NX 7 - does it have structural detailing capability

[toohotforme]

Hi, I have searched and cannot find any reference to this question.
I am looking at 3D engineering packages and have heard that Siemens (UGS) NX 7 is a "wow". While it may be excellent at shapes and machine parts etc, I am interested to know;
1. if it has good structural detailing features and capabilities? (Flexible Frameworks on which to build, notching, coping, jointing etc.) My work involves plant - detailed machines with platforms, mezzanines, handrails etc.
2. Does it have a library of steel member shapes - or is that library extra?
The literature makes no mention of structural detailing.
Thanks.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Traditionally NX has been developed for and sold into what we refer to as 'discrete manufacturing' industries, such as automotive, aerospace, machinery, consumer products, etc. However, recently we have been getting more requests from sectors which requires capabilities more closely related to what you're asking about, such as shipbuilding and even some requests from more traditional AEC opportunities such as refineries and chemical plants. And while we have not actively sought out these sort of customers in the past we are taking a more serious look into whether there is sufficient business there to make it worthwhile to investigate making some additions to NX which could make it more attractive to these sorts of customers. Note that we have not yet implemented any of your specific tasks such as coping, notching, standard bolted and welded joints, etc., we have started to provide some of the basic modeling support, such as adding standard rolled-shapes to our Reuse Libraries, as shown below...

We also have specialized applications for tubing, piping, conduit, etc, and while these have focused in the past on how they can be used by our existing customers, this is one area where we expect some investigation to take place to see how we could enhance such things a piping to more meet the needs of refining and process applications to say nothing of helping us with out current efforts in shipbuilding and marine architecture.

That being said, I encourage you to follow-up with your local Siemens PLM office and representatives as we are still trying to define what the opportunities are as well as validate that our strategy toward these new sectors and applications.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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

 

[cadmantools]

John, I am using NX6 and my reuse library does not have the structural steel shapes. Is this available from the PLM website?

NX6.0.4.3 mp02, Windows XP 32-bit
Running cad straight out of the box is OK but, a system tuned with application software is the best way to increase productivity.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, they were added some time ago. Check it out as you may need to re-upload your libraries.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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

 

[toohotforme]

Thank you JohnRBaker for your time to provide that very thorough answer and the insight in to the way that the product might be evolved.

 

[eex23]

John,

where actualy I should look for the structural steel shapes in PLM website?

Thanks.

 

[JohnRBaker]

If you've already downloaded one or more of the libraries, such as ANSI Inch, ANSI Metric, etc., you will need to reinstall them. Note that not all libraries include a set of 'profiles' so you should download and check the catalog spreadsheet first (do a two level sort using 'Category' as the first and 'Major Category' as the second and then look for 'Profile' in column 'B' and see if they coincide with any of your libraries found in column 'A').

Now if you're NOT running under TeamCenter, you probably could just download the zip file for the particular library, unzip it and then move the 'profile' folder(s) over to where you've previously placed that library's files. However, if you're running under TeamCenter, you'll need to run the install tool and I'm not sure whether that will allow you to pick and choose which folders to include or not, but you could try and see if you can thus avoiding having to do a full reinstall of the complete library(s).

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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

 

[eex23]

Thanks John,

but I just wanted to know, where to look for these libraries in PLM website...
The only thing I downloaded from there is mp's and mr's for NX...

 

[JohnRBaker]

Sorry I misunderstood.

Go to...

http://ftp.ugs.com/

...enter your webkey username and password, select the Product Download button, when the list of product categories come up (it might take awhile for the page to fully update) select the item labeled 'NX/Unigraphics NX' and then scroll to the bottom of the page and select the appropriate OS (if there's a list offered) and then you will see a list of all of the products which you're licensed to download. Unless you own one of the MACH bundles you will NOT see any of the machinery libraries. If you do, I recommended that you review the...

Machiner-library-catalogue-for-NX502.xls

...as it will describe the contents of each library (don't worry about the 'NX502' designation as that just refers the earliest version that the part files will be compatible with). There's also a free installation utility that you will definitely need to use if you're running NX under TeamCenter.

Now if you don't own any MACH bundles, you will need to contact your Siemens PLM rep or supplier to work out a way of getting access to them.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

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