Product design and manufacturing have become increasingly collaborative and distributed as partners and suppliers work in a heterogeneous CAD environment. In addition, mergers and acquisitions also have the potential to bring additional CAD formats into play. The NX multi-CAD capabilities allow you to work with disparate CAD formats in a single NX session. This enables you to access, design, and analyze products in the context of data that has been authored by a heterogeneous suite of applications.
The NX multi-CAD capability utilizes the JT file format to incorporate subassemblies and parts from other CAD systems into the NX design environment. All of the data including original, heterogeneous CAD data and JT data is managed within Teamcenter.
NX can handle product definitions where some or all of the datasets are defined by or include geometry defined by JT datasets. When JT datasets are loaded into NX that represent data authored in a different application, NX presents the data in a manner that is aligned with NX datasets. NX switches between lightweight and precise representations as it would with NX datasets and uses the JT facet information in its native form, including level of detail (LOD) switching in the graphics.
Data loaded from the JT datasets and presented in the NX application can include:
Lightweight facet information, including LODs
Note:
For additional information, see Representations overview.
Precise geometry boundary representation (XT and JT B-Rep)
Wireframe geometry, including points and curve information
Datums, including coordinate systems, planes, and lines
PMI information (imported for display, not editable)
JT datasets can participate seamlessly in NX functions as if they were NX data. This provides an integrated environment for the layout, design, and validation of a product by operating directly on the JT datasets. This capability dovetails into the NX mockup capabilities which seamlessly integrate the use of facet data into the NX design environment.
One key advantage that multi-CAD functionality has over direct translation is that references survive across updated versions of the JT file. In addition, there are advantages of having JT files in Teamcenter:
The files are consistent with Teamcenter Visualization
JT is a standard open format
Provides option for using a lightweight version of the data for collaboration