When you consider NX’s mastery when it comes to 3D modelling and shape description, it seems a little incongruous to discuss 2D sketch layouts first before getting onto the meaty, fun stuff. NX layout for top down design & Conceptualisation You can define custom reports on the fly, but you can’t formalise them into reusable reports - for that you need a cost option licence, but still, the supplied tools are useful for many, particularly as they avoid having to delve into tables and such, which is no fun for anyone. This means that whether you run with Teamcenter or not, you can still use those predefined reports when needed. On the subject of Visual Reporting, it’s also worth noting that Siemens is now giving away the standard set of Visual Reports with all NX licences.
It’s really down to pulling together the information needed to make decisions more quickly and in the context of a rich 3D model. Another might be to extract the percentage that a product is signed off, where things are delayed or behind schedule.
One example is to colour code an assembly by weight distribution, sign off stage or anything else. If you’ve not come across Visual Reporting before, essentially, it allows you to combine your 3D model with metadata (either extracted from the model’s metadata or from the PLM database) and present information in a rich manner. This integration also gives access to all of the Visual Reporting tools that allows users to interogate the PLM resource to report on all manner of information in a graphical manner. It’s also worth noting that this window into Teamcenter can also be pulled out of the main application and placed on another screen - super handy for those running multiple monitors (and that’s most people these days).
Whether the user accesses PLM workspaces through Active Workspaces or through the NX embedded tools, the experience is the same with a common look and feel.Īs well as the full index and search tools you’d expect, it also enables access to those higher level tools, such as workflow management, revision management, issue creation, sign off etc.Ĭonsidering that 40% of NX customers already run Teamcenter and that Siemens is giving away the base level of the product with any NX Mach bundles (we cover how NX is bundled a little later on), this will prove useful for many. This uses the Active Workspace client, introduced to Teamcenter in the last few years, and it gives a full client that’s embedded directly inside of NX. Now it is a much more comprehensive and better integrated tool that provides access to almost everything that Teamcenter does. While previous releases provided access to Teamcenter data at a basic level, allowing users to search, view folder structure and data etc. Teamcenter integrationĪnother focus for NX 10 is greater integration with Siemens’ PLM solution, Teamcenter. Using the search tools (to find the commands), the user can quickly grab the tools needed and drag the icons to it for quick access. To solve this issue, NX 10 introduces a new temporary toolbar to the left of the modelling UI. The issue with this type of optimisation is that those less commonly used operations are hidden away, often in menus and pull-downs. By stripping back commands to those you use the most, users can get into the job at hand more quickly and easily.
The introduction of rolesbased UI control is something that gave users (and organisations) the ability to customise the system to their individual working practices. While the system is technologically and functionality rich, the last few years have also seen a lot of work done on the user experience. The last of these, in particular, has long been a strong hold for NX, providing a raft of mould and die development and CNC programming capability. It covers the full gamut, from conceptualisation (in terms of both class A surface models and more recently, sub-division modelling as well as large scale assemblies), through engineering and into manufacture. Its strengths are the definition and documentation of complex products, whether that complexity is driven by the size of an assembly (think, aerospace and automotive) or shape description (product design and mould and die design). Here, HD-PLM reports are run to show the progress of the assembly by release status
The new Teamcenter integration gives you full PLM interaction directly inside NX.