Any one know UG NX5?

[kborer22]

I know the automotive/aerospace industry uses NX5, so if anyone is willing to answer a few questions it would be much appreciated!

[Molten]

I wish I could, but I've never heard of that software before. I'll have to look it up some time.

[kborer22]

companies like GM, Bell Helicopters, and most of the defense world use this program, so i figured someone here would be familiar with it. It is insanely powerful!

[kramarczyk]

GM is still on v3, but if any of your questions are applicable to the older version then give me a shout. Actually, I have some friends at UGS that I might be able to float it by as well.

[Elgin Clock]

Just fyi, to the general public, it was also known as Unigraphics.

It's mostly for aircraft & automotive applications because of the super-advance "mesh" capabilities to my understanding, isn't it?

I'm familiar with the name, & know people who have used it before, but have no experience with it myself.
Wish I could help, but if you have questions about SolidWorks I could be of a lot more assistance.

[kramarczyk]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

It's mostly for aircraft & automotive applications because of the super-advance "mesh" capabilities to my understanding, isn't it?

Elgin, I'm not sure what you are referring to with the term 'mesh', but if it relates to the surfacing capability then I think you are correct.

From my experience in the early nineties GM handled different types of parts with different software. Chunky solids used UG. Sheet metal parts and class 'A' surfaces used CGS. There may also have been some others for various specializations. When I landed at GM in 2000 I found us globally on one system for product development, NX (UG). My conclusion is that UG picked the capabilities of the other systems so there was no need to maintain the others. From looking at the Unigraphics Virtual Museum it appears that this trend started with the creation of UGII in 1983 (which is the system that most of us think of as Unigraphics) and accelerated with the acquisition of the Parasolid kernel in 1988. Unigraphics has gone through several major rebuilds in it's long history (UG, UGII, NX), so I am looking forward to what major reinvention NX holds for us.

I guess it's not surprising that it is used by aircraft and automotive folks; Unigraphics was owned by McDonnell Douglas and General Motors at various point during its development. Although a little dated, this article shares an automotive point of view on the needs of a CAD system. Keep in mind that since this article was written, two of the companies mentions have been consolidated into NX.

[kborer22]

Ok well here is my situation, i am working at Textron Defense Systems and am currently modeling circuit boards to check for interference with housings and other borads. For most I would model the board, import a .dxf, place that on the correct side of the board, and extrude the component outlines. (I think the .dxf is coming from PADS)

So this next board i have to do is something like 1800 components(compared to 200-300 that i usually deal with), and extruding each of these components would be a giant pain in the $@#$@#$@#. I have access to a VALOR file that has all of the X/Y coords for all of these components. I was wondering if there is a way to read in that excel file and basically plot a grid of points.

Of the 1800 components there are only like 50-100 different types, so obviously there will be many 1 ohm resistors (for example). Since i have the centroid X/Y coord for all of the 1 ohm resistors, i want to make a model or the resistor (a simple 3d rectangle). I had an idea of possibly plotting a grid and then being able to place/copy that model of the resistor on to the grid points.

(let me know if that made sense!)

I am still waiting on the final design of the board, so i would imagine some components will still be moving. Depending on the layout i would be able to pattern a component, but it usually does not work out in a nice circular or rectangular pattern.

If you have any suggestions how to do this, or possibly another idea, it would be much appreciated!

[kborer22]

Originally Posted by kramarczyk

Elgin, I'm not sure what you are referring to with the term 'mesh', but if it relates to the surfacing capability then I think you are correct.

From my experience in the early nineties GM handled different types of parts with different software. Chunky solids used UG. Sheet metal parts and class 'A' surfaces used CGS. There may also have been some others for various specializations. When I landed at GM in 2000 I found us globally on one system for product development, NX (UG). My conclusion is that UG picked the capabilities of the other systems so there was no need to maintain the others. From looking at the Unigraphics Virtual Museum it appears that this trend started with the creation of UGII in 1983 (which is the system that most of us think of as Unigraphics) and accelerated with the acquisition of the Parasolid kernel in 1988. Unigraphics has gone through several major rebuilds in it's long history (UG, UGII, NX), so I am looking forward to what major reinvention NX holds for us.

I guess it's not surprising that it is used by aircraft and automotive folks; Unigraphics was owned by McDonnell Douglas and General Motors at various point during its development. Although a little dated, this article shares an automotive point of view on the needs of a CAD system. Keep in mind that since this article was written, two of the companies mentions have been consolidated into NX.

A guy i work with here used to be at GM and Bell Helicoptors, and have heard all of his experiences with Katia, and Ug, and finally NX when it was created. It has apparently lost "user friendlieness", and continues to do so with each revision. I had used solidworks and Inventor through other internships and FIRST, and getting started on UG NX5 was not fun. Everything seemed to be several steps longer than using SW, so i am greatful when i go back to use it.

My co-worker also said that NX5 would be the last version released, but who knows?

[R.C.]

It seems powerful, but i'm stuck with solidworks

[Andy Baker]

I used UG products almost every working day for the past 16 years. When I left Delphi last summer, we were using NX3.

UG has been owned by McDonnell-Douglas, GM, EDS, self-owned, and now owned by Siemens.

Here is a 18 minute video showing the latest improvements Siemens has integrated into Unigraphics. I don't know if this is what they are offering in UG NX5 or Solid Edge, or both, but it looks pretty interesting.

(We at AndyMark are beginning a process to evaluate and choose a CAD plaform that serves all of our needs. I have no ties to UG or Solid Edge or Siemens. We will be looking at Inventor, Solid Works, and Solid Edge.)

Andy

[kramarczyk]

Originally Posted by kborer22

A guy i work with here used to be at GM and Bell Helicoptors, and have heard all of his experiences with Katia, and Ug, and finally NX when it was created. It has apparently lost "user friendlieness", and continues to do so with each revision. I had used solidworks and Inventor through other internships and FIRST, and getting started on UG NX5 was not fun. Everything seemed to be several steps longer than using SW, so i am greatful when i go back to use it.

My co-worker also said that NX5 would be the last version released, but who knows?

They do seem to move around the UI pieces with each rev... It's like they are hiding things. I think the "user friendliness" piece is inversely related to the amount of control that you can exercise over an entity. The more nuances that you can control yields more pokes which yields to each of us hunkering down with the 5% of the controls that we really use to get our jobs done.

btw... I checked with a UGS friend and he has NX 6 on his windows laptop, but says that NX 5 is the last version that is being supported in Unix.

Originally Posted by kborer22

Ok well here is my situation, i am working at Textron Defense Systems and am currently modeling circuit boards to check for interference with housings and other borads. For most I would model the board, import a .dxf, place that on the correct side of the board, and extrude the component outlines. (I think the .dxf is coming from PADS)

So this next board i have to do is something like 1800 components(compared to 200-300 that i usually deal with), and extruding each of these components would be a giant pain in the $@#$@#$@#. I have access to a VALOR file that has all of the X/Y coords for all of these components. I was wondering if there is a way to read in that excel file and basically plot a grid of points.

Of the 1800 components there are only like 50-100 different types, so obviously there will be many 1 ohm resistors (for example). Since i have the centroid X/Y coord for all of the 1 ohm resistors, i want to make a model or the resistor (a simple 3d rectangle). I had an idea of possibly plotting a grid and then being able to place/copy that model of the resistor on to the grid points.

(let me know if that made sense!)

I am still waiting on the final design of the board, so i would imagine some components will still be moving. Depending on the layout i would be able to pattern a component, but it usually does not work out in a nice circular or rectangular pattern.

If you have any suggestions how to do this, or possibly another idea, it would be much appreciated!

I don't do electrical, but this seems like a fundamental import problem. If you have a sample of the input file I'm willing to look at it and see if there is a way to automate the import. I've had to create similar things in the past so hopefully <crosses fingers>, I'll be able to reuse something. I'm thinking import as grouped surfaces and you can select the 1 ohm resistor group to extrude. We'll see once I get the file.

Andy - Any better suggestions? (I realize that you no longer have NX to reference.)

Note: I'm on forced vacation next week and won't have NX access.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by kramarczyk

Andy - Any better suggestions? (I realize that you no longer have NX to reference.)

My only suggestion to kborer22 is to ask for the files in a 3D models in .stp format instead of .dxf. That way, they would not have to extrude the profile to a specified distance. Once the part was imported, all they would need to do was place it in the right spot.

Andy

[kborer22]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

My only suggestion to kborer22 is to ask for the files in a 3D models in .stp format instead of .dxf. That way, they would not have to extrude the profile to a specified distance. Once the part was imported, all they would need to do was place it in the right spot.

Andy

Sorry I don't know if i made that clear in my other post, but that is the way i would like to do this, just create a small model of the component and ideally sort the excel file (centroids x/y coords) by part number (so all 1 ohm resistors, then all 2 ohm resistors, and so on).

So i would be able to "plot" all the centroids for one part number, then place the extrusion on all of those points, and then repeat for all other components.

I am working on getting the data, i will send you that info when i can get a hold of someone.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by kborer22

Sorry I don't know if i made that clear in my other post, but that is the way i would like to do this, just create a small model of the component and ideally sort the excel file (centroids x/y coords) by part number (so all 1 ohm resistors, then all 2 ohm resistors, and so on).

So i would be able to "plot" all the centroids for one part number, then place the extrusion on all of those points, and then repeat for all other components.

I am working on getting the data, i will send you that info when i can get a hold of someone.

I can't help you with generating the sketch from an Excel file, but in Solidworks, you'd use the "Sketch Driven Pattern" tool once you've plotted all of the centroid locations. I'm sure NX5 has something similar.

[kborer22]

Originally Posted by kramarczyk

GM is still on v3, but if any of your questions are applicable to the older version then give me a shout. Actually, I have some friends at UGS that I might be able to float it by as well.

Can you PM me your email address so i can send you the data? Tried the one on gpgearheads.org but it got kicked back.

Thanks!