NX run natively on Mac OS?

[rattler]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if NX is available to run natively on Mac OS yet please? I asked my UK reseller and he didn't know anything about it. Previous threads on this forum from 2007 suggest that it was planned. If so, how does it run in comparison to Windows versions?

Cheers

 

[jerry1423]

I believe that somebody else brought this up in this forum within the last few weeks. Maybe it was buried in a thread that initially discussed something else.

 

[JohnRBaker]

The current status is that we will soon launch an EAP (Early Adopters Program) using NX 6.0.2.8 running on Apple Mac OS X on 64-bit Intel-based hardware. This will be limited to CAD (modeling and drafting) only. This program could start as early as March. Based on the success and feedback from this program, which is not to be confused with beta testing since the goal of an EAP is to validate such things as installation procedures and to assure that the software functions in the same manner as does the Windows and Linux versions of NX 6, the plan is to release a commercial version for the Mac with the NX 6.0.3.x maintenance update, which is currently being anticipated as a mid-year 2009 release.

If any current Siemens PLM Software customer running NX 6 on either Windows or Linux would like to participate in the EAP, please let us know and we will put you in contact with the program manager.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[hudson888]

John,

Is it going to run under an emulator as per Linux or will it be a truly native MAC implementation?

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[JohnRBaker]

It will use a 'motif' emulation since we are treating the Mac OS as if it were a sort of 'Linux'. And before you ask, there are no plans at this time to provide NX with Mac-style GUI.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[CaDooD]

I can't believe this. After waiting all this time for NX on Mac OS it's not even going to be a true Mac application? I had the opportunity to install and run NX5 (or NX4?) on my Mac Pro using the same setup. NX had to run within X11 and it used the Motif Windowing System. It was an absolute clunky kludge. Very very un-Mac like. Why even bother with such a half hearted attempt you call a "port"?

As much as I hate to say it, most people will have a much better user experience, and higher performance running NX6 in Vista 64 running natively on their Macs. No emulation, no shells, no B.S.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Until it can be demonstrated that there is sufficient market opportunity which would justify the expense involved in anything other than a 'Linux' type of GUI for the Mac, this will have to do. It's not so much a technical issue as it is a business decision. After all, I've go Windows users nearly everyday carping over the fact that we 'wasted' money updating all of the icons so that NX would be in more complete compliance with the new Windows preference for blended bitmaps. And since Windows-based NX makes up better than 90% of our worldwide installed base, can you imagine the outcry if we were to spend what would be needed to implement a fully complaint Apple Mac GUI for what, at least for the foreseeable future, will represent only a very small percentage of the installed seats of NX. I'm sorry, but that's just a hard fact of life, period!

And before anyone accuse me of not being sympathetic to your needs, in terms of my personal computer preference I've been a Mac user since 1985 and still do all of my home computing on a Mac (I also have a Mac laptop which I take on vacation with me). Also, back when we were still part of McDonnell Douglas, as far as your 'office PC' was concerned, you could opt for either an IBM PC or a Mac, and I picked Mac. And even after our acquisition by EDS, who had a strict anti-Mac policy, me and one other guy in development hung on to our Mac's until we were finally told that they were being replaced with PC's and that there was nothing we could do about it. So please don't assume that I can't appreciate your situation or your desire for something superior to the status quo, but I have to accept the fact that when you're in business, decisions have to be made based on what's best for the OVERALL business. All we can do for now is to try and make this Mac OS port as good as possible (within the constraints given) and hope that the success of and the subsequent pressure from the Mac using community will force a reevaluation of this situation in the not too distant future.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[CaDooD]

Hello John,

You can count me amongst the "pressure from the Mac using community will force a reevaluation of this situation in the not too distant future. " I will continue to push for the betterment of mankind. =)

I stand by my statement that running NX under X11/Motif will be a far inferior experience to running NX natively within Vista 64 on a Mac. I have run NX under both conditions and can tell you from personal experience. I also know you have run NX under both conditions but being a Siemens employee and self-described "Product Evangelist" you are not free to express your true findings. I knew you were a Mac user when I saw you copped Apple's "Evangelist" job description.

I have been an "End User" of UniGraphics since the McAuto days. You were selling it, I was using it! I worked 20 something years at McDonnell Douglas on Lakewood in Long Beach "C1" . NC programming in Building 2. Right next to McAuto. The first version I remember using was D4.0 this was prior to Unigraphics I. Around 1983.

I also spent plenty of time in Cypress. I worked on the side as a beta tester for EDS around the V15 - V17 time frame.

Anyway, I appreciate your open response and can appreciate the "Business Decision" explanation. I can only counter with this. When a company as large as Seimens makes a business decision to cut every corner/expense on this Mac OS port the outcome is very predictable. No one will use the product for the simple reasons I've expressed above. Then when everyone at Siemens involved in the decision making ($$) part of the port realizes what an utter failure the project was they will say, "See, it's a good thing we only spent the very minimum of money on the port because its clear Mac users really have no want or need for NX". Makes me want to puke. Hate to sound so cynical but I'm from the old school and I've heard it all so many times before.

As a fellow Mac User with your foot in the door at Siemens I sincerely hope you pass some of the feelings in this forum upwards at some of those long, boring, meetings you sit in at.

Yes, I see you on the right. At this same time I was in the building next door USING UniGraphics.

 

[JohnRBaker]

The fact is I had very little to do with acquiring my job title. It was suggested to me by my boss after she had attended a meeting where she met someone who had that exact same job title, and after speaking with him and learning what he did, she decided that this was a better title for me than the one I was using at the time, 'Product Manager', if for no other reason than the fact that I did NOT work in the product management group. However, while I'm aware of Apple's use of this title, as I once attended a presentation given by a former Apple employee who was once the Macintosh 'Evangelist', the irony of all this is that the person who inspired my boss was in fact the Microsoft Windows 'Evangelist' (I said it was ironic).

As for the decision to go with a 'Linux' style GUI, to the best of my knowledge, the primary customer for whom this port was originally done, signed-off on this approach well before the project was fully committed to or funded. And while I'm POSITIVE that they would have preferred a Mac style GUI, since they were planning to migrate from NX on UNIX workstations I suspect that they did not consider a 'Linux' style GUI to be a significant impediment to their successful use of the software, which they have now been running for some time using pre-production versions of Mac-based NX. What we plan on making available with the release of NX 6.0.3.x will be the first 'commercial release', but this does not mean that the software is not already being used in production. After all, if you read my latest 'status report', I did state clearly that this was NOT a beta-test, but rather an Early Adopters Program which will focus on validating the installation procedures and assuring the compatibility with NX running on Windows and Linux, hence the fact that this program is being limited to ONLY EXISTING customers who are already running NX on either Windows or Linux.

As for that picture, I'd have to use the way-back machine to get to where my hair was once again that dark ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[wmalan]

One very big thing to consider when one wants the "mac look" is cross-platform users. When UG was using the older Unix interface and the newer Windows interface on different workstations in the same office at the same time, many of the users would bark rather loud about it. It was of course the long time Unix users who had to get used to the then newer Windows interface. I for one prefer a seamless look on either platform so that if my job takes me across multiple desktops I'm not struggling. My 2@

--
Bill

 

[davidch14]

John,

I was going through this and other UG/NX sites over the last few months or so when I was interviewing for a mechanical engineering position that would have entailed me switching to UG/NX for the first time. I have been using and managing various CAE tools since the early 90s with most of my background with PTC products starting with R14 of Pro/Engineer on various UNIX (sgi, sun, hp/ux) and Windows enviroment (nt, w2k, xp). I also have worked and supported various FEA tools, CFD models, PDM setups, technical writers (framemaker, latex, etc). Most were 10-20 users in commercial space, but one position supported design and system efforts for a very large university's engineering dept with over 3,000 students.

Anyway, after some debate I ended up not taking the UG/NX related position due to some other reasons, but some of your other related Mac OS X postings intriqued me and have routinely checked in to see the progress. I have been mac fan for years, but more so since os x was released. It seems that your initial approach of replacing current running UNIX installations is a very good one. You will be replacing the old systems with relatively inexpensive macs while retaining the value of UNIX not to mention the addition of general purpose mainstream software and much better GUI. However, to really promote the product you may want to consider university intallation where Apple is growing tremoudously and UG/NX is currently weak. A viewer in the spirit of eDrawings for iPhone could be a huge benefit also... I am already seeing a strong demand their.

 

[MarcWeidner]

Hi,

im an German Consultant who is interested in UG on Mac. I still Using it on windows and a make the trainings on windows. i got a mac book and i would prefer to test it is it still out, is it possible to get a beta version.

does anybody know something?

Thx

 

[JohnRBaker]

There is NO formal Beta test program, but we are working with some early adopters and it appears to be going well (one of them has even posted some videos on YouTube). Note that based on the current plan, it should be available to any customer by the end of Summer or early Fall of this year.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[MarcWeidner]

Hi John,

oh ok i have ask Siemens PLM in germany last Fall they told me if there is some customer test programm they will inform me, ok it is sad that they did not do but ok.

Ok then i have to wait until summer/fall

 

[JohnRBaker]

Ask your Siemens PLM contact in Germany to contact me I and will put them in touch with the people running the Early Adopters program and perhaps we can get you added (I think we have at least one customer in Europe already in the program, just that I don't think he's in Germany).

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[MarcWeidner]

Ok i will contact them, maybe it will help

 

[MarcWeidner]

Hi John,

i wrote them but i did not recive any answer. For me it is ok it is like allways *smile*.

 

[JohnRBaker]

From what Siemens PLM office do you get your local support?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.