CHAPTER 5 – DRAFTING

The NX 12 Drafting application lets you create drawings, views, geometries, dimensions, and
drafting annotations necessary for manufacturing as well as understanding of an industrial design.
The goal of this chapter is to give the designer/draftsman enough knowledge of drafting tools to
create a basic drawing of their design. The drafting application supports the drafting of engineering
models in accordance with ANSI standards. After explaining the basics of the drafting application,
we will go through a step-by-step approach for drafting some of the models created earlier.

5.1 OVERVIEW

The Drafting Application is designed to allow you produce and maintain industry standard
engineering drawings directly from the 3D model or assembly part. Drawings created in the
Drafting application are fully associative to the model and any changes made to the model are
automatically reflected in the drawing. The Drafting application also offers a set of 2D drawing
tools for 2D centric design and layout requirements. You can produce standalone 2D drawings.
The Drafting Application is based on creating views from a solid model as illustrated below.
Drafting makes it easy to create drawings with orthographic views, section views, imported view,
auxiliary views, dimensions and other annotations.

NX 12 for Engineering Design 104 Missouri University of Science and Technology

Some of the useful features of the Drafting Application are:

1) After you choose the first view, the other orthographic views can be added and aligned
with the click of a few buttons.

2) Each view is associated directly with the solid. Thus, when the solid is changed, the
drawing will be updated directly along with the views and dimensions.

3) Drafting annotations (dimensions, labels, and symbols with leaders) are placed directly on
the drawing and updated automatically when the solid is changed.

We will see how views are created and annotations are used and modified in the step-by-step
examples.

5.2 CREATING A DRAFTING

 Open the file Arborpress_rack.prt

 From the NX 12 Interface, choose File →Drafting as shown or choose Application tab

and select Drafting

NX 12 for Engineering Design 105 Missouri University of Science and Technology

When you first open the Drafting Application, a window pops up asking for inputs like the
Template, Standard Size or Custom Size, the units, and the angle of projection.

Size

Size allows you to choose the size of the Sheet. There are
standard Templates that you can create for frequent use
depending upon the company standards. There are several
Standard sized Sheets available for you. You can also define
a Custom sized sheet in case your drawings do not fit into a
standard sized sheet.

Preview

This shows the overall design of the Template.

Units

Units follow the default units of the parent 3-D model. In case
you are starting from the Drafting Application you need to
choose the units here.

Projection

You can choose the Projection Method either First Angle or

Third Angle method.

To start using the Drafting Application we will begin by

creating a Standard Sized sheet:

 Click on the Standard Size radio button

 In the drop-down menu on the Size window, select

sheet B, which has dimensions 11 x 17

 Change the Scale to 1:25 by using the drop-down

menu and choosing the Custom Scale under the Scale

 Click OK

NX 12 for Engineering Design 106 Missouri University of Science and Technology

This will open the Drafting Application and the following screen will be seen as below. Let us first
look at the Drafting Application Interface.

You will see a dialog box pops-up which will help you choose the parts, views and other options.

 Change the options and views and click Finish

 Choose Insert →View →Base or click on Base

View in the View Group

The Base View dialog box with the options of the View and the Scale will show up along with a
floating drawing of the object.

 Choose the View to be Front

You can find the Front View projection on the screen. You can move the mouse cursor on the
screen and click on the place where you want the view.

Once you set the Front View another dialog box will pop-up asking you to set the other views at
any location on the screen within the Sheet Boundary.

NX 12 for Engineering Design 107 Missouri University of Science and Technology

You can find different views by moving the cursor
around the first view. If you want to add any
orthographic views after closing this file or changing to
other command modes

 Choose Insert →View →Projected View or

choose Projected View icon from the View

group

Now, let us create all the other orthographic projected

views and click on the screen at the desired position.

 In case you have closed the Projected View dialog box you can reopen it by clicking on
the Projected View icon in the View Group

 Move the cursor and click to get the other views

 Click Close on the Projected View dialog box or press <Esc> key on the keyboard to close
the window

NX 12 for Engineering Design 108 Missouri University of Science and Technology

Before creating the dimensions, let us remove the borders in each view as it adds to the confusion
with the entity lines.

 Choose Menu →Preferences →Drafting or click on

icon in the Quick Access toolbar to find the Drafting

Preferences

The Drafting Preferences window will pop up.

 Click on the VIEW tab button

 Uncheck the Tick mark on the Display Borders as shown in the figure below and click
OK

There are many other options like number of decimal places, hidden lines, angles, and threads that

you can find here. For example, you can find options for hidden lines in Drafting Preferences →

View →Common →Hidden Lines

NX 12 for Engineering Design 109 Missouri University of Science and Technology

5.3 DIMENSIONING

Now let’s move on to create the dimensions for these views. The dimensions can be inserted by
either of the two ways as described below:

 Choose Menu →Insert →Dimension

OR

 Click on the Dimension Toolbar as shown in the following figure

 Click on Points and Edges, move the mouse and click on the appropriate location to draw
dimensions

The icons in this window are helpful for changing the properties
of the dimensions.

 Click on the Settings Button

Here you will be able to modify the settings for dimensioning. A

dialog appears as shown below.

NX 12 for Engineering Design 110 Missouri University of Science and Technology

The first list is for Lettering. This allows the user to justify and select the frame size. In the
Line/Arrow section, you can vary the thickness of the arrow line, arrow head, angle format etc.
The most important section is the Tolerance list. Here you can vary the tolerance to the designed
value.

The type of display, precision required for the digits and other similar options can be modified
here. The next icon is the Text option, which you can use to edit the units, text style, font and other
text related aspects.

NX 12 for Engineering Design 111 Missouri University of Science and Technology

  On the first view (Front View) that you created, click on the top left corner of the rack and
then on the top right corner

The dimension that represents the distance between these points will appear. You can put the
location of the dimension by moving the mouse on the screen. Whenever you place your views in
the Sheet take into consideration that you will be placing the dimensions around it.

 To set the dimension onto the drawing sheet, place the dimension well above the view as
shown and click the left mouse button

Even after creating the dimension, you can edit the properties of the dimensions.

 Right-click on the dimension you just created and choose Settings or Edit Display

 You can modify font, color, style and other finer details here

 Give dimensions to all other views as shown in the following figure

NX 12 for Engineering Design 112 Missouri University of Science and Technology

5.4 SECTIONAL VIEW

Let us create a Sectional View for the same part to show the depth and profile of the hole.

 Choose Insert →View →Section or click the View Section icon from the View group

in the ribbon bar

 Click on the bottom of the Base View as shown in the figure. This will show a Phantom
Line with two Arrow marks for the direction of the Section plane (orange dashed line with
arrows pointing upwards).

 Click on the middle of the View as shown. This will fix the position of the sectional line
(Section Plane)

Now move the cursor around the view to get the direction of the Plane of Section. Keep the arrow
pointing vertically upwards and drag the sectional view to the bottom of the Base View.

Adjust the positions of dimensions if they are interfering. The final drawing sheet should look like
the one shown in the following figure.

NX 12 for Engineering Design 113 Missouri University of Science and Technology

Save and close your model.

5.5 PRODUCT AND MANUFACTURING INFORMATION

Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI) is one of the important applications in NX which
provides annotation tools used to document products in a 3D environment. PMI application
includes a comprehensive 3D annotation environment that allows design teams to share details
such as Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T), surface finish, welding information,
material specifications, comments, government security information or proprietary information,
etc. directly to the 3D model. PMI complies with industry standards for 3D product definition and
therefore product teams working on collaborative projects would use 3D models as a legitimate
method for fully documenting product and manufacturing information.

In the below example, we will open a part file, create dimensions and comments on the 3D model
in the PMI application and learn how to inherit the dimensions and comments to the Drafting
application. This is only for the purpose of illustration.

 Open the file Impeller_impeller.prt

 From the NX 12 interface, choose File →PMI (turn on the check mark)

NX 12 for Engineering Design 114 Missouri University of Science and Technology

This should create an additional tab PMI in between Tools and Application tabs. Select the PMI
tab to enter the PMI application which should look as shown below.

The ribbon bar in this mode would have the Dimension, Annotation, Custom Symbols,
Supplemental Geometry, Specialized and Security Marking groups. Each group has several options
which could help describe the modeled 3D part. For example, dimensioning options in Dimension
group, Surface Finish and Notes in Annotation group.

 Click Rapid icon

 Select the end surfaces of the impeller as first and second objects to insert the linear
dimension or click the Linear icon to perform the same task

NX 12 for Engineering Design 115 Missouri University of Science and Technology

  Click the Radial icon in the Dimension group to insert the dimensions of the holes and
curved surfaces on the impeller

 Click the Centerline icon in the Supplemental Geometry group and select the
inner surface of the impeller to insert the centerline for the part

 Click the Note icon in Annotation group to provide any comments or Surface Finish icon,
select the object, location of text and leader line to insert the specific surface finish details,
if required

The Trimetric view of the impeller after PMI dimensioning would look as shown below.

 Save the file, select Application tab and click on Drafting icon in the ribbon bar

 Follow the similar procedures explained in the previous section to create the Drawing sheet
for the 3D part

During the creation of the sheet, in the View Creation Wizard, select the Inherit PMI option, and
select the Aligned to Drawing (Entire Part) and check the Inherit PMI onto Drawing option. This
would inherit the dimensions of the 3D model and show on the drawing sheet including the

NX 12 for Engineering Design 116 Missouri University of Science and Technology

comments as shown below. The user has to select the appropriate views to reflect the dimensions
on the drawing sheet.

5.6 EXAMPLE

 Open the model Impeller_hexa-bolt.prt

 Choose File →Drafting or select Drafting in Application tab

 On the Sheet window, select sheet E-34 X 44 and change the Scale value to 8.0 : 1.0

 Click OK

 Choose Insert →View →Base View or click the Base View icon

 Add the Front view by repeating the same

procedure explained in the last example

 Add the Orthographic Views including the Right

view and Top view

 Choose Preferences →Drafting

 Uncheck the box next to Display Borders under

View Tab

The screen will have the following three views.

NX 12 for Engineering Design 117 Missouri University of Science and Technology

To visualize the hidden lines,

 Choose Preferences →Drafting →View

OR

 Select the views, right-click and choose Settings as shown below

A window will pop up with various options pertaining to the views.

 Click on the Hidden Lines tab

 Change Process Hidden Lines to Dashed Lines as shown below and click OK

You can see the hidden lines as shown in the picture on

the right.

Now we will proceed to dimensioning.

 Choose Insert →Dimensions →Linear or

click the Linear Dimension icon in the

Dimension group

 Give vertical dimensions to all the distances

shown below

NX 12 for Engineering Design 118 Missouri University of Science and Technology

For the threading, we will use a leader line.

 Click on the Note icon shown in the Toolbar

 In the Note window that opens, enter the following

text. You can find Ø and the degree symbol on the
Symbols tab

Right Hand Ø 0.20 x 1.5

Pitch 0.05, Angle 600
 Click on the threaded shaft in the side view, hold
the mouse and drag the Leader line next to the
view. Let go of the mouse and click again to place
the text.

NX 12 for Engineering Design 119 Missouri University of Science and Technology

  Close the Annotation Editor

Since the height of the Lettering is small, we will enlarge the character size as well as the arrow
size.

 Right-click on the Leader and select Settings

 Click on the Lettering tab

 In the Text Parameter section, increase Height to make the leader legible

 Click on the Line/Arrow tab

 In the Format section, increase the Length of the Leader

Now we will add additional dimensions and views.

 Choose Insert →Dimensions →Radial or click the Radial Dimension icon in the

Dimension group

 Click the circle of the bolt in the top view to give the diameter dimension

 Click Insert →View →Base View of click the Base View icon

 Select the Isometric view and place the view somewhere on the screen

NX 12 for Engineering Design 120 Missouri University of Science and Technology

The final drawing is shown below. Remember to save.

5.7 EXERCISE

Perform Drafting and annotate dimensions for the parts that you modeled in chapter 4.

NX 12 for Engineering Design 121 Missouri University of Science and Technology