Undo memory management

To decrease the physical memory usage of NX5, you can have the undo files written to disk instead when the physical memory is about to be exhausted by setting this environment variable :

• UGII_CLOSE_UNDO_MODE=CHECK

2008 Customer survey for NX

This year's voting process has begun.

For those who haven't heard CIP before, it's a voting system to prioritize the Enhancement Requests for the software. If you have an active maintenance, go ahead and vote !

http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/CIP/CIP.asp

Synchronous Technology is launched

NX has been best known for its ability to present users lots of ways to do the same task - using different modeling disciplines like solid, surface, hybrid, parametric, or 'direct' modeling; at the same time without having to switch between from one to another.

Synchronous Technology seems to be an addition to these modeling techniques. At first it might sound like "Direct Modeling" which is already there in NX, but it actually is much more than that.

What it does is that when you make a change, the kernel examines the obvious dependencies the change will affect (like being tangent, concentric, parallel, etc) and tries to preserve them while honoring the parametric structure at the same time, thus the name `synchronous technology`.

What is the benefit ? You can for example use the section view curves to drive the model itself ! I know this sounds quite promising, but you can see this from this launch video here.

Next versions of both NX and SolidEdge will benefit from this new layer of tools, sitting on top of Parasolid and D-Cubed technology. A more technical description can be found in this white paper (registration required)

Change sketch dimensions in Drafting

NX methodology normally suggests that your drafting, toolpaths, CAE model etc all depend on your 3D model, so the changes should propogate from 3D model to the rest. (thus the name master and non-master parts)

What it means, is that if you change a drafting dimension of a line from 50 to 55 mm in drafting , you'll only get a warning that the associativity between the dimension and the geometry will be lost, and your line length will remain unchanged.

Normally this really is not a problem in NX, as switching between applications like modeling and drafting is quite easy. But if you are switching to NX from another CAD application, you might want to try this approach :

• set UGII_DRAFT_EXPRESSIONS_OK = 1
• create a sketch
• create a view of the model in drafting
• select Insert -> Feature Parameters command, and place the sketch dimensions into your view
• Hit CTRL + E (expressions) and select a dimension of the sketch. You'll be able to modify and update without having to go back to modeling.

Duplicating a drawing sheet

It amazes me how flexible import and export part commands can sometimes be. Here's a way to duplicate your drawing sheet within your work part.

• Save your part
• Launch `File - Export - Part`.
  
• Select Part Specification : Existing
• Select "Specify Part" and choose your workpart from your list.

Your current sheet should be duplicated quickly.

Automated installation of NX5

Although setting up NX is easier than Winamp nowadays, an unattended installation script might come handy if you have small amount of time and lots of machines to get up and running.

Assuming that you have NX4 installed, and you want to install NX5.0.4, here's a sample script :
(be sure to copy / paste the text into a blank text file, as there might be autobreaks in place)

@ ---- COPY START FROM HERE

@echo off
start /wait msiexec /qn /i "D:\nx5_setup\ISScript10.msi"

echo NX4 translators are being uninstalled...
start /wait msiexec /qn /x "D:\nx4_setup\translators040\UGS NX 4.0 Translators.msi"
echo NX4 is ...
start /wait msiexec /qn /x "D:\nx4_setup\nx040\UGS NX 4.0.msi"

echo NX5 and translators are being installed...
start /wait msiexec /qn /i "D:\nx5_setup\UGS NX 5.0.msi" ADDLOCAL="all" INSTALLDIR="C:\UGS\NX5" LICENSESERVER=28000@license_server

echo Updating NX to 5.0.4 ...
cd /D D:\ugs_update0504
start /wait xcopy D:\ugs_update0504\*.* "C:\UGS\NX5" /E /F /H /Y /R >NUL

echo updating Visual C++ libraries ...
start /wait D:\ugs_update0504\vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn" >NUL 2>&1

echo NX5 setup complete
pause

@ ---- COPY END HERE