NX, also known as NX Unigraphics or usually just U-G, is an advanced high-end CAD/CAM/CAE software package developed by Siemens PLM

Software.[1] It is used, among other tasks, for:

Design (parametric and direct solid/surface modelling) Engineering analysis (static, dynamic, electro-magnetic, thermal, using the Finite Element Method, and fluid using the finite volume method). Manufacturing finished design by using included machining modules.

NX is a direct competitor to Creo Elements/Pro and CATIA.

1969: UNIAPT was released by a software company then called United Computing, UNIAPT was one of the world's first end-user CAM products. 1973: The company purchased the Automated Drafting and Machining (ADAM) software code from MCS in 1973. The code became a foundation for a product called UNI-GRAPHICS, later sold commercially as Unigraphics in 1975. 1976 McDonnell Douglas Aircraft buys Unigraphics. 1981: Unigraphics was released, marking the group's first true 3D modeling hardware and software offering. 1991: During a period of financial difficulties McDonnell Douglas sells Unigraphics to EDS which at that time is owned by General Motors.[2] Unigraphics becomes GM's corporate CAD system. 1992: Over 21,000 seats of Unigraphics are being used worldwide.[3] 1996: Unigraphics V11.0 is released. Added Industrial Design and Modeling enhancements including Bridge Surface, Curvature Analysis for Curve and Surfaces, Face Blends, Variable Offset Surface, etc. In the area of Assembly Modeling the new capabilities included Component Filters, Faceted Representations, Clearance Analysis between multiple Components, etc. Also this release included a fully integrated Spreadsheet linked to Feature-Based Modeling. 2002 First release of the new "Next Generation" version of Unigraphics and I-deas, called NX. This will eventually bring the functionality and capabilities of both Unigraphics and I-DEAS together into a single consolidated product. 2007 Introduction of Synchronous Technology in NX 5.[4][5] 2011 Release of NX8 on October 17-2011

NX, also known as NX Unigraphics or usually just U-G, is an advanced CAD/CAM/CAE software package developed by Siemens PLM Software. NX is one of the worlds most advanced and tightly integrated CAD/CAM/CAE product development solutions. Spanning the entire range of product development, NX delivers immense value to enterprises of all sizes. It simplifies complex product designs, thus speeding up the process of introducing products to the market. The NX software integrates knowledge-based principles, industrial design, geometric modeling,advanced analysis, graphic simulation, and concurrent engineering. The software has powerful hybrid modeling capabilities by integrating constraint-based feature modeling and explicit geometric modeling. In addition to modeling standard geometry parts, it allows the user to design complex free-form shapes such as airfoils and manifolds. It also merges solid and surface modeling techniques into one powerful tool set.

It is used, among other tasks, for: Design (parametric and direct solid/surface modelling) Engineering analysis (static, dynamic, electro-magnetic, thermal, using the Finite Element Method, and fluid using the finite volume method). Manufacturing finished design by using included machining modules.

NX is a direct competitor to Creo Elements/Pro, CATIA, SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor. HISTORY: 1969: UNIAPT was released by a software company then called United Computing, UNIAPT was one of the world's first end-user CAM products. 1973: The company purchased the Automated Drafting and Machining (ADAM) software code from MGS in 1973. The code became a foundation for a product called UNI-GRAPHICS, later sold commercially as Unigraphics in 1975. 1976 McDonnell Douglas Aircraft buys Unigraphics. 1981: Unigraphics was released, marking the group's first true 3D modeling hardware and software offering.[5] 1991: During a period of financial difficulties McDonnell Douglas sells Unigraphics to EDS which at that time is owned by General Motors.Unigraphics becomes GM's corporate CAD system.

1992: Over 21,000 seats of Unigraphics are being used worldwide. 1996: Unigraphics V11.0 is released. Added Industrial Design and Modeling enhancements including Bridge Surface, Curvature Analysis for Curve and Surfaces, Face Blends, Variable Offset Surface, etc. In the area of Assembly Modeling the new capabilities included Component Filters, Faceted Representations, Clearance Analysis between multiple Components, etc. Also this release included a fully integrated Spreadsheet linked to Feature-Based Modeling. 2002 First release of the new "Next Generation" version of Unigraphics and I-deas, called NX. This will eventually bring the functionality and capabilities of both Unigraphics and I-DEAS together into a single consolidated product. 2007 Introduction of Synchronous Technology in NX 5. A complete history exists on the Unigraphics Virtual Museum. NX 7.5 is the current release.

Creo Elements/Pro, a product now called Creo Parametric and formerly known as Pro/ENGINEER is a parametric, integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution created by Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC). It was the first to market[2] with parametric, feature-based, associative solid modeling software. The application runs on Microsoft Windows platform, and provides solid modeling, assembly modelling and drafting, finite element analysis, and NC and tooling functionality for mechanical engineers. Versions for UNIX systems were discontinued with the release of version 4.0,[3] except Solaris on x86-64.[4] The Pro/ENGINEER name was changed[5] to Creo Elements/Pro on October 28, 2010, coinciding with PTCs announcement of Creo, a new design software application suite. Creo Elements/Pro will be discontinued after version 2 in favour of the Creo design suite Creo Elements/Pro (formerly Pro/ENGINEER), PTC's parametric, integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution, is used by discrete manufacturers for mechanical engineering, design and manufacturing. Created by Dr. Samuel P. Geisberg in the mid-1980s, Pro/ENGINEER was the industry's first successful rule-based constraint (sometimes called "parametric" or "variational") 3D CAD modeling system.[6] The parametric modeling approach uses parameters, dimensions, features, and relationships to capture intended product behavior and create a recipe which enables design automation and the optimization of design and product development processes. This design approach is used by companies whose product strategy is family-based or platform-driven, where a prescriptive design strategy is fundamental to the success of the design process by embedding engineering constraints and relationships to quickly optimize the design, or where the resulting geometry may be complex or based upon equations. Creo Elements/Pro provides a complete set of design, analysis and manufacturing capabilities on one, integral, scalable platform. These required capabilities include Solid Modeling, Surfacing, Rendering, Data Interoperability, Routed Systems Design, Simulation, Tolerance Analysis, and NC and Tooling Design.

Companies use Creo Elements/Pro to create a complete 3D digital model of their products. The models consist of 2D and 3D solid model data which can also be used downstream in finite element analysis, rapid prototyping, tooling design, and CNC manufacturing. All data are associative and interchangeable between the CAD, CAE and CAM modules without conversion. A product and its entire bill of materials (BOM) can be modeled accurately with fully associative engineering drawings, and revision control information. The associativity functionality in Creo Elements/Pro enables users to make changes in the design at any time during the product development process and automatically update downstream deliverables. This capability enables concurrent engineering design, analysis and manufacturing engineers working in parallel and streamlines product development processes. Creo Elements/Pro is part of a broader product development system developed by PTC. It connects to PTCs other solutions that aid product development, including Windchill, ProductView, Mathcad and Arbortext Like any software it is continually being developed to include new functionality. The details below aim to outline the scope of capabilities to give an overview rather than giving specific details on the individual functionality of the product. Creo Elements/Pro is a software application within the CAID/CAD/CAM/CAE category, along with other similar products currently on the market. Creo Elements/Pro is a parametric, feature-based modeling architecture incorporated into a single database philosophy with advanced rule-based design capabilities. It provides in-depth control of complex geometry, as exemplified by the trajpar parameter. The capabilities of the product can be split into the three main headings of Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing. This data is then documented in a standard 2D production drawing or the 3D drawing standard ASME Y14.41-2003.

Engineering Design
Creo Elements/Pro offers a range of tools to enable the generation of a complete digital representation of the product being designed. In addition to the general geometry tools there is also the ability to generate geometry of other integrated design disciplines such as industrial and standard pipe work and complete wiring definitions. Tools are also available to support collaborative development.

Screenshot captured from Creo 1.0 as an example of the FreeForm surfaces. Sub'D surfaces new in Creo 1.0 This geometry started as a square cube A number of concept design tools that provide up-front Industrial Design concepts can then be used in the downstream process of engineering the product. These range from conceptual Industrial design sketches, reverse engineering with point cloud data and comprehensive freeform surface tools.

Analysis
Creo Elements/Pro has numerous analysis tools available and covers thermal, static, dynamic and fatigue finite element analysis along with other tools all designed to help with the development of the product. These tools include human factors, manufacturing tolerance, mould flow and design optimization. The design optimization can be used at a geometry level to obtain the optimum design dimensions and in conjunction with the finite element analysis. Manufacturing By using the fundamental abilities of the software with regards to the single data source principle, it provides a rich set of tools in the manufacturing environment in the form of tooling design and simulated CNC machining and output. Tooling options cover specialty tools for molding, die-casting and progressive tooling desig

Release history
Name/Version Build Number Date Internal version 1987 ? 1991 ? 1992 9.0 1993 10.0 1993 11.0 1993 12.0 1994 13.0

Pro/ENGINEER (Auto fact 1987 premier) R 1.0 Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER R 8.0 R 9.0 R 10.0 R 11.0 R 12.0 R 13.0

Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire Creo Elements/Pro Creo Parametric Creo Parametric Creo Parametric

R 14.0 R 40 R 16.0 R 17.0 R 18.0 R 19.0 R 20.0 R 2000i R 2000i2 R 2001 R 1.0 R 2.0 R 3.0 R 4.0 R 5.0

1994 14.0 1995 15.0 1996 16.0 1997 17.0 1997 18.0 1998 19.0 1998 20.0 1999 21.0 2000 22.0 2001 23.0 2002 24.0 2004 25.0 2006 27.0 2008 29.0 2009 31.0

R 5.0 (as of M065) 2010 31.0 R 1.0 R 2.0 R 3.0 2011 32.0 2012 33.0 2013 34.0