Why Am I Posting NX Videos on a Creo Parametric Channel?

Cross-posted from the Creo Parametric YouTube channel community page.

If you’re wondering “Why is Dave making videos on a Creo Parametric channel about Siemens NX for SolidWorks users,” let me explain.

A couple years ago, I started working as the configuration manager for a Silicon Valley drone startup. I was fired last week along with a third of the company.

When I joined, one of the first tasks I was assigned was to oversee what was supposed to be a data-driven process to decide on keeping SolidWorks and Windchill as our CAD and PLM platforms or displace them in favor of other systems.

Spoiler alert: the selection process was not data driven. In the end, three people had a closed-door meeting and selected what the data said should be the last choice.

The decision really was baked in from the start. When the initial numbers showed that the preferred choice would be the most expensive, the vice president of engineering changed the projected growth numbers. However, this had the unintended effect of making SolidWorks and Windchill a better choice from a financial standpoint.

For the record, I had actually recommended Autodesk Inventor on the CAD side. If your response is “What the heck, Dave, you have a channel promoting Creo Parametric,” let me explain that as well. As I published in another video, there’s more to selecting a CAD tool than just functionality. While Creo Parametric is by far my most favorite CAD tool, it’s not the right tool for every team. Cost matters. The CAD skills (or lack thereof) in the user base matter. The in-house technical support and leadership support for CAD professional development matter.

As I’ve said many times before, it’s time for the CAD wars to end. Way too often, people act like for my choice in CAD to be good, yours has to suck. I have deleted a lot of comments on the channel, not just where people rip on Creo, but also denigrate other CAD packages. That’s not the kind of discourse I want to support. It’s not constructive and benefits no one.

The company selected NX and Teamcenter. We had two failed attempts at implementing Teamcenter on AWS, and by the time I was fired a year later, we still had not implemented it. In a sign of bad management and decision making, we had purchased NX in June 2022 but still were not using it for production work when I was fired.

A few weeks ago, I identified a great candidate for our NX subject matter expert. I was ready to pull the trigger on hiring when I was told to hold off, as it was unlikely we would perform any serious production work in NX until 2024. (I have a whole series of blog posts planned on how companies make bad decisions with regards to CAD based on what I experienced there and elsewhere.) If anyone is looking for a great Siemens subject matter expert, reach out to me and I can connect you with Sudhir.

The Chief Operating Officer (my manager) asked me to ramp up as an NX subject matter expert. Sure, that can happen in a few weeks or months. I set about learning as much as I could via online training and making models based on drawings and projects I had. I learned a lot along the way and as usual, I figured I could share my lessons in video form. I posted them to my YouTube channel as unlisted videos, meaning that they are not visible unless you have the URL.

Now it’s all irrelevant. I have changed the first couple of videos to public. I will slowly release the others in the next few weeks. That’s why a Creo Parametric channel has videos on Siemens NX for SolidWorks users from a relative newbie to the software.