NX 4 Helps Manufacturers Pursue Innovation

By DE Editors

NX Version 4, the latest iteration of UGS Corp.‘s(Plano, TX) digital product development solution, includes hundreds ofuser-driven enhancements to improve manufacturers’ ability todifferentiate their products and to transform their innovation process.In a related announcement, the company also announced the availabilityof NX Nastran 4.

NX 4 helps manufacturers pursue innovation in four key areas: digitalsimulation, knowledge capture, usability, and systems engineering. Fordigital simulation, NX 4 introduces many advanced CAE capabilities. Itincludes design simulation tools for designers and high-performancesimulation for engineering analysis specialists. It offers new,integrated CFD and thermal analysis applications, and expands access tothe analysis capabilities in NX Nastran and third-party solvers likeABAQUS and ANSYS.

DesignLogic, which gives engineers the ability to embed productknowledge into a design and leverage that knowledge throughout thedesign iteration process, has been enhanced in NX 4. Manufacturingprocess knowledge can be captured using the new Manufacturing WizardBuilder, which allows companies to capture common manufacturingprocesses in a simple workflow environment. NX 4 also continues UGS’commitment to offering customers the freedom to use their language ofchoice when developing custom applications.

Out-of-the-box usability has been improved. Users can select theirexperience level and industry, and NX will display the most productiveset of features for their selection. Companies can build their ownscreen layouts and icon maps based upon their needs to improveproductivity.

NX 4 also offers a new approach to concept design called 2-D Layout.2-D Layout brings early conceptual layout into the integrated designprocess by enabling users to rapidly create design schemes that can beenriched as the product evolves. Among many other features, it alsodelivers a new Product and Manufacturing Information application(supporting ASME Y14.41and ISO 10 standards) that enables users toquickly annotate their 3D models, adding necessary manufacturinginformation and nongraphical data, allowing designers to communicateproduct information to manufacturing personnel without relying on a 2-Ddrawing.

In related news, UGS Corp. announced the availability of NX Nastran 4,its advanced CAE software. In addition to a variety of functionalenhancements, NX Nastran 4 significantly improves large modelperformance by exploiting the latest 64-bit computing technology. Otheradvances in this release include extending the scalability andperformance of NX Nastran parallel processing on cluster hardwaresystems, enabling solutions of very large models on up to 64 computerssimultaneously.

For more details, ugs.com.