Create a Custom Operation Sequence

If you customize a process routing, you may also need to customize the operation sequence for one or more GCDs, to ensure the order of operations in a GCDs operation sequence is consistent with the order of processes in the component routing.

For example, a sheet metal part may be costed with the process routing ‘Laser Cut’ ‘3 Axis Mill’ ‘Internal Grinder’

  • A SimpleHole GCD is assigned the operation sequence ‘Laser Cutting’ ‘Reaming’. By default, there is no ‘Internal Grinder’ operations in that sequence, so you must customize the operation sequence if you want both reaming and grinding operations to be applied to SimpleHoles.

  • You can customize the operation sequence by inserting the ‘ID Finish Plunge Grinding’ operation after the ‘Reaming’ operation, so that the custom operation sequence becomes:
    • ‘Laser Cutting’ ‘Reaming’ ‘ID Finish Plunge Grinding’
      This is a valid customization, because the order of the operations is consistent with the order of the processes in the process routing.

  • However, if you customize the operation sequence by inserting the ‘ID Finish Plunge Grinding’ operation before the ‘Reaming’ operation:

    • ‘Laser Cutting’ ‘ID Finish Plunge Grinding’ ‘Reaming’ then the order of operations for the SimpleHole GCD conflict with the order of processes in the parent routing. This is an invalid state. If you cost the part at this time, you get an error message in the message tree.

  • To correct the order consistency problem, you must either:

    • Leave the ‘Internal Grinder’ process after the 3 Axis Mill and insert the ‘ID Finish Plunge Grinding” operation after the Reaming process.

    • o Customize both the process routing and the operation sequence so that the Internal Grinder process comes prior to the 3-Axis Mill process and so the ID Finish Plunge Grinding operation comes before the Reaming process. Note that although this addresses the consistency issue, it does not make much sense from a manufacturing perspective.

Create or edit a custom operation sequence

  1. In the Geometric Cost Drivers panel, click on the GCD(s) of interest and select Edit… from the Operation Sequence Selection editor window

  2. Click Edit > Customize Routing to open a panel on the left of the Operation Sequence Selection window, which lists operations available to insert into the sequence (grouped by their parent processes).

  3. For each operation you are interested in adding to the operation sequence,

    1. Click on the operation in the list of available operation, hold down the left mouse key, and drag the operation from the panel onto the Process Routing pane.

    2. As you do so, the User Interface dynamically displays arrows indicating where the operation is to be inserted if you release the mouse button.

    3. Drag the operation to the desired position and release the left mouse key.

      • If you wish to insert the operation in a different location, you can simply drag and drop it to the new location.

      • To remove the operation from the sequence, right-click on the node and select Remove from the popup menu.

  4. Depending on how you have customized your sequence, you might need to customize the parent process routing so that the order of processes is consistent with the order of operations.