Costing multi-body parts (free bodies)

aPriori can be configured to recognize multi-body CAD files as collections of free body parts and cost them as an assembly. This behavior is controlled by various properties. For interactive costing, these properties are set in the apriori.properties file, or (as of release 2019 R1) can be set in a Multi-Body Options preferences dialog. The apriori.properties settings are documented in the “Properties Files” chapter of the aPriori System Administration Guide. The Multi-Body Options preferences dialog is described at Multi-Body Options.

For Bulk Costing and Analysis, those properties and an additional one are set in plugin.properties and prefaced with “launcher.set” (for example, launcher.set.apriori.keep.free.bodies=true).

This section specifically discusses costing multi-body parts with Bulk Costing and Analysis.

When bulk costing encounters a multi-body, it first creates the structure and then cycles back to pick up the additional bodies.

To enable multi-body bulk costing, set the following properties:

In <install>\apriori.properties:

apriori.keep.free.bodies=true

In <install>\ext\analysis-purchasing-module\ plugin.properties:

launcher.set.apriori.keep.free.bodies=true

launcher.set.apriori.cost.free.bodies.as.assembly=true

Note: Ensure that there is no trailing space after “true”.

launcher.set.apriori.cost.free.bodies.as.assembly is a setting that is recognized only in Bulk Costing. When set to true, aPriori will cost each body as a part with the same costing inputs and then aggregate the costs at the assembly level. When free body parts get added to the Bulk Loader automatically (that is, if you load a multi-body CAD file containing free body parts), the free body parts appear in their own rows in the Bulk Costing & Analysis UI for the purposes of showing costing status. However, they are not editable, and they will not be saved in the Bulk Loader files (*.loader.xml), or to any exported CSV or Excel spreadsheet file. They inherit all their inputs from the parent assembly/multi-body part.

Note: If launcher.set.apriori.keep.free.bodies=true and launcher.set.apriori.cost.free.bodies.as.assembly=false, then only the top-level assembly will be costed and rows for assembly sub-components will not be added to the bulk cost group.

IMPORTANT: It is critical that you keep the common settings (i.e., all free body properties OTHER than apriori.cost.free.bodies.as.assembly) in apriori.properties and plugin.properties consistent. If you change the free.bodies setting in one, you must change it the same way in the other. Failure to do so can result in unexpected behavior such as assemblies being created with no subcomponents.

It should also be noted that bulk costing does not notify you if multi-body component scenarios are open in the UI when you initiate a bulk costing operation. However, when the bulk costing is finished, aPriori does display a list of components (including multi-body components) that are opened in the UI and which should be refreshed.

Limitations with multi-body STEP assemblies

Bulk costing STEP assemblies with multi-bodies present some special challenges and require some workaround procedures. You cannot directly Deep Cost and save multi-body STEP assemblies, but you can Deep Cost the resulting Rollup. The limitation with this workaround is that you cannot save and later re-open the Bulk Cost file: you must Deep Cost the Rollup scenario again.

To bulk cost a multi-body STEP assembly

5 Make sure that the free body properties are set as described in the previous section.

6 Create a new bulk cost group for the multi-body STEP assembly as described in .

To create a new bulk cost group

Make sure to specify a Rollup Name. Click Ok in the New Bulk Cost Group dialog box when done.

3 Click the Cost button in the aPriori Bulk Costing & Analysis window, then click OK when the Bulk Costing Complete window appears.

4 When the main aPriori window comes up showing the rollup you specified in Step 2, click Cost > Deep Cost Scenario. This displays the aPriori Bulk Costing & Analysis window again, this time showing the rollup, with all the subcomponents accessible and visible in the table. However, note that the Bulk Cost file cannot be saved to re-open later, and that you will need to Deep Cost the Rollup scenario again to get back to the table.