April 2010
Dear Customer
We are proud to introduce NX 7.5, which is the second of two major NX 7 releases of our flagship Digital Product Development software.
Siemens PLM Software has a clear and consistent strategy of providing Digital Product Development solutions that transform your whole product development process. Included in this release are enhancements that enable you to increase your levels of productivity in development while you work in a collaborative and managed development environment.
With these two releases of NX 7, Siemens PLM Software has focused our development efforts on some key areas for enhancement.
With NX 7, we introduced the first release of a powerful new visual approach to working with PLM Data which we called HD3D, which has been further enhanced in NX 7.5.
HD3D provides you with a highly visual environment to navigate and work with your product information. The first capabilities delivered with HD3D are focused on information reporting, drilldown, and validation.
HD3D Visual Reporting allows you to generate visual reports based on key PLM data. For example, you can color code all of the components in an assembly based on their release status. You can create reports on an ad-hoc basis, or you can create and save the reports for reuse throughout the organization.
The HD3D functionality also delivers a new visual user interface for our Check-Mate and Molded Part Validation tools, allowing you to easily review the results of checks run on models and assemblies.
We have continued to enhance Synchronous Technology in NX by adding powerful new approaches for developing products.
In NX 7, we expanded the capabilities of active selection, which automatically infers logical relationships of geometry, regardless of its origin. A new offset option has been added to the existing conditions such as tangency, concentricity, and symmetry to allow you to quickly get the results you expect from editing your model.
To further extend the dynamic editing of geometry and to allow you to maintain design intent, you can now lock 3D dimensions (linear, radial and angular) used to edit the model.
To increase the ability to reuse data from other CAD systems, NX 7 Synchronous Technology included new functionality to clean imported data. The Optimize Face and Replace Blend commands can help you to easily edit non-native NX data.
With NX 7.5, we have leveraged the power of Synchronous Technology to expand some of the capabilities in freeform modeling. We have enhanced the X-Form command and introduced a powerful new tool, I-Form. Both commands allow you to generate aesthetically pleasing shapes with minimal effort.
Siemens PLM recognizes that you may use a mix of design approaches to produce products, often mixing both 3D design elements with 2D designs.
NX DraftingPlus is a new application devised to meet the requirements of 2D-centric design and drawing processes, as well as to support 2D-to-3D workflows. It is fully integrated with NX Drafting and offers a set of 2D-centric drawing tools if you require 2D design and layout capabilities, or if you want to maintain or re-use legacy 2D drawings.
The capabilities in NX DraftingPlus are also available in a fully functional, standalone solution called NX Power Drafting. You can use this to create detailed production drawings using NX 3D solid models and assemblies. You can also use this as a standalone high-performance 2D design and drawing system. DraftingPlus and Power Drafting allow you to select a single system for both your 3D and 2D needs.
You can also use the two new drafting options to automatically configure annotation and drafting view preferences to Chinese (GB) and Russian (ESKD) standards. Designers can select either of these options to configure more than 200 standards-compliant settings in the drafting and 3D annotation environments.
NX 7 Design enhancements included:
Direct sketching capabilities that help you to reduce the steps in the sketch and extrude workflows by 50%.
Significant enhancements to the Reuse library that include libraries of 2D profiles and 3D objects.
The Component First approach of inserting standard parts allows clearance holes to be automatically inserted into components.
Enhancements to Product Template Studio to allow you to quickly build configuration rules and logic for template-based assemblies and provide increased support for downstream applications such as Drafting, CAE and CAM.
NX 7.5 significantly enhances the NX Digital Lifecycle Simulation portfolio with increased modeling efficiency and an expanded range of integrated solutions.
New capabilities in the product include durability analysis and model correlation. Additionally, there are major enhancements in the areas of multi-body dynamics, the modeling of thin-walled structures, beam modeling, meshing, laminate composites, and support of multi-physics solvers.
In NX 7.5, you can use improved mid-surfacing and automatic free edge stitching capabilities which accelerate the process of initial modeling and automatically update the analysis model whenever the base geometry changes. This reduces the time needed to create mid-surface models by up to 50%[.]
Analysts can evaluate structures made with laminate composite materials using the extensive and easy-to-use ply and laminate definition capabilities in NX. You can now import ply data from FiberSim and also place plies on imported FE mesh models.
In traditional CAE tools, engineers routinely replace complex geometric cross sections with equivalent line elements used for analysis. Creating beam cross section is now streamlined so that it provides engineers with an intuitive way to rapidly visualize and validate their models, and so helps increase productivity.
The NX Open application programming interface has been enhanced to include finite element modeling, solution processes and post-processing commands. Using NX Open, you can automate repetitive tasks and capture CAE process knowledge. Engineering teams can then distribute these automated simulation processes to other engineering and design departments, enabling them to more easily perform simulation and to ensure that they follow CAE best practices. As a result, there are fewer bottlenecks, more efficient design-analysis cycles, and a more timely and accurate simulation.
NX 7.5 introduces powerful new tools for Integrated Multi-Physics Solutions.
NX Motion Simulation offers an integrated dynamic simulation environment through the use of bushings, springs and dampers, and with the latest version of NX, flexible bodies. This allows engineers to predict product performance on designs that combine elastic deformation and rigid body motion to evaluate conditions such as sharp impacts, sudden changes in motion, or the effect of component flexibility on mechanism performance and durability.
NX 7.5 introduces two new products for evaluating durability – a durability wizard and an advanced durability solution. The durability wizard provides an intuitive, guided process for designers and less experienced users to compute strength safety factors and fatigue life. The advanced durability solution assists expert users in performing more complex analyses with support for static and transient loads and the ability to handle bi-axial stresses and notch effects.
With NX 7.5, we are pleased to introduce two new products for rapid model correlation and model updating.
NX Finite Element (FE) Model Correlation enables you to quantitatively and qualitatively compare simulation and modal test results, as well as to compare two different simulations. You can view test and analysis mode shapes side-by-side and, in addition, you also have a range of options to calculate and display correlation metrics.
FE Model Updating NX 7 rapidly updates the analysis models to better match test results. With the intuitive workflow, analysts can quickly update an FE model using an optimization process which calibrates and fine tunes model parameters, such as stiffness or mass properties. This helps to better match the analysis results with the test results.
In addition to CAD and CAE enhancements, NX CAM has also been enhanced to improve productivity when generating manufacturing data.
A new application for blisk and impeller machining, NX Turbomachinery Milling, accelerates the NC programming process for complex 5-axis multi-bladed rotational parts. The application steps you through the process of programming with the specialized operations for 5-axis roughing, rest milling and the finishing of blades, splitters and hubs. You can precisely control details such as cut patterns, cut level offsets, edge treatments, tool angle, smoothing options, and optimized non-cutting moves.
NX 7.5 also introduces a new application for CMM Inspection Programming, that delivers an offline programming application that helps you program CMMs faster and more accurately by working in a 3D solid model environment. You can reduce inspection programming time by as much as 80% using the Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI), including GD&T and 3D annotation, on the CAD model to automatically generate inspection programs.
In addition to these two new applications, we have continued to enhance our core CAM tools. The new functionality includes the following:
Utilization of multi-processor/multi-core hardware when generating complex tool paths to significantly reduce the time it takes to generate NC information.
Closer integration of NX CAM with the manufacturing environment by linking the Siemens Sinumerik machine controller with the NX tool path.
Capabilities to automatically analyze tool loading and adjust feed rates to maintain a uniform material removal rate along tool paths. This provides improved machining productivity and increased tool life.
New tool path based simulation analyzes and verifies manufacturing operations earlier in the NC programming workflow by simulating machine tool motion without a postprocessor or machine tool driver.
Extended Feature-based Machining (FBM) capabilities in the areas of Turning, Wire EDM, and 3-to-5 axis machining.
Enriched part manufacturing data management which allows you to:
Manage and distribute postprocessors using Teamcenter.
Store postprocessor calculated machining time and machining / cutting tool utilization time.
Manage multiple versions of CAM templates.
With the NX 7.5 release, we looked for new and innovative ways to deliver solutions that meet your product development challenges.
We are confident that with NX 7.5 you will be able to extract the highest value from our solutions.
For a complete overview of all enhancements and additional information about this release, refer to these Release Notes as well as the What's New Guide in the NX 7.5 Help Library.
Sincerely,
Your NX 7.5 Team