With user defined features, NX enables companies to interactively capture, store, and re-use intelligent part or feature families. Designers can begin with any NX parametric solid model and add part knowledge in the form of feature variables and relationships between parameters. These intelligent user-defined features can be stored in libraries for easy access in creating families of parts. To create a new standard part or variant, designers simply drag and drop the feature from a library palette into the design window and enter the required parameter values. NX then automatically builds an intelligent solid model based on the stored definition.

User defined features can help eliminate detail design complexity by automating standard or company-specific processes, enabling designers to execute multiple-step design tasks simply and quickly. Stored in libraries for easy access, user-defined features can be applied to design models as easily as any geometric feature, and can tap company knowledge bases to ensure that designs adhere to established methods and proven quality.