NX What information should I supply when opening NX support case?

2024-09-05T12:34:51Z
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Summary

Details

When opening a support case relating to NX, what information should you supply and what actions should you take before opening the case?

Solution

Before opening a support case there are many resources available for self help.

NX Help Documentation - to confirm designed behaviour

NX Hardware and Software Certifications - check you are running NX with supported hardware

Knowledge Base Articles - Search and filter articles to find existing defect reports or troubleshooting articles

NX Design Community - Search for discussions relating to your subject or ask your own questions

If you are unable to find a solution within the above resources prepare the relevant information to include in the support case when opening it using Support Center https://support.sw.siemens.com/en-US/support-case/open

You can provide as little or as much information as you want in the support case, but if you want to experience the fastest and most efficient support from our support team, we recommend providing as much as possible of the information described below and using a standard template. This will ensure our engineer can start investigating your case immediately, and you do not overlook information the support engineer will require.

1. Essential Information

Exact Software Versions

Exact NX Version information (e.g. NX2312.7022) and Teamcenter version (e.g. TC13.3.3) if being used. This can be checked in the NX log file or by using Menu > Help > About NX.


Detailed Description of the issue or question and the steps to reproduce

Clearly state the issue and where it occurs. Include each step to reproduce the issue in detail. Please mention all uploaded images, documents, movies and in which step they need to be opened. Please describe ALL the necessary commands, even if they seem obvious.

 For example:

Problem description: NX crashes while updating a drawing.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Open the attached drawing (top_drawing.prt)
2. Select Sheet 3 and ‘MB3->Update’ to reproduce the crash

Describe the observed behavior and how it differs from the expected behavior

Specify the expected behavior or result as it may not always be obvious and will avoid any misunderstandings.
For example:
Expected behavior: We expect the drawing to update without crashing NX.

Provide results of any workarounds used

Explain any workarounds found during your own testing or from information in our self help resources, and describe the results from these.
This information helps to avoid duplicating research efforts by our engineers and reduces the resolution time.

For example:

Results of workarounds: The drawing can be updated if ‘Process Interfering Solids’ under the ‘MB3->Settings->Hidden Lines’ is toggled off for the Right view on Sheet 3.

Describe the supporting data for the case

All supporting data (see section 3 below for details) will need to be uploaded to the support case. This should ideally be in an archive file (e.g. zip, 7zip).  Include the file name of the NX part to load the assembly (if applicable). Describe the uploaded files and their contents. 

For example:

NX_drawing_crash_IR12345678.7z where top_drawing.prt is the file to open to reproduce the issue.

2. Additional Information

Included in you description of the issue you should try to answer some of the following questions to give our support engineers as much background information as possible. 

- When did this issue start occurring?
- Did the start of this issue coincide with any significant changes to the system? (e.g. version upgrade, change to configuration)
- Is the issue the same for the same user on a different machine and a different user on the same machine?
- Does this issue occur with all parts or just some?
- Is there any obvious pattern to the issue? (for example, only new parts, only happens with parts containing certain types of components / features)
- How frequently is the issue occurring?
- Anything else that could be relevant to the issue...

3. Supporting Data

Depending on the nature of the issue / question in your support case, the type of supporting data you will provide can vary significantly. The items below are the most useful and most commonly requested, as mentioned earlier, the more of this you can provide, the more efficient and quicker the handling of your case will be:

Log Files

 Ideally collect these from a session where the actions have been performed. After performing the actions, use the command  Menu > Help > Generate Support Logs for IR/PR (or Log File)

The help section in the menu

 Click the button Collect the logs


The generated folder can then be found in the folder listed in the information window

Folder where log files are stored

Providing this folder is more useful than the log file (.syslog) alone, the additional files provide us with useful information about the local configuration of your NX session. Please zip the folder and upload it.

Movies / Screenshots

A movie clip or screenshots illustrating the actions being performed, and the results, is very useful information to clarify or replace the description of the steps. The movie can be recorded using any 3rd party software or inside NX the record movie command is available

Record button under the Tools section

Part Files

The ideal situation to efficiently investigate an issue is if you can provide the related NX part files and assemblies so we can replicate the issue on our systems and find a solution.

When working inside a Teamcenter managed environment the parts can be exported using the command "Export Assembly outside of Teamcenter" or when this is not possible the assembly can be exported directly from Teamcenter using the PLMXML export command as described in this KB article: How to Export NX Assembly using PLMXML from Teamcenter -  https://support.sw.siemens.com/knowledge-base/PL8734991

Configuration Files

Sometimes issues only occur when using a configuration which is different from the "out of the box" (OOTB) settings. Some of the setting files will be captured when using the command "Help Generate Support Logs for IR/PR", however this will not capture any centralized site configuration files. Usually the engineer working on the case will inform you if specific configuration information is required, but it can save time if these are provided when opening the case. 

Some of the typically requested configuration files are:

  • nx_site.dpv / nx_group.dpv - Site or group level customer defaults, usually defined using the environment variable UGII_SITE_DIR / UGII_GROUP_DIR
    • ugii_env.dat or ugii_env_ug.dat - NX specific environment variables, usually defined using the environment variable UGII_ENV_FILE

      4. Example Templates

      It helps if the support case information can be recorded in a consistent manner, below are some example templates you can use to help you remember to supply all of the relevant information. These are not mandatory and can be modified to suit your needs.

      General NX Support Case

      Support Case Template ===================== Short Description: [One Sentence to Describe Case subject] Long Description: [Description of Case] NX Version: [Include full version e.g. NX2412.3000 use Help > About NX] Other NX versions tested: [Include full version(s) e.g. NX2412.3000] Is this in Production or Test Environment: [Production Environment / Test Environment / QA UAT environment] Teamcenter / Active Workspace Version (if applicable) : [Include full version e.g. TC13.3.3 / AWC 6.1.9] Steps to Reproduce: [Detailed description of steps to replicate the issue, include references to screenshots or movie if possible] Expected Results and outcome of support case: [How does the result differ from what you expect or the documented behaviour] [Are you expecting this case to become a problem report, enhancement request or something else] Impact of Issue: [Stopped Production / Low impact can be worked around / Group of users impacted / Potential for costly mistakes] Workarounds Found: [Have you found a method to avoid this issue or a partial solution] Case Context: -When did this issue start occurring? [This week / Last month / Don't know / Since update or configuration change] -How frequently does this occur? [Hourly / Daily / Weekly / Monthly] -Did the start of this issue coincide with any significant changes to the system? [e.g. version upgrade, change to configuration] -Is the issue the same for the same user on a different machine and a different user on the same machine? [Same for all users / Same if user uses different machine / Only for this specific user on specific machine] -Does this issue occur with all parts or just some? [All parts / Some Parts / Only New Parts / Only All parts] -Is there any obvious pattern to the issue? [For example, only new parts, only happens with parts containing certain types of components / features] -Anything further information that could be relevant to the issue... Supporting Files: - Part Files: Yes/No [Name of Part file or Top level assembly] - Movie / Screenshots Yes/No [Name of movie(s), screenshots] - Log Files Yes/No [NX Log / syslog file name(s) , ideally collected using Generate Support logs for IR/PR] - Additional Configuration files: Yes/No [For example, site.dpv , ugii_env.dat, attribute mapping file] - Other Files: Yes/No [Additional relevant files, e.g. word documents, PowerPoints etc.]

      Enhancement Request for NX

      NX Enhancement Request Template =============================== 1. Short Description: 2. What activity in your process is NX not able to currently handle? [Please concentrate on the use case, not on the feature description. Supporting screenshots, movies or documentation to explain and demonstrate the use case are always helpful] 3. What result are you trying to achieve? 4. Do you currently have a workaround? If yes, please describe it. [Please include details, even if you do not accept the workaround as a long-term solution] 5. Do you have a proposal for the solution you envision NX providing for this capability? [Here you have a chance to explain to us how the features implementing the use case may look like from your perspective] 6. How much of an impact would this enhancement have on the workflow in your scenario? [Very Low / Low / Medium / High / Very High 7. How often does this effect users in your organization? [Hourly / Daily / Weekly / Monthly / Yearly] 8. How many users in your organization are affected? 1-5 6-20 21-100 100-500 500+ 9. Other information: [any explaining document, movie, weblink, partfiles etc.]
      Notes

      KB Article ID# PL8804613

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