Siemens PLM Software announced Version 6 of NX software is now available to Siemens customers worldwide.

"NX 6 promises to do two things. First, the work done to integrate Siemens PLM Software's synchronous technology should bring on-stream an incredibly powerful way of working that's unlike anything on the market today," said Al Dean, editor, DEVELOP3D Magazine. "When you consider background in knowledge-based design, automation, and complete process coverage, the addition of synchronous technology to NX software should make it an even more compelling solution. The second promising area in NX 6 is the addition of new levels of intelligence to the simulation environment and that's something on every users mind at the moment -- how to use simulation more effectively and more efficiently."

For design, NX 6 features Design Freedom powered by the breakthrough synchronous technology delivering up to a 100 times faster design experience than ever before. Synchronous technology combines with the existing NX capabilities so data does not need to be translated or rebuilt. This combines parametric and history-free approaches to speed design. NX 6 Design Freedom works naturally within existing user workflows for faster adoption.

For simulation, NX 6 delivers more than 350 user-driven enhancements encompassing 10 different applications for pervasive lifecycle simulation. NX 6 Advanced Simulation directly leverages Design Freedom powered by synchronous technology to enable the rapid evaluation of design modifications based on geometry from any CAD system. NX 6 combines unique 3-D geometry editing, automated abstraction and FE meshing tools with in-depth bottom-up finite element (FE) modeling and meshing tools. The new assembly capability for FE models enables engineers to integrate the separate simulation modeling efforts of distributed teams, such as suppliers and global design/analysis teams. NX 6 advanced simulation handles the most demanding CAE challenges, providing a 30 percent reduction in physical prototypes.

In addition, the NX 6 CAE user interface and FE modeling options leverage "skins" to look like NASTRAN, ANSYS, ABAQUS or LS-DYNA.

Commentary By Jeffrey Rowe, Editor
NX is a big product line from a big company. Version 6 of the NX product line continues to blur the lines of its origins (generally, and not absolute), namely, CAD/CAM from what was formerly known as Unigraphics (UGS) and simulation and advanced shape design from SDRC’s I-DEAS. Not too surprisingly, the company touted the last go-round, NX 5, as one of its most major upgrades in terms of raw functionality and large-assembly performance. Usability, not exactly a strength of NX up to then, finally got its fair due, although some users weren’t exactly ecstatic about the changes, at least initially.

This time around, NX6 seems to have four main areas of enhancement:

• NX 6 extends users’ flexibility with what the company has termed Design Freedom powered by synchronous technology (more about this later because it is a big deal) that leverages direct editing when creating models. Design Freedom now combines the constraint-driven techniques with direct modeling in a technology that provides users with what the company claims is up to a 100 times faster design experience.
• NX 6 handles complex problems through comprehensive and cohesive CAD/CAM/CAE. The company claims that NX 6 advanced simulation handles provides a 30 percent reduction in physical prototypes compared to previous releases.
• The NX 6 unified process enables collaborative product development that leads to what the company says is 20 percent faster cycle times through process efficiency improvements, such as feature-based machining.
• NX 6 provides greater productivity through major re-use enhancements such as scrapbook modeling that can improve cycle times by 40 percent. With NX 6 users can leverage multi-CAD data within their design, analysis, and manufacturing processes -- reducing the need to re-master information for improved analysis and machining times.

NX 6 expands the capabilities of Design Freedom with its new synchronous technology application layer. NX 6 Design Freedom provides new approaches to creating and editing geometry. A new “active selection” technique adds intelligence to designs when needed. These advanced selection methods automatically recognize logical and feature relationships even on non-native data. I never thought that Siemens exploited the potential of direct modeling, but that may change this time around with synchronous technology.

Our good friend and colleague, Dr. Ken Versprille, PLM Research Director, CPDA, also thinks it’s a good idea whose time not only has come, but continues to proliferate. He said, “Synchronous technology breaks through the architectural barrier inherent in a history-based modeling system. Its ability to recognize current geometry conditions and localize dependencies in real time, allows synchronous technology to solve for model changes without the typical replay of the full construction history from the point of edit. Depending on model complexity and how far back in the history that edit occurs, users will see dramatic performance gains. A 100 times speed improvement could be a conservative estimate.”

While synchronous technology has received a lot of attention even before it is actually released as a marketable product with the current versions of NX and Solid Edge, Siemens PLM Software, is hardly the first to promote the benefits and advantages of a non-history-based design approach with synchronous technology. Siemens now joins the ranks of Kubotek, CoCreate, IronCAD, and SpaceClaim who have already embraced it. However, Siemens’ take on the approach is quite different than the competition, some of my peers, and bloggers would have you think – it’s a lot more than direct modeling, or more precisely, direct model editing.

NX6 CAD also frees itself of the history tree found in most other parametric modeling packages, but with an interesting twist. Because there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to history- and non-history-based approaches, NX 6 actually provides the ability to switch between the two. I’ve always thought that one of the biggest plusses for a non-history—based approach is that 3D model data can be imported from just about any source for editing without the need for a translator/converter. The switching ability, however, is a novel idea.

While synchronous technology does provide non-history based direct modeling capabilities, it also provides the ability to employ dimension- and constraint-driven modeling. It is the combination of all of these capabilities that sets Siemens PLM Software’s synchronous technology apart from the competition. Synchronous technology will likely benefit users in the following areas:

• Initial designs can be created quicker without having to concern yourself with pre-planning the design process for creating features
• Design changes will likely be quicker because there is no history tree
• No history tree will be handy capability in a multi-CAD environment
• Without a history tree that can be restrictive, mechanical design might be easier to learn and better suited to “casual” users, as well as “full-timers.”

NX 6 continues to improve the user experience by providing users with greater flexibility through enhancements to its role-based user interface introduced in NX 5. The NX 6 user interface adds full screen mode for maximum graphics and customizable on-screen pop ups to speed interaction.

NX is available in the following different groupings for different purposes, although obviously they can be mixed and matched:

• Industrial design and styling (CAID)
• Design (CAD)
• Simulation (CAE)
• Tooling (CAM)
• Machining (NC)
• Mechatronics
• Engineering process management

While you can get into NX for less than $5,000, the price can tend to drive North in a hurry if you’re not careful. However, the initial price point puts it directly in line with others in the so-called mid-range, and the upper limit is not out of line with the so-called high-end (I’m not naming names, you know who’s who). The question I have as part of this is what becomes of Solid Edge? But that’s another story for another time . . . although from what I’ve seen and heard, the newest version Solid Edge is a good one.

So, is synchronous technology the Holy Grail for 3D CAD systems? I don’t think I’d go that far, but synchronous technology looks very promising as a major development that should benefit users and change the MCAD landscape. I’ll be taking a comprehensive, hands-on look at NX 6 in the next couple of months and will report on what I encounter and experience.

The Week’s Top 5

At MCADCafé we track many things, including the stories that have attracted the most interest from our subscribers. Below are the five news items that were the most viewed during last week.

ANSYS Completes Ansoft Acquisition
ANSYS, Inc. announced that it has completed the acquisition of Ansoft Corp. in a series of mergers for approximately 12.2 million shares of ANSYS common stock, including 1.9 million shares pursuant to assumed stock options, and approximately $387 million in cash, plus expenses. ANSYS expects the acquisition to be modestly accretive to earnings the first twelve months, excluding acquisition-related costs, amortization of intangibles, the impact of deferred revenue purchase accounting treatment and expensing of stock compensation. The Company used a combination of existing cash and proceeds from approximately $355 million of committed bank financing to fund the transaction. The combination of ANSYS' and Ansoft's software products and services is expected to give ANSYS the most comprehensive, independent engineering simulation software offerings in the industry. With over 60 direct sales offices and 21 development centers, on three continents, the combined company will employ approximately 1,700 people.

Stratasys to Ship New Direct Digital Manufacturing Machine
Stratasys announced it has begun shipping its new FDM 900mc direct digital manufacturing machine. Historically, Stratasys additive fabrication machines were used strictly for rapid prototyping, but the 900mc was developed specifically for use in direct digital manufacturing (DDM) applications. The machine is designed to serve this growing trend in low-volume manufacturing. All 17 of the first units sold will be used in direct digital manufacturing applications for either end-use parts or fabrication & assembly tools, and some of them will double in high-end functional prototyping applications. The 900mc development program was driven to produce high standards of accuracy & repeatability. With a confidence factor of greater than 99%, the 900mc has an accuracy rating of +/- .005 inch [or +/-.0015 inch per inch, whichever is greater] (+/- .127 mm [or +/- .0015 mm per mm whichever is greater]). The Stratasys quality department completed an FDM 900mc accuracy study, using three FDM 900mc machines, and building 144 standard test parts with 27 measurements per part, for a total of 3888 measured dimensions. Results revealed that dimensions were 99.9% in specification; in other words, only one in one thousand measurements did not fall within the specification.

Boeing and Siemens PLM Software Sign New Agreement to Extend Teamcenter Deployment
Siemens PLM Software announced that Boeing has signed a new software license agreement for Teamcenter. Siemens PLM Software technology currently enables Boeing to access current and accurate digital information wherever and whenever required. Boeing uses Teamcenter on several key programs to enhance collaboration and improve workflow management. As part of this agreement, Boeing will work with Siemens PLM Software to retire and replace selected legacy systems with Teamcenter. Teamcenter is being used for bill of material management, configuration management, change management and document management.

New National Solar-Powered Model Endurance Record Set
Aurora Flight Sciences engineer Adam Woodworth established a national record in an attempt at the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) F5SOL endurance world record for a radio controlled solar powered model aircraft (no batteries onboard). The aircraft with a wingspan of 3.1m, weighs 1.35 kg, and was designed to maximize endurance with the smallest (cheapest) possible solar array. The aircraft flew for 7hrs 13min setting a new U.S. national endurance record. The world endurance record for this category of 11hrs 34 min was set in 1997 by Wolfgang Schaeper of Germany. Woodworth and his teammate Carl Engel are now in the process of ratifying the record with the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). Aurora Flight Sciences recruited Adam because of earlier work on this project while he was a junior at MIT. Woodworth's experience with this project puts him in a very small group of people who have actually flown an aircraft powered by the sun. The hobby has served him well; Woodworth is currently working as an aero-engineer on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Vulture Program awarded to Aurora Flight Sciences in April. The goal of the Vulture program is to develop and demonstrate a radical new unmanned solar aircraft that can stay aloft for five years.

Optimal Solutions Helps Speedo
Dolphins swim faster than they should be able to. For decades, physicists and biologists have declared dolphin speeds impossible, given the density of water and the animal’s muscle structure. This paradox is a problem that hopes to be unraveled by looking at the powerful motion (“kick”) of the dolphin’s tail. When Speedo, the swimwear producer, as well as one of the most tenacious users of new and innovative technology, wanted to learn more about the drag-reduction mechanism associated with this animal’s tail, they came to the professionals in the dynamics of fluid flow: Optimal Solutions Software, LLC. Optimal Solutions, developer of Sculptor, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) real-time design deformation technology, was chosen because the company works with the automotive, motorsports and aerospace industries—virtually any industry that designs components that entail fluid (gas or liquid) flow—to solve the respective companies’ “lift” and “drag” issues. Now working with Speedo Aqualab in Nottingham, United Kingdom, and its other technology partners ANSYS, and the University of Nottingham, Optimal Solutions is utilizing its Sculptor CFD real-time design deformation technology to enhance the thrust and minimize the drag relating to timing and articulation of a swimmer’s kick movements.


Jeffrey Rowe is the editor of MCADCafé and MCAD Weekly Review. He can be reached at Email Contact or 408.850.9230.


This Week

Lead Story

Dassault Reports 2008 Q2 Software Revenue Growth
IBM Broadens PLM Offerings to Help Companies Integrate, Simplify, and Speed Product Development
SpaceClaim and Bunkspeed Partner for 3D Design and Visualization Solution
Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials Makes Maglev Train Simulation a Reality With LMS Virtual.Lab
NI and LEGO Education Develop Low-Cost Robotics Platform for Elementary School Students
PEAK Surgical Uses SolidWorks Software to Develop Low-Temperature Surgical Cutting and Coagulation Tools
Siemens PLM Software-Sponsored Roush Fenway Racing Driver Carl Edwards Wins Fourth 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race
CAD Schroer Releases MEDUSA4 Version 3.1
Stratasys Reports Record Second Quarter Financial Results
Sparx Systems Partners With Siemens PLM Software to Integrate Advanced UML Modeling With Product Lifecycle Management
ANSYS Reports Q2 2008 Financial Results
Sustainable Minds™ Launches Information Services for Green Product Design
3D Systems Reports Results for Second Quarter and First Half of 2008
ENGINEERING.com Incorporated Announces Q2 2008 Results
Immersion Corporation Reports Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results
Autodesk Names British Antarctic Survey as Inventor of the Month for July 2008
Anark Releases Version 2.0 of Its 3D CAD Transformation Platform
DP Technology performs successful test cuts with Agie 123 upgrades available in ESPRIT 2009
Autodesk Extends Invitation to Join Its Q2 Fiscal 2009 Financial Results Conference Call
Kirloskar Brothers Utilize PTC's Pro/Engineer(R) to Design Pump Engineering Solution for Turnkey Indian Irrigation Project
A bold new standard in eco-design for electronic products
Logimetrix Signs Synergis to Sell iLogic in Eastern U.S.
Leading Jet Engine Manufacturer Opts for Pacelab Software
Dassault Systemes and Zymmetry Group Deliver the Apparel Industry's First Integrated Global Development and Sourcing Solution
Kubotek Announces the Availability of CADKEY Wireframe Silver Edition.
Plexus Online Users Form Supply Chain Community
Autodesk Introduces Mudbox 2009 Digital Sculpting and Texture Painting Software
EOS Rapid Manufacturing Offerings Expand at Ogle Model
SensAble Customer Wins National Award for Haptically-Enabled Surgical Simulation Teaching Tool
Signmakers turn to sculptural signage
EDST Ties Up With Z-Corp.
TechniGraphics Sponsors Dassault Systemes Product Day at Wichita State University
Quickparts Offers New Gray ABS-like Stereolithography Materials for Rapid Prototyping
Khronos Releases COLLADA 1.5.0 Specification With New Automation, Kinematics, and Geospatial Functionality
CAE to acquire Bell Aliant's xwave Defence, Security and Aerospace business
ViaCAD 2D/3D V6 Now Shipping
INCAT Lands Major New IT Services Contract at Jaguar Land Rover
CGI Launches 3D Product Catalog Powered by TraceParts
Applied Software Authorized to Sell Autodesk Software to South Carolina Educational Institutions
Delcam's ArtCAM helps Royal Mint to commerate ninety years since the end of the First World War
ModuleWorks launches new Website

Related MCAD News

Dell Meets Carbon Neutral Goal Ahead of Schedule
Honeywell to Turbocharge First Ford EcoBoost Engine
HP Brings DreamColor Accuracy to Mobile Power Users
Mentor Graphics Delivers Simulation for Automotive and Aerospace Electrical Systems Designers
Visteon Announces Second Quarter 2008 Results
CDI Acquires Aerospace Engineering Firm

Corporate Moves

Peter Marton Joins Surfware as Sales Managing Director
Inventor of CSpace and Pixel Precision Joins 3DIcon as CTO
Chrysler LLC Announces New Head of Global Electric Motorcars
Renowned Engineer Joins Cyclone's Clean Green Engine Team

Industry Events

Bunkspeed presents "CGI Made Simple" at SIGGRAPH 2008
Cimatron Group to Present New CAD/CAM Solutions for Tooling and Manufacturing at IMTS
LightWork Design at Siggraph 2008
Karbon to Present Virtual Automotive Design Techniques During Keynote at CEIViz '08 Conference

Corporate Newsletters

Protomold Design Tip - July 2008