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PC-DMIS vs. NX for programming offline

TheBradish
Hey, all! I have been reading this forum a lot this year, and this is my first post. Thanks for all the help so far!!!

So far my shop has no offline programming capability, and I am trying to make a presentation to the boss to show a need for it and explore our options. At this point I am very comfortable programming with PC-DMIS (using v4.2) and would be very happy to upgrade to the latest version with an offline seat.

Our engineering department, however, uses Siemens NX, and they are pushing to use their software for creating CMM programs. From what I understand, the two big selling points are:

  1. a button which automatically generates an inspection program checking all selected features - which they claim will be 80% to 90% complete
  2. the ability to utilize Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) - i.e. datum definitions, tolerances, etc. - which are built into the model. This is supposed to save time with entering the information manually, but also offers revision control: when the model is revised, the inspection program is revised automatically.


My question for the forum: Has anybody had experience using NX software to write a program, or used programs written by NX? Is it as fast/easy/wonderful as they say it is? Do later versions of PC-DMIS support the use of PMI? Any input would be immensely helpful.
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  • Find a fairly typical but reasonably complex part and get a demo.

    In my (admitedly limited experience) these things never work that well.

    This is my advice as well. I had demos from two vendors before buying PCDmis. Neither could get it to work on the demo with one of our more complex parts.

    This leaves you with a bunch of code to read through and debug. So as far as training,

    Who is trained to read pure DMIS?
    Who is going to read through DMIS code to determine what the machine is supposed to be doing versus what it is doing and correct if needed?
    How many bugs will exist after automatic dump of code?
    How long does it take to go through the code? I always find it harder to read another persons code (whether PCDmis, visual basic, BASIC, C+, whatever) than debug my own. I wrote it, I know what I was thinking and where I was going. I don't know that about other people.

    Add the estimated costs up for all that and make the fiscally wise choice, whatever it is.

    Siemens NX was NOT something I had demo'd. But if I were in an environment where the same was being contemplated, this is what I would do.

    Also, what is the support group for it? With all the problems PCDmis has, and continues to have, this is a very well populated forum with good advice in a VERY timely manner. If you have to wait 2 days for a reply to a question with any solution you go with, how much are you going to get done? This was a selling point for me with this software.
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  • Find a fairly typical but reasonably complex part and get a demo.

    In my (admitedly limited experience) these things never work that well.

    This is my advice as well. I had demos from two vendors before buying PCDmis. Neither could get it to work on the demo with one of our more complex parts.

    This leaves you with a bunch of code to read through and debug. So as far as training,

    Who is trained to read pure DMIS?
    Who is going to read through DMIS code to determine what the machine is supposed to be doing versus what it is doing and correct if needed?
    How many bugs will exist after automatic dump of code?
    How long does it take to go through the code? I always find it harder to read another persons code (whether PCDmis, visual basic, BASIC, C+, whatever) than debug my own. I wrote it, I know what I was thinking and where I was going. I don't know that about other people.

    Add the estimated costs up for all that and make the fiscally wise choice, whatever it is.

    Siemens NX was NOT something I had demo'd. But if I were in an environment where the same was being contemplated, this is what I would do.

    Also, what is the support group for it? With all the problems PCDmis has, and continues to have, this is a very well populated forum with good advice in a VERY timely manner. If you have to wait 2 days for a reply to a question with any solution you go with, how much are you going to get done? This was a selling point for me with this software.
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