About Piping/Tubing Symmetry

Assembly Symmetry is a tool that lets you symmetrize product structure references according to symmetry types.

You can apply three different methods to generate an assembly symmetry:

• By selecting a product in the tree (out of the root product), this product is considered as the original product instance and the corresponding symmetric product is created under the parent product of the original product.
• By selecting the root product in the tree, a symmetric product will be created and displayed in:
  • A new tab when Create widget in in new tab is selected.
  • A new widget of the current tab when Create widget in in new tab is cleared.
  See Widget Creation.

• By selecting a product using the Browse existing product button. See Using the Content Chooser for more details.

  In this case, a symmetric product will be created and displayed in:

  • A new tab when Create widget in in new tab is selected.
  • A new widget of the current tab when Create widget in in new tab is cleared.
  See Widget Creation.

You can run the assembly symmetry calculation in default mode or customize mode, and specify a type of assembly symmetry including New reference, Same reference, Existing reference and No symmetry types.

These two modes are described as follows:

• Default mode: Creates a new symmetric product reference (a mirror- like symmetric product) for each original product in the original structure. All new symmetric products are generated with the symmetry plane specified in the User Preferences file; by default the YZ plane.
• Customize mode: Lets you specify both a symmetry type and a symmetry plane for each symmetric counterpart of each original reference in the original product structure.

Whatever the selected mode, you can then position symmetrically the resulting product structure reference with respect to the original product structure reference through a shortcut to the Symmetry Constraint Definition function that allows you to quickly create a symmetry engineering connection.

Assembly symmetry lets you keep associativity in shape, product structure and positioning.

Shape

• Any change made to a 3D shape representation that undergoes a symmetry process is automatically reflected in the symmetric representation.
• You can disconnect a symmetric 3D shape from its original counterpart by isolating the assembly symmetry links. For more information, see Isolating Links or Relations.

Product Structure

The Track add/remove changes in assembly option allows you to check any change made to the original product structure.

If a difference is detected between the original product structure and the symmetric product structure, modify the symmetric product to reflect the change accordingly.

Positioning

• By default, an assembly symmetry is generated without positioning associativity with the original assembly.
• A Fix Symmetrically engineering connection can be created to manage positioning associativity; such an engineering connection cannot be edited and requires a generating plane.

Customizing the symmetry process allows you to determine which products to be included in the symmetric product structure and how they are generated and instantiated.

• Recursively symmetric references: Creates recursively symmetric products based on one generating plane for the symmetry.
• New symmetric reference: Creates a new symmetric product based on one generating plane for the symmetry.

  Important: In the case of equipment and support, this option is not supported. If you select it, the Same reference option will be used instead. In the case of rigid/flexible pipes or ducts, you can only choose the symmetry plane yz if you select this option. New symmetry products are automatically saved in database. When a weight is declared in a product node, this one is applied to the new symmetric product, and there is no associativity between declared weight of the original and symmetric products. A computed weight is not applied to the new symmetric product.

• Same reference: Reuses the original product structure reference (" the same reference") in the symmetric product structure.

  Instead of creating a new product reference, the original reference is reused; it is instantiated in the symmetric structure and positioned as if it was a new symmetric product. Therefore, selecting the plane plays a prominent role for the final position of "the same reference" in the symmetric product structure

  Note: For more information about orientation discrepancies of the symmetric product reference that might occur, see the dedicated article A best practice to use the same reference type in Assembly Symmetry available in the knowledge base.

  Important: In the case of rigid/flexible pipes or ducts, this option is available only for those which do not have any contextual link or external reference.

• Existing reference: Reuses the original product structure reference (" the existing reference" in the Selection Object dialog box) in the symmetric product structure.

  Instead of creating a new product reference, the original reference is reused; it is instantiated in the symmetric structure and positioned as if it was a new symmetric product.

• No symmetry: Specifies that original products do not have symmetric products and deletes the symmetric products and links.

  Important: To delete a symmetric product, select the original product, and click No symmetry. The symmetric product, the corresponding positioning as well as the symmetry constraints are deleted.

• Symmetry Plane : Defines the symmetry plane:
  • XY Plane,
  • YZ Plane,
  • ZX Plane,
  • Undefined Plane: Displayed when an assembly symmetry created either with the Same reference or the Existing reference specification is edited.

    The "generating" plane is not saved in the assembly symmetry when either one of the two above specifications is used.

  Important: Define the constructing symmetry plane of a symmetry reference with respect to the original. When you change the symmetry plane for products containing a 3D shape, the 3D shape in the related symmetric products are regenerated, and related symmetric products are repositioned in the assembly symmetry. This list displays either the symmetry plane used when you create a symmetry, or the resulting plane of a symmetry. The symmetry plane can be redefined for each product level in the assembly. The default assembly symmetry is always created from the yz plane of the root product, and from the yz plane of each products contained in the assembly. In the case of rigid/flexible pipes or ducts, you can only choose the symmetry plane yz if you selected the New symmetric reference option.

• Instance specifications: Applies the specification of the current selected instance to all other instances of the same reference.

  Important: The Instance specifications capability is object-action only; you must select a product in the tree prior to running this command. Links are re-routed only when they are in the parts which belong to the symmetric assembly. In the case of pipes/tubes or ducts routed through external parts, the link is isolated in the symmetric pipe/tube or duct.

The table below lists the recommended symmetry specification options for different types of piping/tubing components.

Piping/Tubing component	Recommended Symmetry Specification Option
Equipment/Support	Same reference Existing reference
Piping/Tubing part	New symmetric reference Same reference Existing reference
Rigid/flexible pipe/tube	New symmetric reference Same reference
Spool	New symmetric reference
Insulation of pipe/tube	New symmetric reference
Insulation of part	New symmetric reference Same reference Existing reference

Visualization options available in Assembly Symmetry let you view the symmetric assembly during creation or edition.

• Views in symmetry: Links the original selected product window and symmetric window in symmetry, the symmetry plane used is the product structure root.
• Views in parallel: Links the original selected product window and symmetric window in parallel.
• Unselected elements transparency display: Applies a transparency to all unselected elements.
• Reframe: Reframes and displays only the selected element, only if instances of a single reference are selected.

Flexible products can be involved in a Piping/Tubing Symmetry.

Flexible references, repositionable instances, and overloaded positions are taken into account in symmetric products.

A few behaviors can be specified during update.

By clicking the Symmetry Properties and selecting the Update behavior tab, the following options are offered:

You can either:

• Replace a string in the original product name by another.
• Add a prefix to the original product name.
• Add a suffix to the original product name.