NX Mailbag: Data Exchange Formats

Today’s NX mailbag topics are focused in the area of Data Exchange:

Q: What data exchange formats does NX support?

A: NX supports a wide variety of data formats for import and/or export.  Some formats include:

• IGES


• STEP 203/214


• JT (an ISO format  http://bit.ly/hGT5WO )


• AutoCAD


• CATIA V4 and V5


• Pro Engineer


• Solid Works


• STL


• Popular display formats such as: BMP, CGM, PNG, PDF, TIFF, etc…


• And of course; Parasolid,Imageware, I-deas, etc…

More information can be found in the Data Translators section of this document: http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/Images/5515_tcm1023-4323.pdf

Q: Does NX have integration with electromechanical design tools such as Mentor, Zuken, etc…?

A: NX has bi-directional data exchange with EDA design systems.NX PCB Exchange has complete support for:

• IDF v2.0, v3.0, and v4.0,  (IDF v3.0 is the most widely supported version in the industry)


• Mentor’s Autotherm (IDF v2.5)


• Zuken’s CR-5000 Protocol

Additional information can be found here: http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/Images/Siemens-PLM-NX-PCBxchange-ECAD-MCAD-Design-Interface-fs_tcm1023-4296.pdf

Q: Can I synchronize between mechanical and electrical data?

A: Yes, NX PCB.xchange features a unique “Compare & Update” collaboration capability that allow you to identify and select changes you want to update from ECAD to NX and auto-creates an HTML report of the ECAD/NX BOM between versions.



Q:Do NX and Teamcenter support data from multiple CAD systems?

A: NX has the ability to work with and modify data from nearly every major CAD system directly, as well as standard based formats.  NX Synchronous Technology allows the user to add intelligence to Multi-CAD data with 3D driving dimensions, constraints and manufacturing feature recognition.

Teamcenter’s multi-CAD support enables design teams to create and modify component designs on any major CAD system, and assemble their innovations into a multi-CAD product design. Teamcenter synchronizes product information to make certain that everyone is working from the latest designs while automatically managing both native and neutral CAD representations.

Additional information can be found here: http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/teamcenter/solutions_by_product/engineering_process_mgmt.shtml

Jerry