For years people have been asking for a way to create a series of point in UG/NX from data in a text file. Granted, we could create both curves and surfaces using point data in a text file, but that still left out people who wanted just to create the points as NX objects and then use them for whatever.
So we added the ability to create named groups of points from many different data file formats, many more formats than was supported by the older Spline and Surface Through Points function. In that same release, based on the fact that people had been asking for new and better ways to 'Fit' Curves (and NOT just Splines) and Surface (and NOT just B-Surfaces) through sets of points. So we decided to create TWO project (three actually when you include 'Fit Surface) to cover all of those requests. First, we would provide a general purpose 'Import -> Points From File...' function which solved the first request. And to take advantage of this new capability to easily import points from many different sources via text data files, we decided to create a new 'Fit Curve' and 'Fit Surface' function that would take as input groups of points. True, you now have to perform TWO steps in your workflow from point data to curve (or surface), but we've gained the ability to just import points alone, something that people had been depending on GRIP and NX Open programs for years to do. Once it was decided to have a general purpose 'import point data' function, it was felt that there was no need to DUPLICATE the code by adding redundant functionality to the Fit Curve and Fit Surface functions. And we're not going to apologize for doing that easier since in the end it make much more sense to handle these two very different tasks with separate tools.
As for why have we indicated that the 'Spline' function will, at some point in the future, be retired permanently, well lets just say that 'you've been warned' and leave it at that. Personally, I think we should be even MORE aggressive in 'retiring' obsolete functionality, just that I know that we hardly ever do, and it's often because of people refusing to use the newer and more capable functions added to NX, just because of something like having to have a couple of extra mouse picks or because they wish to avoid performing totally logical tasks, but which they felt was an additional and undesirable operation, as part of a very reasonable and easy to understand workflow.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.