{"id":2045,"date":"2015-04-29T07:27:55","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T14:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/NX-Design-Blog\/Top-5-Annoying-CAD-Problems-NX-Solves\/ba-p\/298551"},"modified":"2026-03-26T04:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T08:24:29","slug":"top-5-annoying-cad-problems-nx-solves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/top-5-annoying-cad-problems-nx-solves\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 Annoying CAD Problems NX Solves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><P>CAD file sharing and collaboration accounts for 3 of the top 5 most annoying problems CAD users face today, according to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.solidsmack.com\/cad\/annoying-thing-cad-survey-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">SolidSmack poll<\/A>. The other two? Simulation, and on-the-fly changes.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>What do these three things have in common? Well, aside from the fact that they\u2019re the biggest CAD annoyances, they also happen to be what I consider some of NX\u2019s biggest strengths.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>Let\u2019s start with <a title=\"simulation\" href=\"https:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/NX-Simulation\/ct-p\/NXforSimulation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">simulation<\/A>. I think a lot of the frustration here stems from the perceived complexity and high cost of computer aided engineering (CAE). NX addresses both of these aspects, making simulation attainable for non-CAE experts.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P><IMG src=\"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/image\/serverpage\/image-id\/12957iD2A19EB7C279EAB8\/image-size\/medium?v=mpbl-1&amp;px=-1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"NX CAE Wizard.jpg\" title=\"NX CAE Wizard.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"176\" align=\"right\" \/>We always talk about NX being a fully integrated solution, but what does that really mean? Well, NX shares a common architecture across applications, so it\u2019s easy to transition between CAD and CAE. They have the same look and feel. There\u2019s more to applications than just appearances though.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P><a title=\"NX CAE Wizard\" href=\"http:\/\/m.plm.automation.siemens.com\/en_us\/Images\/7873_tcm1224-4284.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">NX simulation wizards<\/A> guide you through the process to get some quick feedback on your designs. The step by step instructions are easy to follow, and the wizard determines variables such as finite element siz<SPAN style=\"line-height: 18px;\">e for you. You get the results you need, and you don&#8217;t have to be a CAE expert to do it!<\/SPAN><\/P><br \/>\n<P><SPAN style=\"line-height: 18px;\">&nbsp;<\/SPAN><\/P><br \/>\n<P>Now on to on-the-fly changes. The la<SPAN style=\"line-height: 18px;\">st thing you want to hear when you finish an assembly is that you have to change one of the parts. Normally you would have to go back and update each part in the assembly just to accommodate that one change. Not so in NX. <\/SPAN><a title=\"Associative sketch in Assembly\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/NX-Design-Knowledge-Base\/NX-Quick-Tips-Associative-Sketch-in-Assembly-Context\/ta-p\/297825\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Associative WAVE links<\/A><SPAN style=\"line-height: 18px;\"> update interlinked parts automatically when changes are made to one of them.<\/SPAN><SPAN style=\"line-height: 18px;\">You can even make the WAVE links on the fly as you need them starting in NX 10.<\/SPAN><\/P><\/p>\n<p><P><IMG src=\"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/image\/serverpage\/image-id\/12959i3D8C31103FC9ED22\/image-size\/medium?v=mpbl-1&amp;px=-1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Teamcenter Active Workspace.jpg\" title=\"Teamcenter Active Workspace.jpg\" width=\"302\" height=\"302\" align=\"left\" \/>Finally, the issue of CAD file sharing and collaboration. File sharing can be tricky. Siemens PLM Software created the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plm.automation.siemens.com\/en_us\/about_us\/newsroom\/press\/press_release.cfm?Component=205727&amp;ComponentTemplate=822\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">JT format<\/A> to facilitate CAD file sharing, and it is now a standard. NX also supports multi-CAD data, so you can open and change CAD models from other applications within NX.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>You can share files and collaborate with your team easier with NX 10; it gives you access to nearly everything <a title=\"Teamcenter\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/Teamcenter-Blog\/bg-p\/Teamcenter-Blog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Teamcenter<\/A>&nbsp;does. You can open and modify any parts in the system via an easily searchable index. When you make those changes, the part updates in the system and flags any out of date part versions, so others know they have the right part version. Take a simulation analyst, for example. He or she needs the right model to use for analyses.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>You also collaborate better with the new touch-enabled interface that lets you use <a title=\"touch screen CAD NX\" href=\"https:\/\/community.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/NX-Design-Blog\/Microsoft-Takes-CAD-on-Tablet-to-Whole-New-Level\/ba-p\/292297\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">NX 10 on tablets<\/A>. You can take your product designs right down to the shop floor, or let customers manipulate the model themselves. We\u2019ve talked a lot about that in past blog posts, so be sure to <a title=\"Touch screen CAD with NX! \" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/NX-Design-Blog\/bg-p\/NXDesignNews\/label-name\/touch+screen+cad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">check them out<\/A>&nbsp;if you haven\u2019t already seen them!<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAD file sharing and collaboration accounts for 3 of the top 5 most annoying problems CAD users face today, according to a SolidSmack poll. The other two? Simulation, and on-the-fly changes.<br \/>\n&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53799,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[49,3],"industry":[],"product":[304],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cad-file-management","tag-cad","product-nx"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/Teamcenter-Active-Workspace.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53799"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2048,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions\/2048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/designcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}