Engineering Graphics w/ I-DEAS by NX - CAD Software

[jcsolis]

Last semester I took an Engineering Graphics course and the software we used was the I-DEAS by NX..


Somebody has ever used this software and do you know what company use this software??

 

[FredGarvin]

The only company I know that used to use it was Ford. When I was there it was the main target of many CAD jockey's scorn.

 

[AlephZero]

Here's some history: http://www.cadinfo.net/editorial/sdrc.htm

SDRC also produced software for analysing experimental dynamics data (extracting modal parameters from dynamics tests, etc) that was linked into I-DEAS. We used to use the dynamics testing software, but not the CAD part.

It never really moved forwards from the 1980s though, and it got overtaken by new kids on the block.

 

[mgb_phys]

It's often policy to teach techniques on a system or programming language that isn't used in the real world. The idea is that you start on a level ground whatever you rprevious experience and you can apply what you learned to any system you eventually use.
Of course it also means the school doesn't have to upgrade and the teachers don't have to learn a new system ;-)

 

[Andronicus1717]

I-DEAS is pure evil. The most common program families I've seen in industry are Pro-E, AutoCAD, Solidworks and Catia.

 

[Brammy]

Far from evil... I-deas is (was) an extremely power CAD program that was far ahead of its time. What is "evil" is what UGS did do the I-Deas product when they introduced their insanely incompetent "NX" product... (last version I used was 5).

I-deas has to be seen in 3 stages... 1) prior to "Master Series" - when it really was very difficult to learn due to lack of visual iccons, 2) release of "Master Series" - when SDRC released the product before it was ready/functional ... and was sued because of that and sustained serious black eye, and 3) when Master Series finally matured (release 1-2's modeler didn't work, 3 was a breakthrough, 6 really got on track etc). By the time Siemans and UGS got their evil clutches into it, I-deas was an absolutely marvelous mechanical design drafting and analysis product.

Anyone familiar with CAD boolean operations would have to give I-deas a whole lot of credit. The current linear design format of (for instance) Inventor is simply childs play compared to the power of I-Deas.

All UGS wanted from I-Deas was their Team Data Manager. They threw out all the design features and THAT, my friends, was TRULY criminal.