The same NX CAM, with the IT handled by Siemens

NX X Manufacturing is NX CAM delivered as a service. It is the same NX product, the same user experience and the same .prt file as NX on premise. The difference is who looks after the plumbing: software distribution, licensing, configuration and updates are managed by Siemens, and a new release with new functionality arrives every six months.

The software installs and runs on your own workstations, so your part data stays on your side and only the licensing lives in the cloud. If you prefer, an optional Remote Extension streams NX from the cloud instead. Every seat is a named user, and every seat includes cloud collaboration through Teamcenter Share.

1. Standard: prepare and program prismatic parts

The Standard tier is built for milled and turned parts with flat faces and holes. On the modelling side it includes solid and basic freeform modelling, assembly modelling and synchronous technology, so a programmer can fix a missing fillet or add a fixture without going back to the design office.

The CAM foundation covers postprocessing with the Post Configurator, toolpath animation, gouge checking and shop documentation. Machining operations include holemaking, turning and 2.5-axis milling.

For a workshop that mostly runs plates, brackets, housings and shafts, this tier covers the daily programming load, and the same file opens in the higher tiers when a job needs more.

2. Advanced and Premium: freeform and complex parts

Advanced takes everything in Standard and adds 3-axis milling and advanced freeform modelling, which is what mould, die and cast parts need. Premium adds rotary machining, tube milling and 5-axis milling for impellers, blisks, aerospace structures and medical parts.

Because the tiers share one core, the choice is per named user rather than per company. A shop can put its 2.5-axis programmers on Standard and its 5-axis specialists on Premium, and they all work on the same setups, tool libraries and post-processors. When a programmer moves up a tier, nothing has to be converted or reinstalled.

3. The token pool for specialist modules

On top of the tiers, NX X Manufacturing value-based licensing gives floating access to more than twenty add-on modules from a shared pool of tokens. The modules include feature-based machining, machine tool simulation, turbomachinery milling, robotics programming and robot post-processors, work instructions authoring, the smart machine kits and the post hub.

A module takes tokens while it is running and returns them when it closes. One subscription opens the whole set, and new modules added in each release are available immediately to anyone with tokens. That is how a shop tries a new process on a single job, robotic deburring for example, without committing to a licence for it.

4. One data model across design, simulation and manufacturing

NX X Manufacturing is built on the NX architecture, so CAD, CAM, Simcenter 3D and Zel X share one data model with zero translation. Data created in the 1980s opens and edits as if it was made yesterday.

Manufacturers on NX CAM report what that continuity does for them. ASM Pacific Technology improved production efficiency and part quality by 70 percent. JP Pattern says the question used to be whether they could make what they designed, and that NX CAD/CAM now makes sure they can. W.A. Pfeiffer, a contract manufacturer, says adopting the latest technology secured its future while others in its region struggled.

5. Collaboration and learning built in

Every seat includes Teamcenter Share for ad hoc collaboration: sharing setups and documentation with a customer or a supplier, keeping everyone on the same revision and making decisions quickly. If you already run another data management system, NX X Manufacturing is open and works with it.

The named-user model gives each programmer a personalised environment and gives the company clear accountability for who did what. Updates and installs are automated. Learning resources are built in: the NX Discovery Center inside the product, Siemens Xcelerator Academy for self-paced online courses, and the NX manufacturing blogs and tips.

How to get it

NX X Manufacturing is sold as named-user subscription seats in Standard, Advanced and Premium, with the token pool and the Remote Extension for streaming as optional add-ons. Existing NX CAM users keep their files, their post-processors and their way of working; only the delivery changes.

Alongside Siemens Xcelerator Academy for self-paced learning, NomuTech runs instructor-led NX CAM training online or in person anywhere in the Middle East, on your own parts and machines.

NomuTech supplies, implements and trains on NX CAM across the Middle East. If you want to work out which tier your programmers need, talk to us.