Features you wish NX had? 32

[junfanbl]

Hello, I am curious to know peoples opinions on what they like most about NX and some new features( or improvements) that it could use. I know I can think of some myself. I ask because I am always trying to gather ideas on how to better utilize the software in my own personal workflow. Part of that for me is developing scripts and stand alone libraries that extend NX functionality.

So I thought what better way to get ideas than to ask the engineering community in general. Your thoughts are appreciated.

 

[NeilMGW]

A decent high performance roughing strategy - why should I have to pay a significant amount for a plug in like Volumill or the soon to be released iMachining for NX? Take a look outside the NX bubble and you'll see that this is included in nearly all your competitors.

A better tool library, again take a look at what others are doing - especially the ability to use a solid model.

NX 10.0.3

 

[JohnRBaker]

Bear with us please, but as you post your thoughts here, and many of them are relevant, please indicate what version of NX that you're currently using. This might help to put some these issues in context of what it is that you're currently being able to do versus what might already have been addressed/improved in a release more recent than what you're familiar with.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[ckadam]

John,
I wish, we could have "Alternate Position View" option in NX like Solidworks does have.
We do have Explode options in NX( move objects by distance or by using handles) but I personally feel alternate postition view option looks more effective and simple to use.
Refer :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpPnwziXDLY

Chetak
Engineering Design / Knowledge Based Engineering
NX8.5, TC8.5.3.3, Win 7 Pro SP1

 

[Rob_N]

@capnhook, I don't machine in NX (i missed the statement that you machined in NX). When we were evaluating CAM systems 18 or so years ago UG cam had way to high of a learning curve. We went with WorkNC.
Primarily we cut dies,molds and fixtures. occasionally parts from castings or billet. Mirroring a job meant mirroring your geometry and recalculating the paths.

 

[capnhook]

@robnewcomb, it has been a real burden to machine mirrored parts in NX, and I am speaking from much more than 18 years experience making toolpaths.

You were fortunate to recognize an easier way, way back when. We all are waiting for better roughing solutions, and better mirroring solutions, and have been for quite a while.

It is 2016 now Siemens.....what have you done for us lately?

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

 

[cncpro99]

NeilMGW (Industrial)
7 Jan 16 22:29
A decent high performance rouging strategy - why should I have to pay a significant amount for a plug in like Volumill or the soon to be released iMachining for NX? Take a look outside the NX bubble and you'll see that this is included in nearly all your competitors.

Neil I agree a high performance roughing strategy in Cavity Mill "with step up capability" would be nice and improvement in Trochoidal similar to Volumill would also be nice and we should not have to purchase a new module to get those capabilities. We pay enough in yearly Maintenance fees. I love NX, but profit rules the day.

Currently using NX 10

William

 

[capnhook]

How about some easy chamfering, to deburr parts on the machine. Too many separate planar OPs to accomplish this now. How about a better way?

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

 

[PrintScaffold]

I would love to have WAVe-linked copies of bodies to keep recongising feature patterns the same way as the original bodies. That would greatly help those on top-down workflows.

http://www.cadroad.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

I would love to have WAVe-linked copies of bodies to keep recongising feature patterns the same way as the original bodies.

Could you provide a bit more information about exactly what it is that you're looking for here? Perhaps some pictures or an actual example part.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[PrintScaffold]

Hello, John!

It's quite simple. If I have pattern of features in the original PRT, I can add a component and build component pattern to the feature pattern. But if I WAVE-link the body into another PRT, this ceases to work.

http://www.cadroad.com

 

[skanskan]

1) Ability to export as an older version, at least the most recent ones. In order to share your work (as native and full) with users with older versions.
2) Ability to plot a 3D surface from an equation.
3) A good gear generator with a nice GUI, not the buggy old hidden menu.
4) The topology optimization should have the option to create native geometries, instead of something unusable.
5) It should be much easier to work with faceted bodies and convert them to native geometries, fill voids...
6) More use of the GPU.
7) Libraries for wood working. Something like the sheetmetal module but for woodworking and simpler, with predefined joints, dovetails, angle braces, nails, ...
8) Ability to emboss and sculpt from greyscale images (or similar), like ArtCam.
9) More nonlinear simulations, even with the topology optimization.
10) Ability to easily create structures, for example tubular (or any other section) from a 3D sketch, even if the line intersect itself many times.
11) Better 3D sketch without predifining planes.
12) Cut a body with another with any shape and following any path.
13) More omplex/intelligent expressions, able to simulate for example a Rubik Cube interactively.

Users have asked for many of these features for years.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, that's true (at the moment) but I must ask; what is it exactly that you're attempting to do with a WAVE-linked part that could not have been done with a normal Component?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[PrintScaffold]

It's down to the particular implementation of Top-Down modeling, where I develop geometry in a dedicated PRT - often together for the entire assembly - and then link the result into actual component PRTs. Would be nice to have NX keep information about feature patterns this way.

http://www.cadroad.com

 

[PrintScaffold]

The best way would be to have it as an option in the WAVE linker window, similar to Copy Threads and the rest.

http://www.cadroad.com

 

[cncpro99]

Be able to export a 3d PDF file would be nice.
Also better stock recognition would also be nice. when I machine
2nd operation on most parts I do, I model up the stock to reflect
what is left from the first operation. The stock is always bigger
on the top for second op. NX only seems to look at the extents in
X and Y, so it always continues to cut in starting from those extents
even though there is no stock once you get past a certain level.
a lot of time could be saved if it truly recognized the whole stock model.

 

[JohnRBaker]

The best way would be to have it as an option in the WAVE linker window, similar to Copy Threads and the rest.

That's not an answer to the question that I asked. It's a proposed solution to something that you claim is a problem but which you've not explained why you think that it is. Without an explanation as to what it is that you think can only be accomplished by creating a WAVE-linked body rather than a conventional Component, there is not much that we can do for you. NX is a very flexible tool and there are many ways to do similar things so if you could enlighten us, perhaps I or someone else following this thread could offer you an acceptable alternative workflow that would meet your needs now.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[PrintScaffold]

That was my second post. I explained the situation in a first post immediately above. Should have edited the first on, but I'm on mobile phone, it's difficult.

I'll copy the explanation here:
It's down to the particular implementation of Top-Down modeling, where I develop geometry in a dedicated PRT - often together for the entire assembly - and then link the result into actual component PRTs. Would be nice to have NX keep information about feature patterns this way.

http://www.cadroad.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

Contact GTAC and have them open an ER. I know that there has been talk about the ability to recognize 'patterns' which may not have actually been created as an actual Pattern feature for certain operations. Perhaps something like this could be included in the consideration of this project if and when it's funded.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[ewh]

Why not actually create them as components?

"Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively."
-Dalai Lama XIV

 

[3dr]

Hole charts need to be a little more intelligent.

1. Hole descriptions should look similar to standard hole callouts. They are very cryptic looking and confuse the shop.
2. The feature groups need to be able to have their own number of decimal places. Ones that the user assigns.

I currently have to manually pick each feature to include in 3 separate hole charts for each detail.
One each for .XX .XXX .XXXX

That's painful and exposes you to missing something on large plates.


Dave
Automotive Tooling / Aircraft Tooling / Ground Support Structures

NX9, Win 7 Pro SP1