From the course: Learning Siemens NX

What you're looking at - Siemens NX Tutorial

From the course: Learning Siemens NX

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What you're looking at

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- Now that we are in NX, I wanna talk about the basic general layout and what you're looking at. At the top, you'll notice that we are using NX 12. This is a very important area to pay attention to. Let's you know what version of the software you're using and what application we're in. NX is built off of various applications. These applications provide to you the tools that you're going to use to either build or design, assemble things, draw your curves, create surfaces, basic analyses, measurements, that type of thing, what you want to do with your view, as well as renderings, and additional tools, renderings, and additional tools, spreadsheets, that type of thing. And then we get into our application. So this is where you can see we have our modeling application. There's literally dozens of application that NX uses, so if you want to do manufacturing, additive manufacturing, you'll want to get into additional simulation routing, that type of stuff. All of those are located under the application tools. Here, again, we're talking strictly about the modeling application, and when we first come in, we, by default, went into the modeling application. So that's why it says it's still here. Now as we go down, you'll notice that in our ribbon, we have all of the available tools for the specific modeling application. We come down a little bit further, you'll have a stack of icons. These are used for selecting, how you pick, that type of thing. Coming down a little bit further, you'll notice, in NX 12, we have a little tab that indicates the file that we're working in. We may have two, three, ten, dozens of files open, and they'll be, basically, spread out across the top. As I come over to the side, you'll notice under the menu button, you have your file, your edit, your view, insert. If there's a tool that you're looking for specifically, you may not have it pulled out. You can come in here and go digging around for it and locate that tool and basically use the menus because all of the tools are located in the menus. Come down a little bit further, and these are our navigators. And within the graphics display area, you're gonna notice I have a CSYS. This is, by default, coming in with the model that I have generated, and again, this model will be a template file that your company or that you have set up to have certain, maybe, geometrical elements, certain part attributes as well. So, I'm using the generic model right out of the box. In the lower left hand corner, you have this little triad. This is basically just to help you orient or get your orientation, what you're looking at, which way is true X, which way is true Y and Z. This can't be manipulated as far as moving it away from its orientation, but it's there. You can turn that off; it's a preference. As we go down a little bit further, you're gonna have a very, very important thing to pay attention to: the status and queue lines. The status and queue line, you'll notice if I hover over the top of something, it's going to tell me, "Hey, you're hovering over the top of something," or, "Pick this," or, "You have to perform said function in order to make sure that you have the proper inputs to make sure that you're able to complete said function." Also, one of the basic, most important things, saved it for last, is what's called "Find a Command." This "Find a Command" is probably, of all the CAD tools I've ever used, one of the most handy tools that I've ever come across. You basically type in a command that you want, and if you're coming into NX from a different CAD system, type in that name that you know from the other CAD system. Chances are, you'll be able to find the tool. So, if I type in something like, "round," and hit enter, it's gonna pull up all the various instances where the word round is used. So, you'll notice Edge Blend, Face Blend, Blend Corners, Blend Pockets, and so on. Get very familiar with this command finder. Again, it is, singularly, the easiest tool to use to basically navigate your way around NX.

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