Siemens NX Plug-in ReadMe

1 Plug-in Description

This plug-in enables you to move objects in NX 6 to NX 12 with the SpaceControl 3D input devices. Furthermore it incorporates NX's menu items in the SpaceControl Panel's Key Configuration Dialog for easy mapping of menu items to the SpaceController's function keys.

The plug-in is a DLL ("SC_NX60AddIn_32.dll", "SC_NX60_AddIn_64.dll", "SC_NX80AddIn_32.dll", "SC_NX80_AddIn_64.dll", resp.) which is loaded by NX at start-up. Make sure to install the plug-in after NX has been installed; otherwise the plug-in's installer cannot enable this autostart feature.

Supported operating systems are Windows XP to Windows 10, both 32 and 64 bit. If using NX 6 on XP you have to install the "Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package" and the ".NET Framework 3.5" separately if not installed already. Both can be found in Microsoft's download area (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download); search for the phrases enclosed in quotation marks above to find them.

Some of NX' commands need a parameter. Unfortunately this mechanism can not be handled by our plug-in, and these commands might not run as one expects. E. g. the command "Perspective" should toggle between the perspective and orthographic view. Our command switches only back into orthographic mode and is not able to switch into perspective mode, sorry. If such a command is needed you could record it as a macro by yourself und put the macro on a device key. See section 3.3.3.2 in the user manual for details. Furthermore it is possible to trigger commands in contexts they are not made for. This can produce unexpected results or cause NX to show an error message.

2 Setting the Rotation Center

There are some possibilities how you can move and rotate an object with a SpaceControl device. Basically you can change between the "scene" perspective (moving the cap seemes to move the scene you are looking at) and the "camera" perspective (moving the cap moves the virtual camera looking into the scene). Further settings control the rotation center, switch a special hover mode on and off or lock the horizon. All this can be configured with the SpaceControl Panel's Advanced Configuration dialog in the Move Mode panel:

See chapter Advanced Configuration in the SpaceController's user manual for details.

The mode Hover will work only in NX' perspective mode due to mathematical restrictions. The mode Camera Mode: Rotate around Camera will not rotate around the camera but around the origin due to restrictions in NX' programming interface.

3 Special functions

There are four special functions available in NX' assembly and part mode which can be accessed in the SpaceControl menu bar:

The following functions are available:

Toggle Rotation Center Mode:
Select an object in your part or assembly. If the function is executed once the rotation center is changed to the center of your selection, overriding the setting in the Advanced Configuration dialog described in section 2 above. Executing the function a second time switches back to the rotation center defined in the Advanced Configuration dialog.
Toggle Rotation Axis Mode:
Select an edge in your part or assembly. If the function is executed once the rotation is restricted, and you can rotate around this axis only. Executing the function a second time switches back to the normal rotation behaviour.
Toggle Scroll Mode:
If the function is activated (default setting) you can scroll in NX' Part Navigator and other lists with the controller's cap if the mouse pointer is over them. If deactivated only the scene can be moved with the cap.
Toggle Object Move Mode:
Select a part in your assembly or drawing. If the function is executed once moving the cap will move the part. Executing the function a second time switches back to the normal movement behaviour defined in the Advanced Configuration dialog.

The functions can be used with the SpaceController's keys or the Wheel Function Launcher as well. To activate them load an assembly in NX, open the Function Assignment dialog, open the branch "NX/SpaceControl" in the function tree and drag the functions therein to the function keys.

4 Using NX' built-in 3D Controller Interface

NX has a built-in 3D controller interface. It fetches the controller's data and moves the scene by itself (method A). In opposite to this our plug-in needs to reach into NX from the outside by means of NX' programming interface (method B).

Method B has slightly less performance than method A as you can imagine. In cases where highest performance is necessary (e. g. when handling very large objects) you can activate method A. A further advantage is that you can set the rotation center as usual with the item "Set Rotation Reference" in NX' main window context menu; unfortunately this is not possible with method B because NX does not provide this functionality in its programming interface. Disadvantage: Setting the rotation center as described in section 2 is not longer possible and the special functions as described in section 3 are not available; all of these settings will be ignored with method A.

To activate method A you have to change a parameter in our configuration file "nx_plugin.ini":

Close NX.
Open file "C:\Users\<Username>\SpaceController\Applications\nx_plugin.ini" with Notepad and change parameter "useInt3dIntrfce" to "on".
Restart NX.

5 Change Log

7 February 2018, Version 2.9.1:

Executing an NX function with a SpaceController key has always reset the "Descriptive Part Name Style" to "File Name" in NX' Assemblies Preferences even if the user had set it to another value before.

5 December 2017, Version 2.9.0:

NX 12 is supported.
The mechanism for reading out NX' menu items is enhanced resulting in much more items available .

22 November 2016, Version 2.8.6:

The plug-in is aware of the new device functions "Back", "Left" and "Bottom". By default you can trigger them by double pressing the device keys FRONT, RIGHT and TOP.
When adding an object into a 2D drawing you can orient it in a preview window. It is possible now to rotate the object with the device.
You can use NX with its built-in 3D controller interface if highest performance is needed or if you want to set the "Rotation Reference" point with NX' context menu in the main window. See section 4 above for details.

10 November 2015, Version 2.8.2:

The installer copies some additional DLLs into NX' startup folder because some start scripts for NX delete the PATH environment variable; in this case NX could not load the plug-in.

5 November 2014, Version 2.7.0:

A bug in the new mode detection is fixed ("Dawing" mode could not be detected).
Movement in 2D drawings stuttered due to the bug in mode detection.

8 July 2014, Version 2.6.3:

Mode detection (the modes are "Part", "Assembly", "Drawing", "Simulation" and "None") is enhanced. Under some circumstances the mode NX is in could not be detected correctly. A known bug is still there: If no drafting license is available the plug-in detects the mode "Part" instead of "Drawing". Press the "2D/3D" key in this case to disable rotation data and to allow smooth movement.
The installer checks more thoroughly which NX versions are installed. NX' uninstallers do not delete some registry entries our installer is looking on, so our installers checks for "ugraf.exe" in all installation paths shown in the registry now explicitely.
The installer copied the wrong plug-in (the one for NX 6) into NX 10's installation folder.
If zoomed strongly into a scene panning is faster now.

8 January 2014, Version 2.6.1:

The settings made with the special functions (Toggle Rotation Center Mode, Toggle Rotation Axis Mode, Toggle Scroll Mode and Toggle Object Move Mode) are saved in file "C:\Users\<username>\SpaceController\Applications\nx_plugin.ini" now and will be restored when NX is started the next time therefore.
The plug-in's installer copied some files needed only for NX 9 erroneous into NX' installation folder even in case of older NX versions. This caused an error message while starting NX.

4 December 2013, Version 2.6.0:

NX' menu items are read out in NX GUI's language, not only in English.
The Toggle Object Move Mode function is working now.
Minor bug fixes.

22 November 2013, Version 2.6.0 beta 3:

First published release. It is a beta version and does not provide the full functionality. The Move Selected Object mode described above will not work with all NX versions e. g.
In case you observe non-tolerable bugs you can reactivate the former mechanism for using NX (without plug-in, no mode detection available therefore):
- Uninstall the plug-in.
- Open the file "C:\Users\<username>\SpaceController\daemon.ini" and remove the line beginning with "NX" in section [SUPP_APPLS].
- Restart the driver.
The version number comes from the driver version incorporating the plug-in the first time.

SpaceControl GmbH & Co. KG, Am Technologiepark 10, 82229 Seefeld, Germany