NX, formerly known as "unigraphics", is an advanced high-end CAD/

CAM Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bin ...

/ CAE, which has been owned since 2007 by

Siemens Digital Industries Software Siemens Digital Industries Software (formerly UGS and then Siemens PLM Software) is an American computer software company specializing in 3D & 2D Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software. The company is a business unit of Siemens, operates u ...

. In 2000, Unigraphics purchased SDRC I-DEAS and began an effort to integrate aspects of both software packages into a single product which became Unigraphics NX or NX. It is used, among other tasks, for: *

Design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

(parametric and direct solid/surface modelling) * Engineering analysis (static; dynamic; electro-magnetic; thermal, using the

finite element method The finite element method (FEM) is a popular method for numerically solving differential equations arising in engineering and mathematical modeling. Typical problem areas of interest include the traditional fields of structural analysis, heat ...

; and fluid, using the

finite volume method The finite volume method (FVM) is a method for representing and evaluating partial differential equations in the form of algebraic equations. In the finite volume method, volume integrals in a partial differential equation that contain a divergenc ...

). *

Manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

finished design by using included machining modules. NX is a direct competitor to

CATIA CATIA (, an acronym of computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application) is a multi-platform software suite for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), 3D modeling and Product ...

, Creo,

Autodesk Inventor Autodesk Inventor is a computer-aided design application for 3D mechanical design, simulation, visualization, and documentation developed by Autodesk. Features Inventor allows 2D and 3D data integration in a single environment, creating a virt ...

History

1972: United Computing, Inc. releases UNIAPT, one of the world's first end-user CAM products. 1973: The company purchases the Automated Drafting and Machining (ADAM) software code from MCS in 1973. The code became a foundation for a product called UNI-GRAPHICS, later sold commercially as Unigraphics in 1975. 1976 McDonnell Douglas Corporation buys United Computing. 1983: UniSolids V1.0 is released, marking the industry's first true interactive Solid Modeling software offering. 1991: During a period of financial difficulties

McDonnell Douglas Automation Company The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded on July 6, 1939, by James Smith McDonnell, and was best known for its military fighters, including the F-4 Phantom I ...

(McAuto) sells its commercial services organization, including the Unigraphics organization and product, to EDS which at that time is owned by GM. Unigraphics becomes GM's corporate CAD system. 1992: Over 21,000 seats of Unigraphics are being used worldwide. 1996: Unigraphics V11.0 is released with enhancements in Industrial Design and Modeling including Bridge Surface, Curvature Analysis for Curve and Surfaces, Face Blends, Variable Offset Surface, etc. In the area of Assembly Modeling the new capabilities include Component Filters, Faceted Representations, and Clearance Analysis between multiple Components. A fully integrated Spreadsheet linked to Feature-Based Modeling is also included.. 2002 First release of the new "Next Generation" version of Unigraphics and I-DEAS, called NX, beginning the transition to bring the functionality and capabilities of both Unigraphics and I-DEAS together into a single consolidated product. 2007 Introduction of Synchronous Technology in NX 5. 2011 Release of NX8 on October 17-2011 2013 Release of NX9 (x64 only) on October 14-2013

Release history

Key functions

* Computer-aided design (CAD) (

) **Parametric

solid modeling Solid modeling (or solid modelling) is a consistent set of principles for mathematical and computer modeling of three-dimensional shapes '' (solids)''. Solid modeling is distinguished from related areas of geometric modeling and computer graphi ...

(feature-based and direct modeling) **

Freeform surface modelling Freeform surface modelling is a technique for engineering freeform surfaces with a CAD or CAID system. The technology has encompassed two main fields. Either creating aesthetic surfaces (class A surfaces) that also perform a function; for exam ...

, class A surfaces. ** Reverse engineering ** Styling and computer-aided industrial design ** Product and manufacturing information (PMI) **Reporting and analytics,

verification and validation Verification and validation (also abbreviated as V&V) are independent procedures that are used together for checking that a product, service, or system meets requirements and specifications and that it fulfills its intended purpose. These are ...

**Knowledge reuse, including knowledge-based engineering **

Sheet metal Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Thicknesses can vary significantly; ex ...

design ** Assembly modelling and

digital mockup Digital MockUp or DMU is a concept that allows the description of a product, usually in 3D, for its entire life cycle. Digital Mockup is enriched by all the activities that contribute to describing the product. The product design engineers, the m ...

** Routing for electrical wiring and mechanical

piping Within industry, piping is a system of pipes used to convey fluids (liquids and gases) from one location to another. The engineering discipline of piping design studies the efficient transport of fluid. Industrial process piping (and accompa ...

Computer-aided engineering Computer-aided engineering (CAE) is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering analysis tasks. It includes , , , durability and optimization. It is included with computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) ...

(CAE) (

Simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the s ...

) **

Stress analysis Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

(FEM) ** Kinematics **

Computational fluid dynamics Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate ...

(CFD) and thermal analysis *

Computer-aided manufacturing Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) also known as computer-aided modeling or computer-aided machining is the use of software to control machine tools in the manufacturing of work pieces. This is not the only definition for CAM, but it is the most ...

(CAM) (

) ** Numerical control (NC) programming

Supported operating systems and platforms

NX runs on

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

, Microsoft Windows and

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...

. Starting with version 1847, support for Windows versions prior to

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

as well as for macOS was completely removed, and the GUI was removed from the Linux version.

Architecture

NX uses

Parasolid Parasolid is a geometric modeling kernel originally developed by Shape Data Limited, now owned and developed by Siemens Digital Industries Software. It can be licensed by other companies for use in their 3D computer graphics software products. ...

for its

Geometric modeling kernel A geometric modeling kernel is a solid modeling software component used in computer-aided design (CAD) packages. Available modelling kernels include: * ACIS is developed and licensed by Spatial Corporation of Dassault Systèmes. *SMLib is develop ...

and D-Cubed as Associative engine for sketcher and assembly constraints as well as using

JT (visualization format) JT (Jupiter Tessellation) is an openly-published ISO-standardized 3D CAD data exchange format used for product visualization, collaboration, digital mockups, and other purposes. It was developed by Siemens. It can contain any combination of ap ...

for lightweight data and Multi-CAD.

References

Gallery

File:Cad crank.jpg, Cad crank File:Ugs-nx-5-engine-airflow-simulation.jpg, engine airflow simulation * :Screenshots of NX (Unigraphics)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nx (Unigraphics) Computer-aided design software Computer-aided manufacturing software Computer-aided engineering software Product lifecycle management Computer-aided design software for Linux Siemens software products Computer-aided manufacturing software for Linux Computer-aided engineering software for Linux Proprietary commercial software for Linux