Why are so many companies so scared or unwilling to upgrade NX to the newest version?

[ingallspw]

Why are so many companies so scared or unwilling to upgrade NX to the newest version?

Yeah... bugs!!! Scary bugs! And I'm not saying install it the day it comes out to the market but some companies that are still on NX5 will only upgrade to 7 when 8.5 is out and stable?

Some programs I get. Like TeamCenter or Oracle... you need to make sure the moon, earth, mars, and Pluto all line up on the 6th Tuesday of the month to get it to go smoothly... but NX is a breeze.

Why spend thousands of dollars per year for maintenance only to use it to patch BUGS of all things? No program is perfect so whats the deal Lucille?

 

[capnhook]

See this thread, for one glaring reason. I am sure people have more/better reasons.

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=345197

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]

 

[Walterke]

Not everyone pays for maintenance: upgrades cost money
Some companies have multiple computers, each with NX installed, so upgrading them every time is tedious.
Teamcenter integration means you have to upgrade teamcenter as well as NX =more tedious.

Some people are afraid of change (some companies still use win XP/NT)

NX 7.5.5.4 with Teamcenter 8 on win7 64
Intel Xeon @3.2GHz
8GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro 2000

 

[JohnRBaker]

To start with, ANYONE who installs NX 7.0 when NX 8.5 is available gets what they deserve. For heaven's sake, PLEASE install at least NX 7.5 or 8.0.

And despite what some people would like you to think, we'll put our 'first article' quality up against anyone else in the industry.

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

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

 

[SDETERS]

Well with us it is a dance between products that are supported together that work together. We have to run a certain version of I-deas with our certain version supported of teamcenter that will support the TCII that will work with the version teamcenter and CMM that will work with the version NX. This being supported in a 64 bit platform. Plus we are going to add another location for a push and go format for teamcenter which is only supported in version of 9 teamcenter. So we have to get everyone on the same page and then make a the next big steps.

 

[Tingsryd]

Some companies sit back a version or two because they invest a lot of resources in general training, transition training, 3rd party software, custom programming etc- and migrating every release can be a cad/cam budget strain. Also, not being on the "bleeding edge" and having good, stable software is a must for a large company. I work for a small company and I'm able to use new releases if I see some new features I am anxious to use or perhaps a certain glitch is fixed that is important to our site. I have been a user for a long time and there have been a couple of occasions when I had to sit back because of a glitch that was a showstopper but generally that is not the case and no matter what software you use there can be caveats with any of them. There are usually a few "bumps" traveling down a new road and some users find it frustrating to shoulder the responsibility of smoothing it out but I suppose that's that tradeoff when jumping on something totally new. I like to wait for at least one maintenance release before I migrate and I feel good about it.

NX85

 

[ToolingGuy78]

Some releases of software have more functionality than others but to still be using anything but NX 7.5 or NX 8.5 today because they have bugs or cannot perform at the same level as NX 5 is someone who isn't keeping up to using the hundreds of the thousands of user enhancements made over the past 3 or 4 releases.

Just using user interaction improvements and Synchronous Modeling is huge!

I can say the same thing for Creo versus Wildfire....it is absolutely silliness to believe your better off using 5 year old software technology and expect the same level of productivity.

If you turned off maintenance because you had financial issues don't complain about software.....look at your overall business!

 

[Tingsryd]

Ya, even companies like GM or Winnebago who may always sit back versions never discontinue service programs. Whether a company always sits back one to two versions or if they're on a current release they are always moving forward. Of all the companies and independents I know, there is only one contractor I know of who is not on support with Siemens. He creates relatively simple designs for his customers, never does anything different and I doubt he will ever grow his business significantly.




NX85

 

[deedub777]

I have used AutoCAD, ProE, Catia, yada yada yada... and can honestly say that NX is the most robust package I've ever used. Using it since 7.5 and it just gets better, if you can upgrade, then do it, the amount of iterations and releases the software goes through, even before Beta releases is quite high so stability and quality are pretty good.

 

[ingallspw]

Thanks guys! I see a few points I did not see before.

And about the bugs... I agree with John. I installed 7.5 (native) the week it came out (Yeah... I'm a rebel!) and I didn't see any major bugs with it at all. Same for 8.0. I mentioned it just because I knew that was a big excuse for not doing it.

We DO use TeamCenter but for what we use it for (a CAD vault) I wished we didn't. It makes upgrading NX no fun. I am glad to see they are slightly making it easier with the TC_DATA polices you can copy over to TeamCenter's servers. But seeing that both are Siemens' products, you'd think they'd be a little more mindful of the fact TeamCenter makes upgrading NX harder and try to make that an easier transition. Yeah I don't know what its like to be a programmer but it seems like they are trying to do too much with the interaction of TeamCenter and NX... If it were my baby, I'd just have NX be like a TeamCenter viewer (a remote desktop if you will) and the only interaction it would need to have is the CAD files, rev levels, etc and not trying to get NX to do everything TeamCenter does.

And since you brought up CREO... The giant awesome company TATERPILLAR is still using ProE 3.0. (the name was change to protect the innocent) Try to send them any sort of exported file that has complex surfacing... CREO is supposed to be better for importing. (Although on PTC's website, every newer version of Pro-E was supposed to be better on importing but I haven't seen it. NX imports almost every products files, mostly without issue, so what is PTC's problem? LOL!) So why don't they at least join this decade of software products?

All in all I see both sides of the equation now. What I still don't get is why is there such fear with upgrading software, especially after it has been "proven" by the market place.

Thanks Guys!!

 

[ADJ1]

till NX 8.5, I have never had so many issues!!!!!!! Several IR's both Modeling and Drafting.
Code issues that should have never been released.

 

[ewh]

...hundreds of the thousands of user enhancements made over the past 3 or 4 releases

Wow! I didn't realize what I was missing! ;-)

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

 

[jthomas24]

^^ ADJ1 - I agree I have had multiple IR's become PR's since upgrading to NX 8.5.1.3 (always wait for first service pack). These range from 45-60 wait times when exporting PDF of basic drawings & step files of basic geometry. We've had center marks move in drafting, datum flags shift when added to dimension stubs as well as modeling updates fail in NX 8.5 but work in NX 7.5 still (same change). I've had more PR's generated for NX 8.5 since this past March than the entire time I've been using UG/NX (v10 in 1997).

Up until now, all releases have been smooth for us. This past release is just a rare occurrence given all the past experience. With luck a forthcoming patch will take care of our major issues. All in all, I would agree that it is best to be at or right below the current release when possible to maximize all the new tools. Also having the last one or two releases installed helps maintain any continuity needed for your customers or vendors.

Last tidbit - ALWAYS maintain the annual maintenance. First, if you have any issues/bugs you can report them an possibly get them fixed right away. Second, you can ask GTAC any question about almost anything. Third, and really the most important, paying the annual maintenance fee is cheaper than outright purchasing the software every five years.

Jim T.
NX 7.5.4.4 (Legacy)
NX 8.0.3.4 (GM)
NX 8.5.1.3 (Current)

 

[Toost]

The fear we have is that once we have rolled out a new version of NX and TC and people have started using, is that we find some kind of "showstopper" and then we cannot simply uninstall everything, re-install the older versions since the files and database is in the newer format. An example , many years ago a large tool manufacturer realized very late in the upgrade process that Machine coordinate systems could not be saved in the new version. They had to abort the entire implementation. Luckily they found the problem before rollout.

Regards,
Tomas