NX4 drawing dims not updating with model changes

[acciardi]

This is a new one for me...

I retrieve a master model drawing, then open the part and edit the first sketch to move an edge a small amount. The model regens fine with no errors.

I then switch to the drawing, and the drawing tree shows that the drawing is out of date. Fine, I right click on the drawing and select "update" and the drawing updates. Except the dimension that I changed still shows the old value and now the leader is attached to a point in empty space.

I go to INFO/OTHER/OBJECT ASSOCIATIVITY/ASSOCIATED OBJECTS and NX verifies that the incorrect dim is still associated to the edge that I moved. Except it 'aint.

We call GTAC and they inform us that this is a known issue that has been fixed in NX5.

Dammit, this is not good enough. The VERY LEAST I expect from a CAD program is that the friggin' drawing dimensions are correct. This is just outrageous. I am beyond anger at this. I now have drawings that I have absolutely NO FAITH in unless I check each and every sketch against the drawing to verify the dimensions.

I have been very polite here for the last year and have been very grateful for all the help from the long-time users, but I have had it. I am laying my cards on the table.

NX is pure crap. Memory errors, features that cannot be redefined, lousy performance, umpteen crashes, corrupted parts, drawings that lie, assemblies that cannot be redefined, sketches that cannot be updated, the list goes on and on.

First we were told that we were not "doing it right"; well we have had a UGS consultant on-site for the past 3 months who tells us that our modeling practices are fine. Then it was our hardware, which turns out to be fully supported. Then it was bad configuration, which has been all sorted out.

No more excuses. I am sorry to offend, but this has been a year-long nightmare. It takes me 3 time longer to do anything in NX due to all the workarounds and do-overs that have to be employed.

If this software does not kill me it will certainly take years off of my life. Anyone who thinks that NX is best in class needs to get out more often. Dammit, this stuff was figured out LONG AGO by other people. Just copy them for Christ's sake!

We never had the level of problems were are having with our previous tool. Not even 1/20 of the problems.

I am so disgusted I am ready to quit my job and get back into a Pro/E shop.

Ed

 

[ewh]

It sounds like you have some legitimate gripes, Ed. What type of product do you work with?
Fortunately (for me), I have yet to run into problems that severe. My biggest gripe is that NX doesn't always like to play nice with 3rd party software (FiberSim in this case). Other than that, we have found it to be a powerful and efficient tool, once bad habits are forgotten.

 

[cowski]

I agree, if I had those problems I would also be upset. Why did your company switch to UG? Maybe you can document the problems and use it to convince management to switch back to the tool you know and love.

 

[acciardi]

We design and manufacture computer peripherals. Our assemblies are not overly large or complex, maybe 200 components, but some of our parts are complex castings with hundreds of features. A typical casting drawing may require 8-10 D sized drawing sheets. Working on these parts is particularly difficult with NX, where I am constantly rolling the part back and redefining features as the design evolves.

The company is an I-Deas site, but our little design center was chosen for the NX roll-out. I have no experience with I-Deas, (we were a competitor that was acquired last year) but the company has been doing products forever with it, so they have it pretty well figured out. They plan to roll out NX company wide in the near future. I plan to sell all my stock before this happens.

The CAD system admins are working very hard to solve all the issues, but we find new ones faster than we close out the existing ones.

What bugs me the most is that our management says "document all the problems you find", but with NX this can be a full-time job. You have to capture screen shots of the anomoly, zip them together with the log files, write up an email describing the problem to the system admins, then get GTAC involved. When you see 3-4 problems a day, you can't get any work done. And of course we are on tight product schedules.

I was designing the EXACT same parts and assemblies in Pro/E for 14 years and we *never* had this level of difficulty. It just worked. Drawings would always update correctly, and all the dims would not detach at the drop of a hat. I once had to redo 8 pages of an NX drawing because I added a chamfer to an edge that my ordinate was attached to. Reassociating the ordinate, which usually works, did not in this case. GTAC said "This sometimes happens".

With Pro/E I could reliably predict how long it would take to do something. With NX, scheduling your tasks is impossible because you just have no idea how badly the software will behave for a given task.

Of course Pro/E had problems - the company is horrible to work with, and early builds of a new release were often buggy, but the software never once corrupted a part or cost me any lost work - ever. Bugs were fixed pretty quickly, and after a few months the builds were very solid. And everyone could figure it out without having a PTC consultant in-house.

When I was in employment limbo during the acquisition, I purchased a seat of SolidWorks with my own money. I then sat down with a bunch of drawings and just started cranking. It was ridiculously easy to figure out and never crashed. I am absolutely certain that our company could do everything in SW and save a fortune in training and support.

I could make a list a mile long of all the issues we've had with NX, but I am tired, depressed and in need of alcohol and a cat to kick (just kidding, I love cats).

Ed

 

[jackley]

Have you checked to make sure the dimension has not been edited to a fake dimension?

Justin Ackley
Designer
jackley@gmail.com

 

[acciardi]

Yes, I checked. It is a real dimension, it is just wrong.

New info - Part Cleanup seems to fix it.

It's still unacceptable to me that this should be an issue in a mature product.

Ed