NX Legacy line widths, (NX7.5 and earlier), how are they handled in current NX versions?

Line Widths in NX legacy part files, Thin, Normal and Thick, (files created in NX7.5 and earlier versions), how are they handled when you view and edit the parts in current NX versions? 

Solution

Line Widths come across in the graphics window as different thickness of the lines displayed, but it does not show in exact dimensions expressed in millimeters as the display rather deal with number of pixels which to some extent also relate to resolution.
This is controlled by NX customer default, Gateway --> Visualization --> Line, All tab

As you can see there are only 3 display widths 1, 2 or 3 pixels. The legacy line widths in NX, for instance in NX7.5, Thin, Normal and Thick use to be represented by the pixel widths 1, 2 or 3 pixels.
If you look at NX customer default Gateway --> Line Widths, Presentation tab

You can see which width in millimeter represent which of the 9 available line widths, (even though this menu only controls names, not the actual widths).


If you combine these 2 menus with the Legacy Width Conversion menu

You end up with: 
- Thin       = 0.35 = Width 4 = 1 pixel 
- Normal = 0.70 = Width 6 = 2 pixels 
- Thick     = 1.40 = Width 8 = 3 pixels



Now there is another side to the coin, printing, plotting, CGM, PDF etc. i.e. physical output. I will focus on plotting, but there are similar setups for the other output formats. 
In NX7.5 documentation under NX Essentials --> Plotting --> Define a Plot Job --> Width concepts Overview --> Determine how widths are applied to geometry,
there is a section called Standard Widths with the following statement: 
------------------------------------------------ 
NX applies certain fixed widths to geometry according to the width index of the object. These widths are traditional values long used by NX plotting functionality:


Width Index Width Value 
Thin       0.08 millimeters or 0.003 inches 
Normal 0.25 millimeters or 0.010 inches 
Thick     0.42 millimeters or 0.017 inches 
------------------------------------------------


In current NX customer default there is a section about this under Gateway --> Plotting/Printing --> Plotting, Widths tab, where both the 3 legacy and current 9 widths are mapped against actual dimension of line width for the output.



Then there is a third side to a coin, the edge. A legacy part file, for instance from NX7.5, will maintain its legacy line widths as long as you do not do Edit Object Display.


Here a legacy part opened in current NX. Doing information on the solid body you get to know for instance the line width.
Doing print/plot etc. the model at this point, the output will still look as it did in the legacy version.
If you trigger an update of the object properties, by for instance editing the color of the solid body, the earlier mentioned Legacy Width Conversion definition will take place.

So now when you come to the output, printing, plotting, CGM, PDF etc. your legacy part will give a different result than the unedited part. However, when you view the model in NX it still looks the same with its 2 pixel line width. 

Notes and References

Hardware/Software Configuration

Platform: INTL64
OS: windows
OS Version: 1064
Product: NX
Application: SYSENG
Version: V1899
Function: DISPLAY

Ref: 001-9264183