Siemens NX Aerospace: The Short Version
Siemens NX aerospace adoption comes down to the data model: it holds model-based definition, tight tolerances and the full certification chain in one place. inteliScience automates on top of it with NX Open — variant design, drawing derivation, inspection documentation. We run AI assistance on-premise, where export control rules out an external cloud.
| Drawing-driven process | MBD in NX | |
|---|---|---|
| Source of inspection dimensions | 2D drawing, transferred by hand | PMI on the 3D model |
| FAI documentation | Assembled after the fact | Derived from the model |
| Changing one tolerance | Model + drawing + inspection plan | One source |
The Problem: A Production Ramp Meets Certification Overhead
Order books have never been fuller. At the end of April 2026 the global commercial aircraft backlog hit a record 16,683 units — since then past 17,000, roughly 60% of the active fleet against a historical 30–40%. That is about twelve years of production. Airbus is targeting around 870 deliveries this year.
Demand is not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is pushing a change through the chain quickly and provably.
This is where the CAD platform decides more than in any other industry. A supplier changing one tolerance is not changing one dimension: they are changing the inspection plan, the FAI documentation, the tooling design and the evidence trail owed to the OEM. When those artifacts live in four systems, every change costs days.
Why Aerospace OEMs and Suppliers Run NX
Three properties explain most Siemens NX aerospace deployments, and none of them is modeling comfort.
One data model for design, simulation and manufacturing. NX covers CAD, CAE and CAM in a single environment. In aerospace that is not a convenience argument: a structural part that gets an aeroelastic check and is then five-axis machined loses tolerance and PMI information at every format boundary. Airbus, Boeing (on selected programs), Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman use NX for structural and systems-level simulation among other things; Rolls-Royce and MTU Aero Engines use it for engine components.
Model-based definition that inspection authorities accept. PMI in NX is not annotation, it is machine-readable product definition under ASME Y14.41 (first published 2003, revised 2019). The US Department of Defense codified drawingless technical data packages with MIL-STD-31000A back in 2013 — the precondition for a 3D model alone to count as the manufacturing and inspection basis.
Longevity. An aircraft program runs for decades. NX customers come predominantly from industries where products keep evolving over that horizon: aerospace, defense, automotive, industrial machinery.
Our clear position: if you are setting up fresh in aerospace and have the choice, decide by how many system boundaries the certification chain has to cross, not by license price. Every boundary is a manual transfer, and every manual transfer is a finding waiting to happen in an audit.
Short of NX capacity on an aerospace program? With NX engineering services from inteliScience, our engineers take on modeling, drawing and validation work in Siemens NX to your standards.
MBD is not an end in itself
The effect is documented, and has been for a long time: on the 777 program, Boeing achieved a 62% reduction in development time through digital product definition. MTU Aero Engines states it has eliminated drawings from all product definition processes. MTU’s Robert Kloeppner puts the reason plainly — less manual interaction with the data, and therefore less repetitive work and fewer human mistakes.
More than 65% of A&D OEMs are now working on digital thread strategies. The driver is not enthusiasm for technology, it is the traceability AS9100 and AS9102 demand.
Wondering where automation should start for you? Which NX workflows actually pay for themselves is worked through in our guide to NX automation with AI.
The Three Automation Cases That Pay Off First in Aerospace
NX Open is the programming interface that turns the platform into a tool for your process. In aerospace projects we see the same three candidates lead every time.
| Case | Why it bites in aerospace | What gets automated |
|---|---|---|
| Variant design | High part variety at small lot sizes (brackets, clips, ribs) | Parametric family, rule checks, release preparation |
| Drawing derivation | Residual drawings stay mandatory for suppliers and authorities | Views, standard-compliant dimensioning, title block, batch PDF |
| Inspection documentation | AS9102 FAI requires every characteristic to be evidenced | PMI extraction, characteristic list, ballooning, form filling |
The third one is the underestimated case. Initial AS9100 certification runs a mid-sized company somewhere between $8,000 and $30,000 according to certification bodies — but that is only the audit price. The real cost is ongoing evidence: incomplete or inaccurate FAI documentation causes rejection and delay, and customers call it out explicitly in purchase orders.
When the characteristics already hang on the model as PMI, the characteristic list is a derivation rather than clerical work:
import csv
import sys
import NXOpen
def export_characteristics(csv_path):
"""Export every dimensioned characteristic of the work part as an FAI list."""
session = NXOpen.Session.GetSession()
work_part = session.Parts.Work
with open(csv_path, "w", newline="", encoding="utf-8") as fh:
writer = csv.writer(fh)
writer.writerow(["characteristic_no", "identifier", "text"])
for no, dim in enumerate(work_part.Dimensions, start=1):
writer.writerow([
no,
dim.JournalIdentifier,
" ".join(dim.GetDimensionText()[0]),
])
print(f"exported {csv_path}")
if __name__ == "__main__":
# run_journal passes the -args values via sys.argv: CSV path, then part path.
csv_out, part_path = sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2]
part, status = NXOpen.Session.GetSession().Parts.OpenActiveDisplay(
part_path, NXOpen.DisplayPartOption.AllowAdditional)
status.Dispose()
export_characteristics(csv_out)That runs headless across a whole release, without anyone opening NX:
REM One NX session per part, no GUI, one CSV per part
for %%f in (D:\release\*.prt) do (
"%UGII_BASE_DIR%\NXBIN\run_journal.exe" export_characteristics.py -args "%%~nf.csv" "%%f"
)Two notes from practice. First: start with inspection documentation, not geometry generation — the output is checkable and a mistake is cheap. Second: without regression tests against representative parts, any automation is a liability at the next NX release. How we secure generated NX Open code is covered in our piece on AI-assisted NX Open code generation.
AI Assistance at the CAD Seat — and Export Control
Siemens renamed NX CAD to Designcenter with the June 2026 release (version 2606) and introduced Designcenter Copilot, a conversational assistant grounded in Siemens documentation and your current context. For CAM, Michael Taesch, senior director of product management for NX CAM, estimates the CAM Copilot saves 80% or more of programming time. Teamcenter 2606 shipped the first AI BOM agent in June 2026, proposing and executing multi-step changes.
These assistants answer questions. They do not know your build standards.
That gap is what vision4NX fills, the inteliScience assistant for NX and Teamcenter environments: it interprets NXOpen code, understands PMI, tolerances and dimensioning for validation and compliance, and is enriched exclusively with engineering knowledge rather than generic web text.
Aerospace adds a condition other industries do not have: geometry and inspection data are export-controlled. An assistant that ships part data to a public API is not an option, however good it is. So we run these systems on-premise or in a sovereign environment, with named models behind your own boundary, so model choice and data flow stay auditable. When your compliance team asks which model runs where, the answer needs to be a document, not a shrug.
Next year this gets stricter: the final publication of IA9100 — the revised aerospace quality standard in the ISO 9001:2026 cycle — is expected late in 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should you use Siemens NX for the aerospace industry?
Because design, simulation and manufacturing sit in one data model, and PMI as machine-readable product definition carries the certification chain. For parts that get an aeroelastic check and are then five-axis machined, it removes the format handover where tolerance information gets lost.
Is NX more common than CATIA in aerospace?
No — both are established and often coexist on the same program. Airbus has historically leaned on CATIA, while NX is widely used for engine and structural components and across the supply chain. More relevant in practice than the platform question is whether your chain carries PMI end to end.
How much does an NX Open automation for inspection documentation cost?
A well-scoped case such as PMI extraction with characteristic list and form filling lands in the low five figures including the test harness. The share for verification and regression tests gets underestimated regularly, and it is exactly why the solution survives an NX upgrade.
Can we use AI assistants on export-controlled data?
Only if the data does not leave your boundary. That means on-premise or sovereign operation, documented model choice and traceable data flows. Feeding part geometry into a public chat service is not a grey area in an ITAR or EAR context.
Does MBD replace the drawing completely?
In product definition, yes — MTU Aero Engines eliminated drawings there, and MIL-STD-31000A has allowed drawingless technical data packages since 2013. In practice residual drawings remain for suppliers and authorities, which is why automated drawing derivation stays its own automation case.
Next Step
Bring one concrete aerospace workflow — a variant family, a drawing set, or FAI documentation. In 60 minutes we will tell you whether NX Open is the right tool for it and what securing it would cost. inteliScience delivers with senior NX Open engineers from Romania, just one hour ahead of our DACH clients.