Fixing the NX 7.5 Issue

If you are running NX 7.5 on a MacBook or MacBook Pro and run into a licensing problem and get the same error message Deelip did–”The proper license does not exist. The USG_LICENSE_BUNDLE environment variable is either not set or set incorrectly”–don’t panic.

For NX licensing FLEXnet relies on the use of the hostname to locate the server. If you are running a MacBook on say your home network its hostname may be self-assigned mac1.local. When you move it to say a company network (eg: apple.com) the host name for the MacBook will change to mac1.apple.com, thereby confusing the FLEXnet software.

Deelip’s fix is to install the license server on a workstation or server that has a stable domain. Apparently it is recommended that a central license server be used for all client domains. The second fix option is to use the local IP address (127.0.0.1) for the hostname.

You can read more details on this NX Mac issue fix here.

FEN of Australia has a news blurb on Siemens’ NX PLM software running on Mac. This isn’t really big news the way FEN states it as Architosh has covered the Siemens PLM story on Mac for quite some time in much detail. In any case, there is a nice little graphic showing it running on a Mac Pro. The latest version NX 6 for Mac OS X has been out since last summer. NX 7 is the very latest release. We have put in a call to ascertain the latest Mac-related news from Siemens PLM.

Cheetah true 64-bit App

Martin Wengenmayer has announced that Cheetah 3D 5.3 is now a true 64-bit application and there are also new video tutorials. “Cheetah 3D 5.3 was released today,” read their announcement. On Intel Macs Cheetah 3D 5.3 runs as a true 64-bit application utilizing all the memory installed on your Mac.

This is indeed an important milestone for the application as the additional capacity to support 64-bit Macs adds tremendous capability. To deal with complex scenes the Cheetah 3D raytracing core has been accelerated considerably, and AltiVec/SSE optimized.

Also new in version 5.3: a newly rewritten Render Manager with thumbnail preview of older render jobs. And lastly there are new video tutorials produced by Andrew Heyworth. To learn more visit the Cheetah 3D site.

“An issue with many folks,” said Flaherty, “is they don’t have two or three days to devote to travel and an all-day conference event.” “With this event we are able to reach far more key people and that in turn gets us greater high-level feedback.”

Raising the Technology Bar

Key feedback is more important than ever for this company as Nemetschek North America has developed specialized internal teams devoted to performance and stability. Vectorworks itself has been in a state of some fundamental re-engineering since the integration of the Parasolid modeling kernel technology that was introduced in version 2009. 

In this version Vectorworks 2010 introduces further technology that comes from its partnership with Siemens PLM Software in the form of parametric technology that generates the DCM (dimensional constraint management) system. Architosh will be looking at the DCM in a more detailed report coming up. 

This version also has nearly all of the program’s modeling technology based on the Parasolid modeling kernel. 

A Sophisticated Platform for BIM

Sean Flaherty, CEO, has expressed that the company has been devoting quite a bit of resources towards these re-engineering efforts. The company is not without some creative ideas for how to make BIM work better, but they need the foundation of the program to be right for the features they are thinking about. 

“This re-engineering is important,” said Flaherty, “because we want to make sure we don’t build features on top of an unsophisticated platform.” “Parasolid gives us the most capable platform in the industry to build great features on.”

“We see ourselves as the makers of a design-centric BIM (building information modeling) product.” Flaherty noted. “We want our customers to be able to represent any imaginable geometry they can think of.”

In addition to the Parasolid kernel work that has been going on behind the scenes of the software, opening up and exposing new capabilities within the program, there are several interesting new features that Nemetschek North America have implemented that offer architects the design freedom and flexibility they need. 

Key New Features

One such key feature that is modeling oriented is the new methods for “wall sculpting” introduced in version 2010. You can now add or subtract forms from intelligent walls and these new formal changes become one with the behavior of the wall. Good examples include piers and architectural protrusions or subtractions. 

01 - New wall sculpting capabilities in Vectorworks 2010.

Another key feature that touches on 3D is the new Planar Graphics capability. Vectorworks 2010 makes it easy to integrate your 3D BIM model–or modeling in general–with 2D graphics. This creates a rich opportunity for new presentation methods. 

Looking at the Product Line and the Future

As a BIM product aiming its guns at the top BIM competitors in the world, we wondered if there were any plans for MEP and Structural solutions under the Vectorworks brand name. It turns out there aren’t any. 

“We are not moving to analysis of structures,” said Sean Flaherty, CEO, “because we see this as part of the solutions available within the BIM community.” “What we want to focus on is making sure we have great interoperability.”

IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) and excellent file interoperability are more key to the Vectorworks 2010 product line. “Vectorworks as a BIM solution is more focused on architectural needs,” said Flaherty. “And we have a lot of structural engineers as customers, but they use Vectorworks in tandem with dedicated analysis programs.”

The company’s industry product line-up is not changing any time soon, said Flaherty. Nemetschek’s strong markets center around architecture, landscape design and entertainment and lighting, which is served by Spotlight. 

Interestingly, Flaherty noted that while the global economy has hurt AEC markets hard worldwide, thereby affecting AEC CAD software makers, the entertainment industry has not followed the same trend. “Our Vectorworks Spotlight” product has actually seen growth this past year.” said Flaherty. “Clearly the world still needs its entertainment.”

To learn more about Vectorworks visit them here.

This has meant that the demand for more native Mac software has also grown several fold and that there is now very strong and growing demand for engineering and CAD software on the platform, complimenting the already existent and strong penetration of native design software for Apple’s easy-to-use UNIX-based system.

Within this context we have seen German industrial giant Siemens and its PLM software division fully commit resources to, and produce, a shipping version of its market-leading PLM software NX 6 for Mac OS X. In this interview Architosh talks to Paul Brown, senior director of NX Marketing for Siemens PLM Software and Jim Phelan, Director of PLM Media Relations. We start this discussion with a description of what constitutes NX 6 for the Mac.

The Interview

Anthony Frausto-Robledo (AFR): Paul thanks for taking the time to speak to me this morning. Let’s start from the beginning. What encompasses the NX 6 version for the Mac?

Paul Brown (PB): Sure. NX 6 for Mac includes all the core CAD/CAM technology found in the other platform versions, this means all the modeling and drafting functionality and all the assembly and collaboration tools…and of course the Synchronous Technology that has been much praised by the industry.

Jim Phelan (JP): Anthony are you familiar with our Synchronous Technology in NX?

AFR: Yes, I’ve written about it and have a general understanding. I understand it is a way to mix both parametric, history-based modeling functionality with aspects of explicit modeling. Is that correct?

PB: Yes, more or less.

AFR: I’d like to talk about that in more detail in a second. So the Mac version is more or less identical to the other platforms for NX?

PB: Almost. The Mac version doesn’t have the CAE (computer-aided engineering) items, the finite element analysis and engineering tools.

AF: Is that because the demand isn’t there for the most part or a porting issue?

PB: The demand. The analysis types are interested in other platforms like Linux for instance, where they can batch off big stuff to cost-effective Linux clusters where they can focus on pure performance while doing their engineering analyses.

AFR: So the demand was really there only on the “product design” side, is that correct?

PB: NX has a history of serving multiple platforms and so it made sense for us to add the Mac. There is growing interest among our customers with the Mac, especially on the front-end design side. And we are already seeing interest in the Macs being utilized for engineering workstations. In fact, last week we heard news of the first new large commercial deployment on the Mac. We found that delightful because it expands our base.

01 - Siemens PLM's NX 6 Mac shown here running on one of Apple's latest laptops.

AFR: Right, I assume besides making your existing customers happy a big point of the Mac version is to expand your base and increase revenue?

PB: That is right. We don’t make any more money when our customers simply move to other hardware.

AFR: And speaking of revenue, what does a single NX license cost?

PB: Ranges start around 7,500.USD per seat. Things go up from there based on adding modules. Costs vary with modules and deployment size (number of seats).

AF: And what are some of the modules that can be added to the Mac version of NX?

PB: Nearly all the modules can be added except for the CAE (computer-aided engineering) modules. Some of the modules include the PTS, which is the Product Template Studio, CheckMate, and various other modules that add things like mark-up, etc cetera.

AFR: Do people use NX for industrial design or do they use other tools like AliasStudio and solidThinking and then bring that data into NX for final work?

PB: It depends on the end state of design. For some industrial designers the end state is a pretty rendered picture that comes out of their workflow and design tool. If that is the case, that is best served in another package. We are stronger when the end state is moving that industrial designed object straight into mechanical design and engineering. In this way ID (industrial design) and Mechanical engineering can be tied in much closer.

AFR: What percentage of pure industrial design happens inside NX?

PB: Quite a lot. We have many larger customers who do all their industrial design exclusively within NX. NX has all the tools they need and they can do the beautiful renderings as well.

AF: I know for instance that SolidWorks licensed Luxology’s modo technology to add powerful state-of-the-art rendering and animation technology into the SolidWorks workflow. How do you accomplish your photo-realistic rendering technology?

PB: We have a partner in LightWork Design and use their LightWorks rendering engine.

AFR: I have noticed that even in this latest version of NX 6 for Mac you are using a standard X11 interface on Mac OS X. Why are you not using a native Aqua Mac OS X UI?

PB: This is certainly not a true Cocoa app and we don’t use the native user interface technology because doing so would have amounted to a massive reworking of the code.

Jim Phelan (JP): Plus, we have to factor in our product in larger heterogenous environments and our customers don’t want to have different UI’s across a range of platforms. So we use the common user interface for all platforms.

AFR: So this means even Windows gets the common interface?

PB: Yes. We have lots of large customers and in large heterogeneous environements it is important for the IT staff supporting NX to be able to know and work with one common user interface.

AFR: And TeamCenter utilizes the Apple Safari web browser, correct?

PB: Yes, not all of TeamCenter runs on the Mac but most of it.

AFR: You mentioned large customers several times. Can you tell me if you have any large customers who are utilizing the Mac version of NX 6 and can you mention any names?

We’ve been saying that at Architosh for ten years Ken!

Next Generation Want CAD on Mac

But as I have been expressing privately to many of the CAD industry leaders who are already on the Mac for years now, it is the next-generation of young designers who will be putting the pressure on the switch over to the Mac platform. So I was pleased to read this quote in full here. Marc Chapin posted this at Desktop Engineering:

“The next generation of design students who are growing up with the Mac now will be looking for trusted CAD solutions for that platform, regardless of the aging CAD population who use Windows/Linux. The first big CAD provider who jumps onto the Mac platform, regardless of the huge expense, will reap the rewards of being the first to enter that market and will receive the greatest financial payback.”

Marc then writes…

“I am a young industrial designer (5 years experience) and use SolidWorks on Windows XP 64 and am considering NX 6 on a new Mac. I think that if any one of the mid range priced CAD modelers like SolidWorks, ProE, SolidEdge, or Inventor were to port to the Mac platform, they would instantly reap financial rewards from people like me. Just my 2 cents.” 

NX 6 on Mac Articles and Video

While Architosh just recently posted a story on the official release of NX on Mac, there are three separate but related stories and blog posts coming from the main press that covers highend (and PC-only) CAD. 

Kenneth Wong’s article from Desktop Engineering contains the user-feedback quotes we noted above, and the new MacDesign blog by Develop3D magazine online also covers this new story (and with some different graphics) and an interview, and finally there is the SolidSmack post. You can check out some YouTube videos of NX 6 on Mac above and below.

The full computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) functionality of NX, Siemens PLM Software’s flagship digital product development application, now includes the Mac in its list of supported operating environments. 

01 - Siemens' NX software is a full native 64-bit Mac OS X application. It requires an Intel-based Mac (ie: it is not Universal Binary and thus does not run on PowerPC-based Macs).

“We are delighted to add the Mac to the comprehensive list of operating environments supported by our NX CAD/CAM applications,” said Joan Hirsch, vice president of Product Design Solutions, Siemens PLM Software. “Today’s announcement further expands the flexibility of NX and provides customers with the freedom to choose from one of industry’s broadest range of supported operating systems.”

Siemen’s PLM Software’s NX (a descendent of Unigraphics) is used by leading companies around the globe to design and manufacture some of the world’s most innovative and sophisticated products. Its wide adoption throughout the global manufacturing industry is due in part to its ability to support a wide range of operating environments–including Windows, UNIX, and Linux–in a heterogeneous or single operating system deployment. Now Apple’s popular Mac OS X environment–which is UNIX based and has tripled in installed based in the past two years–rounds out NX’s deployment options. 

“NX has been our exclusive CAD/CAM software for several years because of its unmatched ability to handle all of our product design and manufacturing needs,” said Marcel Eggimann of Eggimann Design. “At the same time, we have always preferred the Mac as the system of choice for the work we do. Now we can have the best of both worlds as these two great technologies come together. We have been using NX on Mac OS X for three months now and we are very impressed with its performance and reliability.”

The Mac OS X version of NX includes all of the software’s robust CAD and CAM functionality, as well as support for Siemens PLM Software’s Teamcenter platform through rich client capabilities embedded in NX and the thin client based on Apple’s Safari web browser. As a result, NX for Mac OS X can leverage all the capabilities of Teamcenter, the world’s most widely used PLM portfolio, including its ability to support a multi-platform CAD strategy.

“It’s pretty clear that more and more people are demanding that their primary software tools are available on their operating system of choice,” said Al Dean, Editor in Chief, DEVELOP3D.com. “Siemens PLM Software’s move with NX to Mac OS X should see them gain a foothold in a growing community.”

To learn more about NX for the Mac please visit this website: www.siements.com.plm

Parasolid version 21

The new modeling kernel software has recently made news in the Mac computing landscape by being incorporated as the new kernel technology in Nemetschek North America’s globally popular Vectworks 2009 CAD product line, as well as powering the next version of Siemen PLM Software’s NX 6 for Mac.

Siemens PLM Software's Parasolid v21 - leading industrial strength geometry modeling (kernel) component software now powers key CAD and PLM products on the Macintosh (Mac OS X) platform.

Version 21 of Parasolid includes many enhancements to 3D modeling technology capabilities, which will drive enhancements to the more than 350 leading end-user CAD, CAM, CAID, PLM and BIM licensees powering their software solutions with Parasolid. Key areas of improvement include:

• Local operations – Several enhancements have been made to allow significantly more complex changes while performing local edits of geometry. For example, options have been added to automatically indicate desired behavior when features such as holes and bosses interact as the result of a local editing operation.
• Enhanced surface creation – Sophisticated sheet and surface creation and manipulation capabilities have been extended. For example, users can perform sweep operations with enhanced control of rotation as well as with more complex configurations of guide curves. In addition, users can perform loft operations between profiles while twisting along a path.
• Application support – A new diagnostic mechanism has been added and the tools that help application developers track the creation, editing and deletion of entities have been further developed to provide more support for sophisticated undo and rollback algorithms.

For general information on Parasolid, visit this page: http://www.siemens.com/plm.

Now Testing NX 6 for Mac

According to the PLM World e-Newsletter, Siemens is please to announce that customer tests are about to begin for NX 6 on Mac OS X. For the first time, Mac users will be able to take advantage of the world’s most advanced, full-featured PLM (product-life-cycle management) and MCAD product. The newsletter reports: “The Mac has long set the standard for design and innovation in the personal computer market, making it the perfect fit for NX and Teamcenter.” 

NX 6 for Mac will be fully demonstrated at PLM World conference in June of this year, and is scheduled to be released soon after that. 

Synchronous Technology

NX 6 for Mac will include all the same technology as NX 6 on Linux and Windows, including Siemens PLM Software’s leading-edge Synchronous Technology, which combines the best in “history-based” and “explicit modeling” (history-free) to allow even inexperienced users to modify 3D models directly without needing to know how the models were created. 

NX 6 also features a state-of-the-art user interface which is completely customizable. A knowledge-based design tool, NX 6 allows users to capture, manage, and share and apply company knowledge throughout the enterprise organization. 

NX 6 on Mac – Requirements

NX 6 for Mac will run only on current 64-bit Intel-based Mac systems running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later) and it supports all graphic subsets. It will include CAD, CAM, Assemblies and Drafting. Siemens PLM has many customers already signed up to test NX 6 for Mac OS X. Interested NX customers can contact Tom Spangler at tom.spangler@siemens.com

To read our previous NX 6 release for Windows and Linux go here.

The Interview

AFR: Dr. Sarkar, can you tell me how you went about making the decision on Parasolid, when did this take place?

BS: Back when I joined the company coming from PTC (Parametric Technology Corporation) my focus was on making Vectorworks strong in modeling. At that time we adopted geometric modeling kernel technology from SMLib. In 2002 Gary Crocker, a co-founder of SMLib, broke off from that group and formed IntegrityWare taking his solid modeling libraries with him. We continued to utilize these libraries until our decision a few years ago to look for a better modeling kernel technology.

AFR: So you were using both SMLib and Solids++?

BS: The technology stayed the same, just the companies changed.

AFR: Tell me how you and Sean Flaherty approached your superiors in Munich about the idea of adopting Parasolid. I’m assuming you needed some approval given the cost considerations, right?

BS: Yes…(laughs). Sean and myself went to Munich and broached the subject with the CEO who at that time was a real technology driven person. We didn’t go ask straight out, we brought it up. It turned out they were very interested with this idea.

AFR: So they said go for it….

BS: Absolutely. They are also interested with addressing the same issues we were having in Vectorworks with ALLPLAN.

AFR: So nearly two and a half years ago you did this. Who else was on your short-list…did you look at Spatial’s ACIS?

BS: We looked at ACIS but in the end we believed Parasolid was the better choice. Everyone uses it, it’s even used in ProE and CATIA.

AFR: Wait a minute, doesn’t ProE and CATIA use in-house kernels?

In addition, Parasolid V19.1 is the first release to support Apple’s 64-bit Mac OS X Leopard (operating system), leveraging the power of 64-bit technology to increase the productivity of the creative process.

Siemens began supporting Apple’s Leopard OS at NX version 5, as reported exclusively here on Architosh.

“As the developer and supplier of the world’s leading and most respected 3D component modeling software, we feel an obligation to our customers to continue to set the standards for quality and functionality in the industry,” said Bruce Feldt, vice president, Open Tools for Siemens PLM Software.” Parasolid V19.1 continues to push forward the capabilities of solid modeling in order to support applications that enable engineers and designers to express their design intent and creativity through intuitive processes.”

Four Key Innovations in NX 6

• Flexibility – NX 6 provides newfound design freedom with synchronous technology that leverages the ease of direct editing in the model creation process.
• Strength – NX 6 handles extremely complex problems via CAD/CAM/CAE.
• Coordination – NX 6 improves process collaboration, leads to 20 percent faster cycle times through process efficiency
• Productivity – NX 6 provides engineers and designers improvements in productivity leading to 40 percent faster cycle times: leverage multi-CAD data within your design, analysis and manufacturing processes

“NX 6 delivers on the breakthrough in design productivity we announced last month,” said Joan Hirsch, vice president of NX product development, Siemens PLM Software. “We’ve integrated synchronous technology into the NX comprehensive toolset, delivering major enhancements to design, simulation and manufacturing. This release enhances our strong momentum and the market share growth NX is experiencing.”

NX 6 is based on the latest Siemens Parasolid version 19.1, proving full 64-bit support for Mac OS X Leopard.

Four Key Innovations in NX 6

• Flexibility – NX 6 provides newfound design freedom with synchronous technology that leverages the ease of direct editing in the model creation process.
• Strength – NX 6 handles extremely complex problems via CAD/CAM/CAE.
• Coordination – NX 6 improves process collaboration, leads to 20 percent faster cycle times through process efficiency
• Productivity – NX 6 provides engineers and designers improvements in productivity leading to 40 percent faster cycle times: leverage multi-CAD data within your design, analysis and manufacturing processes

Asked if an OS X version exist under wraps and if they plan to release one later this year Fielder Hiss said emphatically, “No.” “The majority of our SolidWorks customers are not interested in a Mac OS X version,” said Hiss, “only a small minority of our users are asking about that.”

Hiss told Architosh that his company is interested primarily in listening to its customers and meeting their requirements and interests. At this time Mac OS X, as a platform, is not a major enough concern. “We don’t have a UNIX past,” said Hiss, “we are the Windows mainstream CAD company.” Hiss noted that despite what rumors people hear, the SolidWorks Corporation isn’t even competing for the most part with highend MCAD playser UGS, which recently shipped a native OS X version of NX 5. “We focus on getting mainstream CAD users to adopt a 3D product like our SolidWorks,” said Hiss.

Asked if UGS and its new OS X Leopard version of Unigraphics NX 5 was on the company’s radar, Hiss responded: “We watch the whole market and evaluate things regularly, but honestly, they are in markets like aerospace where we are more a mainstream CAD company.”