NX Nastran 10 Documentation Installation

The NX Nastran 10 documentation has been redesigned to improve searching and to eliminate the
problems due to Java updates. The new documentation design requires that you host the
documentation using a web server.

If you are installing the documentation on an individual machine without a company wide web server,
use the local installation instructions. With the local installation, you first install the Siemens PLM
documentation server that is included with the installation media, and then you install the
documentation. The Siemens PLM documentation server is a small, self-contained web server that runs
as the service 'Siemens PLM Documentation Server'. The service starts automatically after you complete
the installation and after your system reboots. Other Siemens PLM documentation installations can also
be served locally using this web server.

If you are installing the documentation in a network location and hosting it using your existing web
server, use the company wide installation instructions. In this scenario, you will not install the Siemens
PLM documentation server.

Minimum System Requirement

Windows and Linux operating systems must be 64-bit.
Java 7 (1.7.0_72) or higher (64-bit Java is required).
If you have an earlier version of the 64-bit Java installed, or you have only 32-bit Java installed, or you do
not have any version of Java installed, the installation will stop and you will receive the following
message:
“Java Version 1.7 (64-bit) or higher is required. Found version 1.0.”

Local Installation Instructions on Windows

1. Log in as administrator. When you load the installation media on a Windows machine, the autoplay
capability should open automatically. If it doesn’t, use Windows Explorer to open the drive containing
the installation media, and then double-click AutoPlay.exe. The installation page includes options to
install the license server, NX Nastran, the new documentation web server, and the documentation.

2. Select Install SPLM Documentation Server. When prompted, you can use the default port number
8181 unless you have a known conflict. The SPLM documentation server will start automatically during
installation. You can verify that it is running by opening Component Services on your machine. This is
also where you can optionally stop and start the SPLM documentation server if needed. To open
Component Services, type services at the bottom of the Windows Start menu.

3. Select Install NX Nastran Documentation to install the documentation. You must install the
documentation in the same location as the SPLM documentation server, and you must use the same
port number as in step 2.

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4. After the installation is complete, to open the documentation, you can select the new shortcut under
Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 in the Windows Start menu, or enter the following URL in your web browser.
Replace ‘8181’ with your port number if it is different.
http://localhost:8181/tdoc/nxnastran/10/help/#uid:index

Local Installation Instructions on Linux

1. Log in as administrator and load the installation media.

2. Run splmdocserver_install to install the SPLM documentation server. When prompted, you can use
the default port number 8181 unless you have a known conflict. The SPLM documentation server will
start automatically during installation.

3. Run nastrandoc_install to install the documentation. The documentation will be installed in the same
location as the SPLM documentation server.

4. After the installation is complete, to open the documentation, enter the following URL in your web
browser. Replace ‘8181’ with your port number if it is different.
http://localhost:8181/tdoc/nxnastran/10/help/#uid:index

5. Enter the following commands to stop and start the SPLM documentation server on Linux.

/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S15splmdocserver stop
/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S15splmdocserver start

Company Wide Installation on Windows

1. Log in as administrator. When you load the installation media on a Windows machine, the autoplay
capability should open automatically. If it doesn’t, use Windows Explorer to open the drive containing
the installation media, and then double-click AutoPlay.exe. The installation page includes options to
install the license server, NX Nastran, the new documentation web server, and the documentation.

2. Select Install NX Nastran Documentation to install the documentation.

3. After the documentation installation is complete, browse to the documentation installation location.
By default, the documentation is installed at C:\Program Files\Siemens\PLM Documentation Server.
Open the file README.rtf and follow the instructions to deploy the documentation and the Solr search
to your web server.

Company Wide Installation on Linux

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1. Log in as administrator and load the installation media.

2. Run nastrandoc_install to install the documentation.

3. After the documentation installation is complete, browse to the documentation installation location.
Open the file README.txt and follow the instructions to deploy the documentation and the Solr search
to your web server.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any problems, there are log files in the following locations that can help.

C:\Program Files\Siemens\PLM Documentation Server

The logs in this directory include information about the server startup and shutdown, as well as
messages on activity on the web server.

C:\Program Files\Siemens\PLM Documentation Server\logs

The logs in this directory include tdoc_client.txt, data_service.txt, and the server log files.

C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\Apache
The logs in this directory are from the Siemens PLM documentation service.

Unattended Installation on Windows

The installation of both the Siemens PLM documentation server and the NX Nastran documentation may
also be accomplished by an unattended installation. This feature may aid system administrators with a
large number of site installations. This method is also typically much faster than the standard GUI based
install.

Caution: Use of this type of installation is intended for experienced installers only.

The unattended installation is controlled by the Windows system component, msiexec.exe. In order to
install silently you must pass switches specific configurable properties to msiexec.exe on the command
line. The msiexec.exe program has several command line switches. For full documentation on these
switches, see the Microsoft help documentation (Help and Support) for “msiexec.”

A few of the commonly used command line switches are:

/h – msiexec help, will list available switches.

/i – specifies the input .msi file to be used.

{e.g. msiexec /i "Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 Documentation.msi"}

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/q – specifies the UI level. /qn+ specifies no dialogs except for the ending “install done” dialog
{recommended}. /qn specifies a silent installation with no dialogs. If this option is used there is no
indication when the installation completes; you must use Task Manager to monitor the “msiexec.exe”.

/L – specifies a logfile to be created, and the level of the messages to be written to the logfile.. {e.g
msiexec /L*v “logfile”} This example gives the most verbose log file. See msiexec switches for various
logfile switch options.

/x - specifies the input .msi file to be used for de-installation.

{e.g. msiexec /x “Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 Documentation.msi”}

Siemens PLM Documentation Server Unattended Install

The configurable properties for the documentation server installation are:

INSTALLDIR – this property sets the directory where the documentation server will be installed. If not
specified this will default to C:\Program Files\Siemens\PLM Documentation Server. This directory will
also be used by the NX Nastran documentation installation, so choose a disk with plenty of space.

STARTPORT – this property sets the TCP port which the documentation server will use. It must be a port
that is unused on your system. The installation will check to make sure that the port is not currently in
use.

Caution: The msiexec.exe examples below may appear on multiple lines because of document
formatting but they must be entered on your computer as one line. Arguments with embedded spaces
must be quoted.

The following is an example of a silent installation of the documentation server. By default, it will install
in the default installation directory C:\Program Files\Siemens\PLM Documentation Server and it will use
the default STARTPORT of 8181. The “/qn+” switch will cause an ending message dialog to appear. No
other dialogs will appear.

msiexec.exe /qn+ /i "Siemens PLM Documentation Server.msi"

The following is an example that shows a documentation server installation in a user-specified directory
with a specific port. The “/qn+” switch will cause an ending message dialog to appear. No other dialogs
will appear.

msiexec.exe /qn+ /i "Siemens PLM Documentation Server.msi" INSTALLDIR="E:\Program

Files\MyInstalls" STARTPORT=8282

The following example shows a verbose (*v) log file generated to c:\temp\install.log. The “/qn” switch
will cause no dialogs to appear. If you use the /qn switch with no “+” sign, you must use Task Manager
to monitor the “msiexec.exe” as there will be no indication when the installation completes.

msiexec.exe /qn /L*v c:\temp\install.log /i "Siemens PLM Documentation Server.msi”

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The following example shows a de-installation of the documentation server. Only an ending dialogue
will appear.

msiexec.exe /qn+ /x "Siemens PLM Documentation Server.msi"

NX Nastran Documentation Unattended Install

The configurable properties for the documentation installation are:

INSTALLDIR – this property sets the directory where the documentation will be installed. If not specified
this will default to “C:\Program Files\Siemens\PLM Documentation Server”.

SERVER_PORT – this property sets the TCP port used to connect with the documentation web server.

SHOWUPLOAD – when installing on a system containing the Siemens PLM documentation server, the
documentation install will upload the Solr search indices to the server. This is done in a background
process that is not shown. Setting the SHOWUPLOAD=SHOW property; will cause the command prompt
window to be shown and kept up so the user can see the results of the upload process. To continue
with the install, the user must exit the shell. Typically this is not required, and is only included for
unforeseen cases where the upload fails.

Note: The INSTALLDIR command line property is always overridden by the Registry Key:
HKLM\Software\Siemens\PLMDocServer\INSTALLDIR that is placed in the Registry by the Siemens PLM
documentation server installation. The INSTALLDIR property is only effective on workstations which do
not have the documentation server installed.

The SERVER_PORT command line property is always overridden by the Registry Key:
HKLM\Software\Siemens\PLMDocServer\STARTPORT that is placed in the Registry by the Siemens PLM
documentation server installation. The SERVER_PORT property is only effective on workstations which
do not have documentation server installed.

Caution: The msiexec.exe examples below may appear on multiple lines because of document
formatting but they must be entered on your computer as one line. Arguments with embedded spaces
must be quoted.

The following is an example of an unattended installation of the NX Nastran documentation. By default,

it will install the documentation in the default installation directory using the default port. The “/qn+”
switch will cause an ending message dialog to appear. No other dialogs will appear.

msiexec.exe /qn+ /i "Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 Documentation.msi"

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The following is an example that shows a NX Nastran documentation installation in a user-specified
directory. The “/qn+” switch will cause an ending message dialog to appear. No other dialogs will
appear.

msiexec.exe /qn+ /i "Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 Documentation.msi" INSTALLDIR="E:\Program

Files\MyInstalls"

The following example shows a verbose (*v) log file generated to c:\temp\install.log. The “/qn” switch
will cause no dialogs to appear. If you use the /qn switch with no “+” sign, you must use Task Manager
to monitor the “msiexec.exe” as there will be no indication when the installation completes.

msiexec.exe /qn /L*v c:\temp\install.log /i "Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 Documentation.msi”

ADDLOCAL=all

The following example shows a de-installation of the NX Nastran documentation. Only an ending
dialogue will appear.

msiexec.exe /qn+ /x "Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 Documentation.msi"

Uninstalling the NX Nastran Documentation

To remove the documentation, run the setup and select “Remove” or use the Windows Control Panel
Uninstall utility and select:

Start - Control Panel - Programs and Features - Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 Documentation

You may also use the msiexec silent installation option “/x” to uninstall the documentation:

msiexec.exe /qn+ /x "Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 Documentation.msi »

Note: Uninstallation tip – The documentation contains many files, consequently it may take a long time
for MSI to uninstall all these files and remove registry entries.

The documentation contents for NX Nastran 10 are installed by default to:

C:\Program Files\Siemens\PLM Documentation Server\Collections\nxnastran\10

De-installation is much quicker if these files are deleted prior to running msiexec. You must take care as
other products, versions and languages will be installed into the Collections sub-directory. For example
if you have installed both the Japanese documentation and the English documentation you will have the
directories:

C:\Program Files\PLM Documentation Server\Collections\nxnastran\10\help\ja_JP

C:\Program Files\PLM Documentation Server\Collections\nxnastran\10\help\en_US

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If you then want to de-install the Japanese documentation, you would only remove the ja_JP directory.
Then js and graphics directories are shared, and the en_US directory contains the English
documentation.

Experienced administrators may delete the content directories first and then use:

msiexec /qn+ /x "Siemens NX Nastran 10.0 Documentation.msi"