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Deploy Siemens NX on a virtual machine

Azure Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Network

This article briefly describes the steps for running Siemens NX on a virtual machine (VM) that's deployed on Azure. It also presents the performance results of running NX on Azure.

Organizations use NX for design, simulation, and manufacturing solutions that enable digital twin technology. Siemens NX:

  • Provides layout piping and instrumentation diagrams in two dimensions while maintaining the design tied to the 3D model.
  • Eliminates re-creation of annotated 2D CAD drawings by using legacy data with model-based definition.

NX is used in the automotive sector and for projects ranging from supersonic cars to drones for the medical industry. These scenarios also relate to the aerospace and healthcare industries.

Why deploy Siemens NX on Azure?

  • Modern and diverse compute options to align to your workload's needs
  • The flexibility of virtualization without the need to buy and maintain physical hardware
  • Rapid provisioning
  • Successful runs of all ATS and NXCP test cases

Architecture

Diagram that shows an architecture for deploying Siemens NX.

Download a Visio file of this architecture.

Components

Compute sizing and drivers

Performance tests of NX on Azure used NVv3 and NCasT4_v3 series VMs running Windows. The following table provides the configuration details.

VM size vCPU Memory, in GiB SSD, in GiB Number of GPUs GPU memory, in GiB Maximum data disks
Standard_NV12s_v3 12 112 320 1 8 12
Standard_NV24s_v3 24 224 640 2 16 24
Standard_NC16as_T4_v3 16 110 360 1 16 32

Required drivers

To take advantage of the GPU capabilities of NVv3 and NCasT4_v3 series VMs, you need to install the NVIDIA GPU drivers.

To use CPUs on NCasT4_v3, you need to install the AMD drivers.

NX installation

Before you install NX, you need to deploy and connect a VM, install an eligible Windows 10 or Windows 11 image, and install the required NVIDIA and AMD drivers.

For information about eligible Windows images, see How to deploy Windows 10 on Azure and Use Windows client in Azure for dev/test scenarios.

For information about deploying the VM and installing the drivers, see Run a Windows VM on Azure.

After you install the drivers, install Siemens PLM License Server and the NX application. You can download these applications and get download instructions from the Siemens website.

Note

You need to install the Java Runtime Environment (64-bit) for NX before you install NX.

NX performance results

Siemens Automated Testing Studio (ATS) and NXCP were used to test NX. For information about installing and using these tools, see the Siemens website.

NXCP test results

The Siemens NXCP tool was used to run these tests. Test cases are grouped to demonstrate various capabilities. Each test group consists of multiple test cases.

The following table shows the test results.

Test group name Number of test cases 1 GPU (NV12s_v3) 2 GPUs (NV24s_v3) 1 GPU (NCasT4, 16 CPU)
GDAT_LEGACY 15 Pass Pass Pass
TCVIS 2007 10 Pass Pass Pass
TECNOMATIX_OpenGL Display 2 Pass Pass Pass
TECNOMATIX_OpenGL Buffer 2 Pass Pass Pass
NX1847_Manual 7 Pass Pass Pass
NX1899_Manual 7 Pass Pass Pass
NX 1899 Mark 6 Pass Pass Pass

ATS test results

The following table shows ATS test results.

Case number Description Case ID 1 GPU (NV12s_v3) 2 GPUs (NV24s_v3) 1 GPU (NCasT4, 16 CPU)
AT-01 Verifies that Listing Window shows data correctly Listing Window 1 minute, 11 seconds 31 seconds 18 seconds
AT-02 Verifies correct mirror display in various views Mirror Display 1 minute, 40 seconds 1 minute, 8 seconds 1 minute, 10 seconds
AT-03 Verifies de-emphasis displays Deemphasis 1 minute, 13 seconds 1 minute 57 seconds
AT-04 Verifies grid displays Grid Display 1 minute, 47 seconds 1 minute, 16 seconds 51 seconds
AT-05 Verifies correct display of raster images in various view ports Raster Image 20 seconds 19 seconds 23 seconds
AT-06 Shows multiple views in one window Multiple Views 23 seconds 26 seconds 25 seconds
AT-07 Verifies the background setting in the wireframe view Background Setting Wireframe 45 seconds 29 seconds 34 seconds
AT-08 Verifies correct display of light and shadow in Advanced Studio Light Direction 21 seconds 20 seconds 23 seconds
AT-09 Verifies the display section Display Section 4 minutes, 35 seconds 2 minutes, 8 seconds 1 minute, 52 seconds
AT-10 Verifies display modes Display Modes 17 minutes 45 seconds 43 seconds
AT-11 Activates HD3D and representation status with tags HD3D 1 minute, 37 seconds 47 seconds 47 seconds
AT-12 Activates face analysis and verifies displays with reflection Face Analysis 52 minutes 41 minutes 40 minutes, 33 seconds
AT-13 Rotates views in sync Synchronize View 18 seconds 16 seconds 15 seconds

Azure cost

The following table presents wall-clock times that you can use to calculate Azure costs. You can use the times presented here together with the Azure hourly rates for NVv3 and NCas_T4_v3 series VMs to calculate costs. For the current hourly costs, see Windows Virtual Machines Pricing.

Only elapsed running time of the tests is considered for these cost calculations. Application installation time isn't considered.

You can use the Azure pricing calculator to estimate the costs for your configuration.

VM size Number of GPUs Wall-clock time
NV12s_v3 1 1 hour, 23 minutes, 10 seconds
NV24s_v3 2 50 minutes, 25 seconds
NC16as_T4_v3 1 49 minutes, 18 seconds

Summary

  • NX was successfully tested on NVv3 and NCas_T4 series VMs on Azure.
  • All test cases, for both ATS and NXCP, ran successfully on 1-GPU Standard_NV12s_v3, 2-GPU Standard_NV24s_v3, and 1-GPU Standard_NC16as_T4_v3 configurations.

Contributors

This article is maintained by Microsoft. It was originally written by the following contributors.

Principal authors:

Other contributors:

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