Enhancement of Part Module Feature of NX CAD Software for Modular Design Concept

Abstract

Computer-aided design is one of the many tools used by engineers and designers and is used in many ways depending on the profession of the user and the type of software in question. Current computer-aided design software packages range from 2D vector based drafting systems to 3D solid and surface modelers. NX is one such parametric solid / surface feature based package based on Parasolid and is widely used throughout the engineering industry, especially in the automotive and aerospace sectors. In today's world most of the products developed are dependent upon CAD softwares for its design manufacturing and analysis. Thus a CAD software comprises of a very important position in product life cycle. Moreover there is a lot of competition in the market. So if a CAD system wants to survive in the market it needs to be developed and improved continuously without losing the robustness and consistency of the features.

In the last decade, the concept of modularity has caught the attention of engineers, management researchers and corporate strategists in a number of industries. When a product or process is modularized, the elements of its design are split up and assigned to modules according to a formal architecture or plan. Hence NX part module capabilities were designed for work breakup; that is distributed modeling or Modular Design concept. This initiative is taken in order make the Part Modules interaction easier.