Top 12 Features in NX 12

The NX 12 release brings you more than 350 enhancements and new key capabilities to help you unleash your innovation by pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in product design. If you missed our announcement post, you should go back and read that first for an overview of what next generation design with NX is all about.

Whether you have been using NX since it was called Unigraphics or you are new to using this CAD solution, if you’re the type of person who gets excited over faster assembly load times or new ways to annotate your models, this post is for you! We’ve rounded up a list of the top features in NX 12 to get you excited for our best release ever!

This list is based on user feedback, what really got people excited during beta testing, as well as the opinions of the NX marketing, development and product management teams. We’re all very proud of what was accomplished in this release, and we hope you’ll love using NX 12 as much as we do! Note: This list is in no particular order Smiley Happy

1. Multiple Display Parts – Who doesn’t use multiple monitors these days? The new tab based layout for multiple windows takes advantage of the screen space offered by dual monitors, making it fast and easy to switch between parts and applications. You can compare parts and even perform a change impact analysis. MDP is a fan favorite for longtime NX users, and surely will get widespread use regardless of your expertise in CAD!2. Improved assembly load performance – NX 12 delivers a major improvement in assembly performance. Extensive updates to the way assemblies are handled mean that they load faster than ever before and use less memory.  Not only does this save time, it makes it easier to work with large assemblies, and the smaller memory footprint means that you can load larger models than ever before.  In addition, your assembly geometry is displayed during the load process to give you a better idea of what you are working with

3. Lattice structures – In the constant drive for companies to stay competitive, lightweighting parts has become an essential part of product design for many. It’s easier than ever to design lightweight structures with the Lattice command in NX 12. You can fill a volume with lattices that are represented as facets, which not only reduces material use and costs associated with manufacturing, but also retains the structural integrity of the original design.

4. Animation Designer – With this new fully integrated tool introduced in NX 12, you can animate almost any type of geometry, from sketches to part or assembly bodies, even imported data. It’s easy to use: Simply define what can and cannot move; identify joints, couplers, and motors; arrange the movements in a timeline structure, and press play! Automatic collision detection helps you identify any kinematic issues without the need to build costly prototypes. You can find and repair issues in one environment then run the animation again, which makes it possible to perform multiple design iterations quickly, leading to higher quality products.