatic Balloons Generation
- Using the
Automatic Balloons Generation command, you can
create the balloons in an
active view for all the instances of the part, that
is all the leaf products represented in the view.
- In the Automatic Ballooning Options dialog box, only
those BOMs are shown which have the same context as the context of the
view.
- You can generate balloons even if the BOM list is empty. In this
case, the balloons are generated on all the instances (depending on which
Number of balloons option is selected) of the
view and numbered accordingly.
- If a BOM is selected from the BOM list, the balloons are generated
according to the instances referred in that BOM (depending on which
Number of balloons option is selected).
- If the command is used twice on the same view, new balloons are
generated on the parts, irrespective of whether balloons already exist on the
parts (either automatically generated or manually added) or not. In this case,
the balloons are also generated on the newly added parts/products in the
product structure represented in the view. However, it is possible to use one
of the two options
Update or
Reset to avoid having duplicated balloons.
- The balloons that were automatically generated, but manually deleted are created again
provided that the product they are attached to is still in the corresponding
BOM.
Once created, the balloons are positioned automatically according to
the position of the ballooned part in the view.
Balloon Generation Scenarios
A few scenarios are possible depending on whether a
bill of materials (BOM) exists in a
drawing or not:
- If there is only one bill of materials in the drawing and it points
to the same root product as the view, it is selected in the list and the
balloons are generated with reference to this BOM.
- If one or several parts seen in the view are not in the BOM (for
example, balloons for phantom products that are not listed in the referenced
BOM), the balloons will show a number that is increased as the balloons are
created. However, content of these balloons does not change associatively
because they do not have their respective part/product
representation in the BOM.
- If there is one or several bills of material in the drawing that
point to a different root product from that of the view or that are isolated,
then the balloons show a number that is increased as the balloons are created
(1,2,...,N).
- If there is no BOM in the drawing then the
BOM list will be empty and the balloons will
show a number that is increased as the balloons are created (1,2,...,N).
- About Update
- You can use
Update in a view where balloons have
previously been created and if you select the same associated BOM and its
creation options.
When using
Update, if a phantom product that was
previously listed in the BOM is no longer listed in it because of a change of
BOM format, and if you do not select the
Show Phantom Products option, then its
balloon is updated with a
? symbol to indicate that the content is
no longer valid. Otherwise, its number is changed to an incremented number.
Likewise, if you select the
Show Phantom Products option:
- If an N-line BOM becomes an N+X-line BOM (when a product is
added in the product structure), and if a phantom product that was not listed
in the referring N-line BOM is ballooned with number N+1, its content is
updated to N+X+1.
- If an N-line BOM becomes an N-X-line BOM (when a product is
removed in the product structure), and if a phantom product that was not listed
in the referring N-line BOM is ballooned with number N+1, its content is
updated to N-X+1.
- The BOM used as a reference for the balloons can also be
preselected before clicking on the
Automatic Balloons Generation command.
In this case, the selected BOM is automatically displayed in the
BOM list of
Automatic Ballooning Options dialog box.
However, if required, you can change this selection by choosing another BOM in
the
BOM list.
Balloons Lifecycle
The lifecycle of the balloons generated through the command is managed
and therefore is different from the ones generated manually.
- In the active view, you can delete all the balloons and recreate
them as new if you select
Reset during
Automatic Balloons Generation.
- If a BOM line associated with a balloon disappears (but the
geometry still exists), the balloon’s content changes to
?.
- If a balloon automatically generated points to a product which
geometry disappears from the view (whether it is because it has been deleted or
because another product is now hiding its geometry in this view), the balloon’s
content changes to
?.
- If a Top Level BOM becomes a Summarized one or vice versa, the
previously automatically generated balloons associated to this BOM are deleted
and recreated in the next usage of the command.
- If a BOM associated to balloons is deleted, its balloons are
isolated.
- If a balloon automatically generated is cut or copied, it becomes
isolated from the BOM when pasted.
- If a part pointed by a balloon is deleted, its balloon is not
deleted, but its content will change to
? if updated using the
Automatic Balloons Generation command.
Balloon Numbering
During balloon creation, all the existing balloons of a drawing or a
layout (except the features in detail sheets) are parsed to retrieve the
highest number of all the numbers used.
In case of detail sheet, only parent of balloon (main view of detail
sheet or 2D component) is parsed to retrieve the highest number of all the
numbers used. The value of the new balloon is initialized to value of the next
number.
For example, if a drawing contains balloon such as, 1, 2, 4, then the
next balloon is initialized to 5.
Balloon Positioning
Balloon leader can be positioned on dimension lines either with a
perpendicular extremity or without it.
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