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Active Mock Up Feature in UGS NX 5 Integrates Review and Redesign Processes
Beth Stackpole, Contributing Editor -- Design News, April 8, 2007
Improvements to the design functionality and performance around large, multi-CAD assemblies is one of the highlights of NX 5, a major upgrade to UGS Corp.’s high-end CAD system slated for release later this month [APRIL].
NX 5, which UGS is touting as one of its most significant product upgrades, will offer a new Active Mock Up feature, which UGS claims will alter the process of building complex assemblies like those commonly found in aerospace and automotive products. In addition to this major new capability, NX 5 will also showcase improvements in the areas of useability and productivity along with better integration to complementary design functions, including simulation and manufacturing.
In the new version of NX, the mock up and review capabilities are embedded into the design environment, allowing users to review parts and assemblies and make the necessary design changes in a single solution, company officials say. This frees up engineers and design teams from having to maintain separate files for both processes, eliminating the file management overhead associated with having to upkeep disparate design and mock up solutions and cutting back on errors as information is shared between systems.
“Mockup activities have traditionally been a static process—you’ve had to stop the design process to transfer the data around to others on the team,” notes Paul Brown, UGS’ marketing director, Digital Product Development. “Traditionally, CAD systems, NX included, have not been able to bring all of the information together because CAD data has been too heavy.”
With the new NX 5, the Plano, TX-basedUGS has instituted a major architectural change, employing its widely adopted JT Open lightweight data format and introducing new direct modeling capabilities to enable lightweight visualization. Through the use of JT Open, engineers can perform key operations without requiring precise, solid geometry—a process, which serves to boost capacity and performance, while at the same time, reduces memory usage and rendering time, UGS officials claim.
Providing a non-history-based or direct modeling option for making design changes is valuable to manufacturers such as high-tech equipment providers, which need to make lots of modifications to assemblies quickly, notes Mike Burkett, vice president with AMR Research Inc., of Boston. Building in the JT Open format into NX is another good move for engineers doing design reviews with CAD data from multiple sources, Burkett says, although he cautions JT Open is not yet an industry-wide standard so companies really need to assess where they native data comes from to see if Active Mock Up will deliver the accuracy they require in mockup and review sessions.
All in all, though, Burkett says engineers can benefit from the ability to alter the design within a mockup session. “The business benefit is to allow design
iterations during the mock up review stage vs. having to revert back to the native CAD file to tryout a change,” he says. However, Burkett notes that changes in the mock up do not automatically update the native CAD file, requiring engineers to still go back and do this work in the original CAD file at some point in time.
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 NX 5's Active Mock Up feature improves large assembly performance and unites the review and redesign process in a single, integrated solution. |
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