AS9102 in Half the Time

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DISCUS Basic Tips Of the Month

Tips Of the Month for November

Tips Of the Month for October

Tips Of the Month for September

Tips Of the Month for August

Tips Of the Month for July

Tips Of the Month for June

Tips Of the Month for May

Gain More DISCUS Screen Real Estate for Your Drawing

If you would like to increase the size of the drawing panel or exclude the spec panel, you can easily do so.

  1. Move the mouse pointer over the top vertical panel divider bar. When the mouse pointer changes, typically to a double ended arrow, select the left mouse button then drag the divider bar to the right.
    Or
    Select the small right pointing triangle close to the top of the top vertical panel divider.
  2. Click the fit to width icon on the drawing panel tool bar to enlarge the drawing so it fits within the entire drawing panel.
    (Hint - place your mouse pointer over the drawing panel tool bar icons to see their names)

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Add a Drawing or Specification Shortcut

Instead of clicking File | Add Drawing, or File | Add Specification, simply:

  1. Right-click in the left Drawing panel to add a drawing.
  2. To add a specification or supporting document in the right panel, right-click in the right Spec panel and add the item.

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Find a Characteristic in a Second

  1. Press Ctrl + F to pop up the Find Characteristic window
  2. Enter the characteristic number and click OK.
  3. The characteristic is selected in the BoC and highlighted on the drawing.

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Remove Images from Excel Inspection Sheet

If you would like to exclude the characteristic requirement images from the Excel Inspection Sheet output, you can easily do so.

  1. In the Characteristics Properties box, click the Exclude Images checkbox for that characteristic.
  2. When you export the BOC to Excel, the requirement image will now not be included.

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Globally Enlarge Small Images

If you are capturing the images on the print and find that they are all very small, you can globally enlarge them all.

  1. Click Drawing and select Snap Requirement Image Option.
  2. Select the Adjust Snap Rectangle Scale.
  3. Adjust the scale for enlarging the images.
  4. All captured images are now large and can be more easily recognized by the OCR and exported as appropriate sized images in the Excel output.

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Apply Different Customer Profiles to TDP

If you have used one customer profile and ballooned your drawing and then tried to use a different profile, you may not be able to open your TDP. Different customer profiles may have unique terms that are specific to that customer. When terms are used in the original profile that are not in the new profile, an error message displays and lists the characteristics that are mismatched. Here is the best way to handle this situation.

  1. In the error message that displays upon trying to change the customer profile, high light the problem characteristic list that are not in the new customer profile, copy it to your clipboard (control-C), then paste into notepad, wordpad or MS Wording the new profile.
  2. Apply the original profile and under each problematic characteristic, create a note and enter the requirement in text form
  3. Apply the new profile and now apply the specific terms of this customer to the characteristic that was previously listed.
  4. Save this TDP as a unique name for the profile change is now applied.

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Complete the TDP Properties Box for a Complete FAI

  1. Under File, click TDP Properties. The Basic tab displays.
  2. Enter as much as the Part/Assembly information as you can.
  3. This information will populate header information of your FAI forms.
  4. Click the Global tab and enter your information, such as Supplier code. The Supplier Code, for example, will be displayed in the FAI header information.
  5. Click the Components tab.
  6. If you have not indicated this job as an assembly, you can do so by clicking Add Assembly.
  7. Click to add the parts you need. They display as Part (01) etc.
  8. Double-click each part name to edit the part name.
  9. When you export the BoC to excel, the Parts are now listed on Form 1, section 15.

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How to Sub Balloon

  1. Click on the “parent” item in the BoC under which you want a sub balloon.
  2. In the menu bar select the sub balloon icon and balloon that subordinate characteristic on your drawing.
  3. If the area is very small, click the leader line icon in the menu bar and draw the associated line to the characteristic.

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Flexible Balloon Shapes and Sizes

  1. Now you can select certain balloons to be a larger/smaller size and/or a different shape.
  2. Click the balloon(s) you want to be of a different shape, for example, Key Characteristics.
  3. Click Drawing | Balloon Properties and select the shape, such as hexagon for the Key Characteristics and if necessary, adjust the size.
  4. Only the selected balloons will have the modified shape and size. This is ideal for sub balloons that may be very small and need more “real estate” for viewing the characteristic numbers.

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Never Miss a Requirement on your Drawing Again

How to check for unballooned items on your drawing.

  1. Balloon your drawing.
  2. Under menu item Drawing, click Snap Requirement Image Options and then Fill Snap Rectangle. All balloons and data identified are enclosed in a filled area.
  3. To White Out the items already ballooned so you can quickly and easily see the unballooned items, click menu item Drawing, then Snap Requirement Image Options and then White Out Snap Rectangles. The items not ballooned display for your review and further ballooning.

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Make the Grids More Visible

When you place your grids, the DISCUS default is a light yellow grid display. If you need to see the grid/zone information more clearly, follow these steps:

  1. Click menu item Tools and Colors.
  2. Next to element "Grid Display", click the associated color (default yellow).
  3. Select the new color, such as blue and accept the change. The grid becomes blue for better viewing on the drawing.

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Align your Balloons like a Pro

After initially placing balloons in an area of a drawing, you can align the balloons vertically or horizontally.

  1. With your mouse pointer in select/normal mode, select and drag to draw a rectangle area around the balloons you want to align. Notes are usually perfect candidates for vertical alignment. This will select all the characteristics within the area.
  2. Under menu item Drawing, place your mouse pointer over Align and Space Balloons and select your alignment preference, such as vertically for the notes. The balloons are aligned for a professional presentation.

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Partial FAI is Simple

Need to create a Partial FAI? Simply use the Filter in DISCUS and create a FAI on just the changes, such as a dash01 to a dash02. The FAI then populates with just the items you need, but keeping the rest of the requirements for later use for another part number. With DISCUS you don’t need to replicate your work, simply set the filter and use it as needed. Here’s an example how to use this functionality.

  1. Create the TDP and balloon the items as usual. Assume this is the 01 part.
  2. For the 02 which has characteristics 2, 4 and 6 as changes, click the filter icon on the left of the BoC.
  3. Click Create and create a filter. Add a Description, such as Part 02.
  4. Select CN from the drop-down list and then enter the balloon numbers you want to display in the BoC for the partial, such as 2, 4, 6. Separate characteristic numbers by commas.
  5. Click to create this item and accept the information. The BoC populates with the items, 2, 4 and 6 which can be exported as a Partial FAI.
  6. To restore the entire list, simple click the filter icon and select All to display the entire characteristic list.

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DISCUS File Management - Be Safe and Secure

The TDP is an important file which deserves serious management. To preserve all the data of that TDP, be sure to save your TDP (.dis) file, in a secured location that is regularly backed up, such as your network. Never save important files on your hard drive or desktop, for sharing these files would be difficult, at best! If your hard drive crashes or if you delete the .dis from your desktop, these files and all your hard work are gone. If your company backs up the network regularly, save it to this network. Better to be safe than sorry…

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Create a New TDP the Easy Way

To start a new project, first launch DISCUS. Don’t open a saved file to launch the application. When creating a new TDP, don’t just dismiss the DISCUS Getting Started screen; instead, click the Start work on a new component or assembly link under Create a New TDP to create your new DISCUS file. The TDP Properties window displays where you can choose English or Metric Units of Measure and enter all the information you can of the part on the TDP properties page. This information will populate the AS9102 form.

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Creating Output for a Specific OEM/Customer

There are 2 main ways to customize DISCUS Basic to produce output tailored for a specific customer. The first and most comprehensive (and probably the easiest) is to obtain and import a customer profile into your DISCUS Basic. DISCUS Support has customer profiles for several OEM’s that have specialized inspection reporting sheets or applications. Simply contact DISCUS Support and we will share them with you or let you know how you can download them from the OEM’s supplier support web site. Once you have the profile, you import it into DISCUS be selecting menu item Tools and Profile Settings, then Import on the Profile Manager window. To tell DISCUS to use an imported customer profile for a particular drawing and output, select that Customer Profile on the TDP Properties window (menu item File, TDP Properties). Once the Customer Profile has been selected, the Excel inspection sheet report will be in the format compatible to the customer’s requirements and, if necessary, the requirement terms in the Characteristic Type list will be compatible with the customers CAV application. The second way to customize DISCUS Basic Excel output is to use Custom Excel Format Templates. This approach is typically best for internal inspection sheets or infrequent special customer inspection reporting sheets. Select here to see a Custom Excel Format Template how to summary.

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Change the Bill Of Characteristics Panel View

The Bill of Characteristics (BoC) panel is the lower left panel in DISCUS Basic displaying a table of the characteristics created. The columns being displayed and the order of the columns can be changed by using the Edit BoC View window. To display the window, select menu items BoC and Configure Columns or select the short cut tool in the BoC left margin tool bar. To hide a displayed column, select it in the Selected Columns list, then select the button pointing to the Available Columns list. Simply reverse the process to display a hidden column. To change the order of the displayed columns, select a column name in the Selected Columns list, then select Move Up or Move Down. When done, select OK. You can also change the order of the displayed columns by “drag and dropping” the column headings in the BoC panel.

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Sorting the Bill Of Characteristics

It is very easy to sort the characteristics in the Bill of Characteristics (BoC) panel table. Simply select the column head you would like to sort on. Select it once for sort ascending. Select it again to sort it descending. This will let you, for example, easily see all the Diameter characteristics or see all the Key characteristics. If you enter the operation number in the Comments field, you can view the characteristics in operation number order. Remember to select the CN column to redisplay the BoC table in Characteristic Number order.

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Control Balloon Numbers

Want your drawings to start at balloon number 100? No problem with DISCUS 2.0. We've made balloon numbering flexible and customized to meet your needs.

  1. Click menu item BoC and click Configure Characteristic Group.
  2. Click Create and set your balloon number, such as 100. Apply the settings. Repeat as needed for additional sets of balloon numbers.
  3. When ready for the new numbering set, click BoC and Characteristic Group. Select the group. Your balloon numbers will start at 100, for example.

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Set Default Tolerances

For example, for every tolerance with 3 decimal places, DISCUS will automatically display the tolerance of .001, just as you set up -- reducing data entry and eliminating errors.

  1. Click menu item Tools and Default Tolerances.
  2. Enter the numeric upper/lower limits for Distance, Angle, etc.
  3. Accept the values.
  4. When you enter the nominal and click in the upper and lower limits, the tolerances are automatically entered.

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Custom Excel Format Templates

Create Custom Templates for exporting. Here's How.

  1. Access DISCUS Help and print the Customized Template Guide of tokens.
  2. Open your excel Inspection Sheet and add the tokens into appropriate cells. This will upload the DISCUS information into your template.
  3. Save your template and then under BoC, Browse for this template. Browse for the output location.
  4. Your data is now exported to your customized spreadsheet. Enjoy!

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