Custom Features
Embed your company specific IP in a reusable custom feature
Introduction
There are many different ways of embedding your company specific requirements in NX geometry #1 but they all have limitations.
Custom features are not restricted to just the capabilities of the NX Suite
Custom Features calling other APIs / services
Because arbitrary code can be executed whenever the custom feature executes it can ’talk’ to external services allowing your NX features to interact outside of the CAD system.
For instance a custom feature representing a joint could send the local joint stack to an external service which calculates and reports the joint health status.
Sandbox your IP / Custom Feature with Remote NX session
Custom features can expose the current NX session to external providers. Your code can execute commands / queries inside your clients NX session.
Embed complex rules, logic and behaviour
Customfeatures can embed your company IP; for instance to generate complex gear tooth geometry with full configuration control. When those parts go outside of your organisation they are now just the required shareable geometry - your dont leak your intellectual property.
Intuitive
To the designer the custom feature will look, feels and behave just like any other feature inside the software.
#1 User Defined Features, Expression Driven Parts, Part libraries TODO add links here + others
Examples
Take a look at the Turtlestack Custom Feature Examples
FAQ
Q: What happens if someone without the custom feature code opens the part
A: Nothing - the parts opens and runs as usual - but the intelligence and responsiveness of that feature is lost.
Q: What about when I upgrade NX? Do all the customfeatures need recompiling?
A: Maybe. In most cases the custom features will just operate as they previously did. Turtlestack have a continuous support that covers this though. We distinguish ourselves from our competitors with a technical infrastructure designed to quickly recompile and test any application / custom features / system we have created (provided you have a test suite available). TODO See get off the barrel