What is NX X? | The benefits of combining Siemens SaaS with NX CAD for product design

Welcome to another recap of the Next Generation Design podcast for the episode: Driving Innovation with SaaS: NX X for Product Design. You can watch the full video version of the episode below.

On this episode of the Next Generation Design podcast, Greg Arnot interviews Tom Spangler, a Product Marketing Manager from Siemens, to discuss the transition to Software as a Service (SaaS), the cloud and the benefits of Siemens’ NX X solution. Tom provides in-depth insights into how cloud technology impacts design software, the advantages of using SaaS, and why Siemens is embracing this future-forward approach. They also dive into NX X user-centric features, licensing options and its unique advantages over traditional on-premises solutions.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

The difference between SaaS, cloud streaming and cloud licensing

The episode kicks off with background information on SaaS, cloud streaming and cloud licensing. Tom explains that SaaS is software as a service, also known as the cloud. With software as a service, IT for applications is handled in the cloud as a service as opposed to on-premises.

Cloud streaming is running an application remotely, as opposed installed onto the hardware, and streaming the application to your device via a web browser. The application itself is actually running on someone else’s computer, such as on servers with Amazon or Microsoft.

With cloud licensing however, the application itself could be installed to your own device or computer, like with NX X, but the licensing is done remotely and handled in the cloud. No matter where you are in the world, when you open up an application that is using cloud licensing, it is your account and named-user.

How does SaaS solve business challenges?

Greg and Tom then go on to discuss the benefits of SaaS, the challenges that businesses face that prompt them to transition to SaaS and how it helps them.

Infrastructure costs are going up globally, especially with the pandemic greatly increasing hardware costs due to chip shortages. With SaaS, you can lower your IT expenses, cost of ownership and upfront costs. Tom emphasizes that with the cloud, you don’t need as many servers or local infrastructure. Additionally, since you pay-as-you-go as opposed to making larger lump-sump payments, SaaS can be more cost-effective for many customers. SaaS is also easier to scale and deploy, licensing is simple and you get automatic updates to ensure you receive the latest updates with the latest innovations in the software.

Tom also mentions that the cloud helps with collaboration. Not only is there remote work, but we are seeing an increase in companies where engineering is done in one location but manufacturing may be spread out globally. Leveraging the cloud enables fast communication and collaboration between groups, bringing products to market faster.

Why does Siemens offer SaaS products?

“The whole software industry is moving this way. Since 2017, the SaaS industry has grown by over 500%. The whole global SaaS market is expected to hit about ten trillion dollars by 2030, so there’s a larger trend at work here.” Tom begins. But specifically for Siemens, we want to help our customers reduce costs, as well as give them greater flexibility and scalability. The cloud is a viable and sustainable solution more than ever now, and we are leveraging that to help our customers.

Tom and Greg mention a few of the SaaS products that Siemens offers: NX X for product engineering and CAD, NX X Manufacturing for CAM, Solid Edge X for mainstream CAD, Teamcenter X for product lifecycle management, Capital X for electrical/electronics systems development, Simcenter X for CAE and simulation and PCB Exchange Connect, a browser-based app that works with NX for the electronics space.

What is the difference between on-premises NX CAD and NX X?

Tom begins with the similarities between on-premises NX CAD and SaaS NX X, then dives into the differences.

Similarities between on-premises NX CAD and SaaS

Both on-premises and SaaS versions are built on the same NX architecture with the same data model, user interface and functionalities. You can use NX X and on-premises NX with no translation as they work the same, look the same and feel the same. You can still work across other applications like NX for manufacturing and Simcenter which also use the same data model without a need for translation. Additionally, you can purchase NX X with the same core seat capabilities as on-premises NX with the Standard, Advanced and Premium tiers and extend functionality with both via value-based licensing subscriptions giving you a set of tokens. Lastly, NX X still is a desktop application that installs on your desktop, just like on-premises NX.

Differences between on-premises NX CAD and SaaS

With NX X, you use Siemens Software Center to install NX X to your desktop, but the licensing and user provisioning is handled in the cloud. There is a reduction in IT overhead and workload to get users set up with licensing on different machines. It is all handled by Siemens. You also get immediate access to new functionality as soon as it comes out (such as Immersive capabilities) due to cloud-managed automatic updates by Siemens, so you are always up to date on the latest software. With NX X, there is named-user licensing so you log in using your Siemens account to access the software. This allows for a more personalized user experience with a customizable and adaptable user interface, for example with AI-enabled features in NX X that learn from your own workflows to help you be more productive. It also enables you to synchronize your settings across multiple machines which can be helpful if you are doing remote work: if one day you work in the office, another day you are in a factory, another day you are traveling, etc., you log in to NX X from wherever you are and still have your login with your user defaults, your data, etc. As we move forward, some new innovative features will only be available in NX X due to the named-user licensing.

Another major difference between NX on-premises and NX X is that NX X comes with optional built-in data management. These capabilities include functionality for basic check-in and check-out, version control and some visualization. NX X licensing also comes with Teamcenter Share for ad-hoc collaboration with external collaborators, suppliers, partners, etc. However it is important to note that even though NX X comes with built-in data management, you can still use Teamcenter X (SaaS), on-premises Teamcenter or other data management.

What are NX X Design solutions?

NX X Design solutions are prepackaged software core seats for NX X. They all have their own set of core capabilities, building upon the previous tier, and they all include built-in data management. Tom addresses the details of what is included in NX X Design Standard, Advanced and Premium. You can compare these tiers on our Comparison page. You can purchase NX X directly from Siemens or through our channel partners, and we also offer all three tiers on our online store. You can also purchase NX X Value Based Licensing online, which allows you to extend functionality of your software beyond the core seat capabilities. Once a subscription to a core seat is purchased, you download Siemens Software Center and it is only five clicks to install NX X, a huge improvement compared to other complex software installations.

What companies are using NX X for product design?

Tom notes that NX X has had strong growth for the few months it has been on the market, and mentions two NX X customers specifically, Dovetail Aviation and HELIXX. Dovetail Aviation is an Australian company developing electrified aircraft to reduce carbon emissions. They looked at one of our competitor’s offerings and compared it to ours, and decided to make the switch to NX X not only for the engineering capabilities themselves, but for the SaaS benefits including scalability and flexibility. With value-based licensing and different tiers of software available, it allows Dovetail to scale their software as they scale their company and grow.

HELIXX is a company based in the UK, focusing on affordable, zero-emissions vehicles. However, they face the challenges that come along with design in one place and manufacturing in many others, so they also chose NX X to help address those challenges. Tom quotes the Steve Pegg, CEO and co-founder of Helixx, “Having access to cutting-edge product engineering software and the associated digital twins, wherever and whenever we need it, is fundamental to achieving our vision,” emphasizing the collaboration that we are seeing with customers leveraging NX X, especially with the built-in data management.

Tom also mentions other customers that can’t be shared by names, but shares that an Asia-based truck manufacturing company also chose NX X because their previous cloud-based solution couldn’t scale with their growth.

The future of Siemens, SaaS products and NX X

Tom and Greg then discuss future plans for SaaS products at Siemens. Tom makes a disclaimer that it is hard to predict the future, but we do not plan on only offering SaaS in the future as Siemens remains committed to an open philosophy. We believe in giving our customers the choice to use the deployment that works best for them and we don’t want to force them into any model. However, customers are choosing SaaS due to the benefits previously mentioned such as scalability, built-in data management and personalized experience.

As for NX X, Tom notes strong capabilities that the software has, awards it has been recognized for and the importance of continuing to innovate in the field of CAD technology, which many people think may be static. Tom mentions the power of NX and NX X as well as how Siemens is dedicated to helping customers succeed, specifically mentioning how we focus strongly on quality, productivity, upgrade deployment, a vast amount of patents for Siemens for innovations in CAD and backwards compatibility for opening old files. Since NX X is built on a vast history of innovation, we will continue to build upon that and pursue the things that named-user licensing enables such as personalization, AI features, immersive features and cloud features. “We are constantly pushing to improve and make everything better with NX and NX X,” Tom concludes.

Greg and Tom close out the episode encouraging you to learn more about NX CAD and NX X on our website, our blog, on social media with #NXMakesItReal or by reaching out to contact us.

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Want to learn more about NX CAD software and NX X? Check out our website or try it for free.