On this day in history... 9

[JohnRBaker]

On this day in history, 41 years ago, Monday, August 8, 1977, was the first day that I sat down in front of a Unigraphics design station. I was working for a company in Michigan that had just purchased a three-seat UG system and this was our first day in a 'Basic UG' training class. We took the class in what was then the United Computing headquarters in Carson, CA, as shown below:

And this is what a Unigraphics design station looked like in those days:

And the display had TWO colors, light green and dark green, but it did have 4000+ lines of resolution.

And here's the certificate of completion that I received after the one-week training class:

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Ehaviv]

Is that was a 3d ug ？
Before 41 years I don't know how
a computer looks like.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, UG was always 3D, just that it was not very easy to use it in that manner, but it was true 3D. And to see what computers looked like back then, here's the first computer that UG was available on, a General Automation Spec-16, an early 16-bit mini-computer (circa 1973-76), which could support a maximum of two Unigraphics design stations:

However, it wasn't until United Computing ported the software to Data General Eclipse and Digital Equipment PDP-11 CPU's that Unigraphics became a commercially viable product.

Data General 'S' series (circa 1976-83), which could support up to five Unigraphics design stations.

Digital Equipment PDP-11/70 (circa 1977-82), which could support up to six Unigraphics design stations.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[multicaduser]

Wow, how things have changed. A mere 28 years ago I started on UGII 7 on a Dec PDP11 with separate text and graphics monitors, a PFK and joystick with a button on top to select, 80 meg hard drive, all serving eight users simultaneously. Fixed axis contouring was batched at night, and if it failed for any reason and it had to be run during the day, it was guaranteed that one of the users would be seeing what was going on within a minute because of system slowdown.

We are spoiled today, yesterdays systems required much more imagination and knowledge to generate shapes. Did I say it was nice to be spoiled.

Hope you are enjoying your retirement John.

NX 12.0.1.7 Windows 10

 

[jerry1423]

For me it has been just over 30 years on Unigraphics (started on V5). It would have been nice if I wrote down the exact date, but I don't have it. I have my training certificates buried in a box someplace.
Solids came around in V7 and I got right on it. Working in 3D before solids (wireframe and surfacing) really make the transition into solids easy and fun.
I will be working (at the very least) another 10 years on NX, and possibly another 15 years. It depends if I win the lottery or not.

Jerry J.
UGV5-NX11

 

[joycejo]

I start with UGI in may of 1984 at a company that is now extinct. Glad I'm not. Now using NX12 and have never been unemployed for more than a week even after getting laid off a few times.

Hope your enjoying your retirement John!


John Joyce
Manufacturing Engineer
Senior Aerospace CT
NX 10 & 11.0.1 Vericut 8.0.3

If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses

- Henry Ford

 

[JohnRBaker]

Retirement is what it is, but my wife and I are finally getting that trip to Hawaii, postponed from last year when it was supposed to be for our 50th wedding anniversary, due to an unplanned operation, a heart valve replacement last January (2017), but all is fine now, I'm down about 20 lbs, go to the gym three days a week and looking forward to our trip next month (finally using up some of my air miles and Marriott points from when I was working).

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[alphawell]

Wow, that's really fascinating insight, John. Especially for those, who have started to use UG/NX with the later versions and modern PCs, like me with NX 8.5.
Have a really nice trip!

NX 10.0.3.5

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, when I started using Unigraphics back in 1977 we didn't have version numbers. Instead you had a date on the tape. If they installed a system one week and another one the following week, they most likely got two different versions of UG. It wasn't until 1978 with the release of Unigraphics R1 (the 'R' stood for 'Restructured') that a formal release procedure was put in place where everyone got the same version until the next release was sent out, and in those days, while you could technically 'patch' an executable, there were no formal maintenance releases, just new versions shipped whenever. For example, versions R1 thru R3 came out one every month or so, until R4, which actually was pretty stable and was the supported version for a good full two years, until the very end of 1979 when McAuto (by that time United Computing had been completely taken-over by McDonnell Douglas) released Unigraphics D1 (the 'D' standing for 'Double precision').

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Sparweb]

It's fun to see and read about the experience of the CAD pioneers.
My first CAD was called "CADKEY" and it was fully 3D but not parametric like current systems. But that was in the 90's and it's gone by the wayside since then.
Soon after I did a summer term at CAE Electronics in Montreal, where I got to (briefly) use a SUN Microsystems workstation and map photographic textures onto surface polygons.
Been hooked on CAD every since.
Today, I can log into Onshape.com and design nearly anything I can imagine, online, for free.

No one believes the theory except the one who developed it. Everyone believes the experiment except the one who ran it.
STF

 

[Mechman50]

CADKEY 1984 - 2D. First group to put the M&M/Marrs candy logo in CAD. Was doing board drafting, but was allowed to tinker with this new CAD thing on your own dime. If you got proficient enough, you could move to that full time. Did Skittles Phase III expansion and designed the drum to stamp the "S" on the candy with Butler Service Group.

Also never been unemployed for longer than a week.

+++++++++++++++++++++
NX 11.0.2.7

 

[JohnRBaker]

In my 49+ years of engineering employment, from when I started to co-op between my freshman and sophomore years, until I retired in January 2016, the only time I was technically without a job was while I was in school, and even then, during my last two years, I worked as a lab/photo technician for the ME-EM department.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[pirateincognito]

Mr. John R Baker,

THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart.

I'm a CATIA V5 expert and recently changed jobs and had to learn NX9, and then NX11.

After a few months of growing pains, frustration at missing features, and learning different ways of new software...I have to say:

YOU. ARE. LEGEND.

I read several of your comments per day any time I google anything NX related (across multiple forums). Your breadth of knowledge is vast and I was sad to see you retired recently. I'm glad you're still involved in the community and I was even surprised to see your name in general engineering discussion (of the miami FIU bridge collapse).

I've now settled into NX and my list of complaints has shrunk considerably. There are still annoying quirks about NX and missing features, but I can tell SIEMENS PLM is working hard to close the gap. Several of my complaints were addressed with NX11.

You were a key part of my journey. Thanks.
(bookmarking this thread)

 

[JohnRBaker]

pirateincognito, did we ever meet face-to-face or attended one of my presentations at a conference or something?

Anyway, I'm glad that you've derived benefit from my postings and comments made here and in other venues and good luck with your transition to NX. The destination is well worth the trip.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[pirateincognito]

pirateincognito, did we ever meet face-to-face or attended one of my presentations at a conference or something?

We did not. I'm just another engineering internet stranger.

I see your name *every* *single* *time* I read an NX thread.

 

[looslib]

My first encounter with a Uni-* product was UniApt in 1974 in college during a NC programming class. United Computing had not yet written the -graphics portion of their product yet.
Move forward 3 years to the fall of 1977 and I have class in 3D design on an Applicon 880 system, complete with tablet board and light pen to select commands from the tablet.
First exposure to UG was in August 1985 in Cypress where I met John Baker, Harrison Spain and Gary Porte. The company finally purchased UG in 1987 when it was released on DecStation GPX workstations. Two seats for under $100K, one with 9MB memory and a 159MB drive, the other a diskless node with 5MB. Used UG up to NX1, then the company switched to Pro/Engineer. Got back to UG at NX4, then NX6 at GE in Houston. Been back on Wildfire/Creo with Windchill admin work since 2010.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[JohnRBaker]

Applicon, ah yes, another early CAD product whose 'DNA' has since been introduced into NX, specifically in the area of shipbuilding.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Adam Ek]

I started 3D CAD with I/EMS in 1990. Was it 1998 when Unigraphics bought SolidEdge from Intergraph?

 

[ewh]

Started on Applicon/Bravo3 in the latter half of the 80s, then used Computervision for about a year until we switched over to Unigraphics V8.0... been on UG/NX ever since.
Too bad not all of the DNA from Applicon was captured. They had a few nifty commands and designing your own executable symbols with the stylus was great!;-)

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

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, it was in January 1998 that the Unigraphics division of EDS acquired the mechanical CAD business from Intergraph. We acquired both the EMS and Solid Edge products and hired the development staff (I was part of the team that went to Huntsville to do the one-on-one interviews of the staff and to complete the transfer process). EMS was put on maintenance status and the customers converted to Unigraphics. The staff's focus was shifted 100% to Solid Edge.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without