HISTORY OF UNIGRAPHICS

NX, also known as NX Unigraphics or usually just U-G, is an advanced CAD/CAM/CAE software package developed by Siemens PLM Software.

NX is one of the world’s most advanced and tightly integrated CAD/CAM/CAE product development solutions. Spanning the entire range of product development, NX delivers immense value to enterprises of all sizes. It simplifies complex product designs, thus speeding up the process of introducing products to the market.

The NX software integrates knowledge-based principles, industrial design, geometric modeling,advanced analysis, graphic simulation, and concurrent engineering. The software has powerful hybrid modeling capabilities by integrating constraint-based feature modeling and explicit geometric modeling. In addition to modeling standard geometry parts, it allows the user to design

complex free-form shapes such as airfoils and manifolds. It also merges solid and surface modeling techniques into one powerful tool set.

• It is used, among other tasks, for:
• Design (parametric and direct solid/surface modelling)
• Engineering analysis (static, dynamic, electro-magnetic, thermal, using the Finite Element Method, and fluid using the finite volume method).
• Manufacturing finished design by using included machining modules.

NX is a direct competitor to Creo Elements/Pro, CATIA, SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor.

HISTORY:

1969: UNIAPT was released by a software company then called United Computing, UNIAPT was one of the world's first end-user CAM products.

1973: The company purchased the Automated Drafting and Machining (ADAM) software code from MGS in 1973. The code became a foundation for a product called UNI-GRAPHICS, later sold commercially as Unigraphics in 1975.

1976 McDonnell Douglas Aircraft buys Unigraphics.

1981: Unigraphics was released, marking the group's first true 3D modeling hardware and software offering.[5]

1991: During a period of financial difficulties McDonnell Douglas sells Unigraphics to EDS which at that time is owned by General Motors.Unigraphics becomes GM's corporate CAD system.

1992: Over 21,000 seats of Unigraphics are being used worldwide.

1996: Unigraphics V11.0 is released. Added Industrial Design and Modeling enhancements including Bridge Surface, Curvature Analysis for Curve and Surfaces, Face Blends, Variable Offset Surface, etc. In the area of Assembly Modeling the new capabilities included Component Filters, Faceted Representations, Clearance Analysis between multiple Components, etc. Also this release included a fully integrated Spreadsheet linked to Feature-Based Modeling.

2002 First release of the new "Next Generation" version of Unigraphics and I-deas, called NX. This will eventually bring the functionality and capabilities of both Unigraphics and I-DEAS together into a single consolidated product.

2007 Introduction of Synchronous Technology in NX 5.

A complete history exists on the Unigraphics Virtual Museum.

NX 7.5 is the current release.