OK, what's happened with NX 4 is that we've introduced this new concept called "Roles". When running NX 4 out-of-the-box, the default role does not show what's referred to as "Full Menus". The rational for this is that NX is a complex high-end CAX system with a large number of tools and applications which very few people utilize all of at once, so rather than showing ALL of these items ALL of the time, we decided to produce various "Roles" which capture and present a more focused offering of functions and applications.
You may have noticed a series of these "Roles", both what we call "System Defaults" (one of these is probably what you're currently using) and "Industry Specific". The first set was intended as a generic presentation offering both an "Essential" role and an "Advanced" role. The second set of "Roles" focus more on certain common engineering disciplines, such as Powertrain design or Consumers Products or Machinery, to mention a few (note that over time we will try to introduce additional roles as we identify them). Each of these "Roles" provides a pre-defined User Interface layout of toolbars, icons and pull-down menus. Now when it comes to the issue of "pull-down menus", we offer 2 variations of each of these "Roles", one with a reduced or simplified set of pull-down menu options or one with a "Full Menus" option. I suspect that you have chosen one from the first group. Just go to the "Roles" tab on the Resource Bar (the one with the "cartoon" image of a couple of people) and chosing from either the "System Defaults" or the "Industry Specific" categories, select the appropriate "Role", but make sure you select one with the "Full Menus".
Now these "Roles" are only intended as a starting point and we expect and encourage you to customize them to meet either your personal or business environment needs. The big difference with NX 4 is that in the past we only provided a single "starting point" from which EVERYONE was expected to start from, only now we are prodividing several different places to start from, hopefully providing something that closer meets your immediate needs so that you can be more productive sooner, and be in a position to having to do less customization to get to your final state where the system presents, from YOUR point of view, the most optimal functional presentation.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product "Evangelist"
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
Phone: 714-952-6032
FAX: 714-952-5758
John.R.Baker@ugs.com
