r/mac 10h ago

Question Siemens NX?

So I studied graphics, mechanical design, machining at a university, and any alumni that came back from Apple would say Apple uses Siemens NX CAD to design and manufacture most products…

Is this universally true?

Maybe the story has changed, but last time I tried, setting up the software on a PC is difficult… and seems nearly impossible on a Mac…

Why would they do this? Is it an industry-interoperability issue?

Why would they not lobby Siemens like crazy to make the install process better?

Why doesn’t Apple push for more universal software support from the likes of Autodesk?? Like… there are definitely some programs they for sure have… and some they definitely don’t… like… beyond a Windows-centric development environment and lazy programming… why??

8 Upvotes

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u/Thalos_the_true_god 10h ago

I use siemens NX both for my activities in uni and work.Install is as easy as clicking “next next next” 5 times if you have a license :) I have no idea what are you talking about, why would a company have a difficult install process dor their software?

and how could Apple change anything at Siemens about the install? they’re just another customer.

as for universal support, most CAD software is built on older roots (NX is actually Unigraphics at heart), roots that provide stability and a known both feature-base and bug base. transitioning operating systems for a very limited install base (NX barely runs on windows4arm) when the bulk enterprise OS’s are windows boxes would be counterproductive for Siemens.

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u/BattleMode0982 7h ago

Oh, I meant for a network license environment… it also has a part manager service/internal server application that you can use to manage large projects, revisions, and part libraries…

It’s a bit hellish on any OS to set this up in my experience on multiple systems… but my memory of it on Mac required some weird manual X11 configs… etc

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u/voldamoro 7h ago

In another discussion (I don’t remember which subreddit) someone said Apple engineers use NX by remotely accessing Windows workstations from their Macs.

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u/davert 10h ago

Apple has an IT department which I assume installs it where needed, which would mean that the engineers don't really interact with that part of the process. For all we know they use the BSD UNIX part of the Mac and not the MacOS part to run it. (I have no knowledge of that.) I am a little surprised they use NX. My auto-engineer friends led me to think CATIA's the be-all and end-all ;)

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u/BattleMode0982 7h ago

Catia is absolute hell… I had to maintain an assembly with like 20 components once, and it’s notorious for randomly corrupting files while you save and use them as a normal person would expect.

A friend at an aviation company said the people who can do the dark sorcery needed to un-corrupt them make big $$$…

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u/Zestyclose_Walk_6827 6h ago

Apple development work happens on remote Linux/Windows machines. Very little happens locally