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Why transition to SaaS with NX X CAD on the cloud?

By Mollie Gladden

NX CAD is the leading next generation mechanical engineering solution that delivers advanced 3D design capabilities to the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio. Seamlessly integrating across disciplines, including electrical and electronic systems, to enable more iterations and utilize the latest manufacturing and simulation methods to ensure you build the richest, most comprehensive digital twin of your product, and ultimately deliver the best designs to market faster.

Take your digital transformation one step further and unleash your full design potential with NX X, a powerful, flexible, secure, scalable and cost effect solution for all designers and engineers, providing NX CAD as a SaaS (software as a service) offering.

What is NX X Software as a Service (SaaS)?

SaaS is a modern method of software delivery that provides software through the cloud. NX X empowers designers and engineers to harness the full power of NX to create smarter, stronger, and more eco-friendly products and experiences, on the cloud.

What is NX X?

NX X is SaaS NX— they share the same common NX architecture, data format and user experience. The only difference is that, as a SaaS solution, NX X is a managed product engineering environment. With the same advanced design capabilities as traditional NX, plus the added flexibility, security, and scalability benefits of a SaaS solution,  NX X stands above other CAD cloud offerings.

NX X provides a fully managed product engineering environment that you can easily download and install onto your devices. This approach delivers the full power of our unparalleled functionality and offline access, ensuring productivity even without an internet connection.

NX X can be accessed both via a desktop application or an optional streamed service to provide a greater level of flexibility beyond what is provided by other stripped down “streaming only” options. This flexibility provides you with the ability to scale the number of CAD users based on your business needs without the traditional overhead costs associated with procurement, management and upgrades.

NX X is available in the same packaging as the traditional on-premises NX— with NX X CAD solutions plus Value Based Licensing tokens for add-on modules— ensuring that you don’t leave any features behind when you adopt an NX CAD SaaS solution.

With the introduction of NX X, data accessibility remains at the forefront of importance. With NX X, Siemens continues to build on their well-established NX architecture to provide users with a seamless SaaS transition of their legacy data to support the future of product engineering.

John Mackrell, Chairman, CIMdata

What is included in NX X?

NX X offerings include 3 scalable named user seat options.

Each seat option builds upon the previous tier to offer more features and functionality to meet increasing design demands. Each NX X seat includes:

  • Access to NX X software
  • Fully managed license configuration, deployment, backups and updates by Siemens, so you get immediate access to new release functionality
  • Built-in data management capabilities
  • Adhoc collaboration tools through Teamcenter Share
  • Seamless expansion opportunities with NX and other products throughout the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio including Zel X, NX CAM and Simcenter 3D.
A screenshot of NX X CAD software in Siemens Software Center

With NX X, built-in data management is pre-provisioned and pre-configured, no custom installs or configurations are required. Getting started is easy with a self-service data upload that provides duplicate reports to resolve at your pace and an intuitive UI to support rapid advanced search for reliable find and reuse. It also features check-in and check-out collaboration to allow multiple users to work on the same assembly while maintaining  conversation threads attached to the target part. Create, view, track, and manage tasks and close them when completed. No more file overwrites. Manage design evolution from start to finish and leave chaos behind.

NX X will also continue to offer Value Based Licensing as an optional add on which unlocks unmatched flexibility and cost savings, with over 100 add-on products enabling you to continue to grow and get more out of your digital twin.  Optional services, such as the NX X Remote Extension offering for seamless streaming, are also offered for universal accessibility and resource efficiency.

NX X Value Based Licensing unlocks access to the entire NX X add-on module product pool through a single subscription. This approach provides instant access to additional engineering capabilities as they are released into the pool. Expanded access to powerful functionality enables users to explore more design iterations, increase innovation, and get more out of their digital twin.

Michelle Boucher, Vice President, Tech Clarity

What problems does NX X solve?

CAD software is often associated with a high total cost of ownership due to a large upfront investment in perpetual licenses, labor intensive software deployment, management, updates, ensuring security of intellectual property, maintenance of backups for disaster recovery, and user training. Additionally, the recent demand for users to be able to work from home has added a new layer of complexity when accessing not only the CAD software itself but also the shared data used across globally distributed teams.

NX X removes these barriers, reduces complexity, connects teams and improves productivity through the simplicity of access to the same powerful NX, managed by Siemens through the cloud with built in data management for real time collaboration.

What are the benefits of NX X?

Flexibility in your experience 

NX X provides a flexible user experience by enabling multiple ways to access the software. Whether  desktop or streaming, you can work on your projects whichever way works best for you, from work, from home, or on the go. Regardless of how it is being access, you leverage the same powerful features and functionality, on the same NX architecture, with the same data model.

Simplified IT with NX X

Through the cloud, we manage, configure and update licenses without any required action from you,  providing rapid rollout of the solution.

This means , you can fully focus on innovation with the peace of mind that you are using the latest and greatest release capabilities.  

You will continue to benefit from the growing value of NX X on the cloud through unique cloud-only capabilities that we will continue to build out in subsequent releases— such as personalized artificial intelligence, and real-time collaboration.   

Secure & trusted data management 

Built-in data management capabilities are included with every core seat of NX X, making getting started with effective, real-time collaboration and data management simple. Purpose-built for CAD users, these data management capabilities, accessible in your existing CAD interface, let you check-in and check-out designs, participate in discussions and even markup 3D models to provide context to your work. 

You can also create and manage revisions, freeze and release designs, as well as assign and complete associated tasks. These capabilities are also based on Teamcenter X, making expansion into a more robust solution easy.

Confidence in collaboration

With the inclusion of the Teamcenter® Share app, NX X also provides an added layer of extended ad-hoc project sharing capabilities for interaction with external suppliers on engineering projects, and across multiple roles and engineering applications. It supports consistency through access control of design data, fast decision-making by enabling review anytime using any device, and allows you to fully embrace the complexity of your modern designs when working with your external supply chain.

Seamless scalability with NX X 

Built upon the same NX architecture and utilizing the same data model, NX X is completely integrated with NX, in addition to other products throughout the Siemens Xcelerator  platform including Zel X, NX CAM, and Simcenter 3D. This eliminates the worry of data being lost or left behind, and removes data transition-specific delays, errors, rework, and scraps from your cross-discipline workflows.  

The Siemens Xcelerator is the only platform that can claim this complete end-to-end, seamless and unified connection. This provides you with the competitive advantage to scale and connect seamlessly throughout your entire product lifecycle from engineering to simulations through to manufacturing.

Who is using NX X?

The response to NX X since launch has been incredible. Interest in utilizing our SaaS deployment of the same trusted NX CAD product makes it clear that there is a need for this type of solution in the market. A few recent examples of NX X customers include Dovetail Electric Aviation and Helixx.  

Dovetail Electric Aviation is a fast-growing company transforming the aviation industry through electrification and sustainability. As a startup pushing the boundaries of innovation, we require capabilities to explore all options to ensure product performance. After reviewing market offerings, NX X has been implemented, providing next generation product engineering capabilities future proofed with value-based licensing, enabling us to replace Dassault’s offerings for the more scalable and flexible Siemens Xcelerator. Together with Siemens we have an exciting future with our new platform built for the future.

David Doral, CEO, Dovetail

Helixx was founded to transform the quality and standard of mobility for citizens in heavily congested cities with globally designed, but locally manufactured mini commercial electric vehicles. 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. Siemens’ NX X provides the full capability of NX via the cloud, enabling us and our partners to access live design and manufacturing data instantly. Building the future of sustainable mobility and transportation is challenging, but with Siemens’ NX X available as a core part of our toolkit, we’re able to meet those challenges head on and build a cleaner future.

Steve Pegg, CEO and co-founder, Helixx

Start your digital transformation with NX X

Focus on developing your products, not running your systems​. The NX X SaaS CAD offering removes overhead costs associated with deploying and maintaining CAD software. Subscription licensing removes the necessity for a large upfront investment. NX X eliminates the challenge of data accessibility and security by storing everything in one centralized secure place location on the cloud.

NX X is the best product engineering solution for designers and engineers looking for a SaaS CAD solution.

  • It reduces the cost of ownership by providing a managed product engineering environment
  • It increases flexibility in accessing design resources
  • It increases data security and collaboration because NX X users can access their data without the use of emails, file sharing or removable disks.
  • It enables fast ramp-up on projects because it is managed by Siemens Cloud Services, making knowledge and best practices for installation available to customers of all sizes

NX X enables CAD users to free their creativity and innovate today. It’s your turn, what will you create?

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This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/nx-design/what-is-nx-x-cad-online-saas/