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Article - CS313854

Some specific types of custom symbols have the potential to change unintentionally in Creo Parametric

Modified: 14-Jun-2022   


Applies To

  • Creo Parametric 5.0.0.0 to 5.0.5.0
  • Creo Parametric 1.0 to 4.0 M100
  • Creo Parametric 6.0.0.0 to 6.0.2.0
  • Pro/ENGINEER and Creo Elements/Pro Wildfire 4.0 to Wildfire 5.0
  • Symbols in Drawing files
  • Symbols placed in 3D Part and Assembly files
  • Symbols in UDFs (*.gph files)

Description

  • Summary:
    • Updating or modifying some old drawing or 3D symbols has the potential to cause the symbol instances to change their grouping unintentionally
    • For example, copying and pasting an affected weld symbol could cause the original weld symbol to change its weld shape type (fillet instead of u-shape)
    • An unintended change like this, gone unnoticed, can lead to incorrect documentation
    • See below for full list of potentially affected symbols and operations on those symbols that could cause this issue
  • Potentially affected symbol definitions
    • Symbol definitions with a hierarchy of groups sharing common group names AND was made before Creo 2.0 M170, Creo 3.0 M050, or Creo 4.0 F000 AND has not been Redefined since that time
      • Redefined: Symbol Gallery > Redefine
    • Example: a weld symbol having a group "Arrow Side" which has groups Fillet and U-shape which BOTH contain groups called Contour
    • Notes:
      • If a symbol definition has been redefined in or after the Creo builds above, it will not cause its instances to change their current grouping unexpectedly
      • Not all potentially affected symbols will demonstrate this issue
      • Out of the box Creo weld symbols are not affected by this issue despite some having hierarchical groups sharing common names
  • Technical Details:
    • If symbol instances are regenerated from an affected symbol definition, their grouping (which elements are displayed or not) may be incorrect
    • Actions that cause existing symbol instances to be regenerated from the definition
      • File > New > Drawing > From Template
      • Showing BOM balloons using this symbol definition for a custom BOM balloon (Note that such symbols are not expected to have these group hierarchies)
      • Copy/Paste of symbol instances
      • In cases where a symbol definition is obtained from an external source, and the same symbol definition (name and relative path) already exists, and the external one is deemed newer, copy it over the existing one and update existing instances (for example, Symbol Gallery > Redefine > Retrieve, or showing a 3d symbol in 2d)
      • Issuing the user_command regen_symbol_instances
      • Appending one drawing to another
      • Redefining the symbol definition via the symbol editor
      • Redefining the symbol definition via APIs
  • Completely isolated from this sub-group common name issue, there is also the potential for some fixed-height symbol instances to not match their symbol definition's height
    • This is more of a display issue than a risk for misinterpretation of the symbol
    • The symbol definition is not impacted - newly placed symbols from this definition will match the symbol definition's height
    • This article mainly focuses on the symbols with hierarchy of groups sharing common group names where the symbol definition is affected
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