1. Home

NX software & academic certification

NX resources for students

Siemens Digital Industries Software provides students with resources to help you learn NX, get certified, and prepare for a career in engineering. Jumpstart your career with these resources today.

Free student software download

Try NX Student Edition

Kick-start your design or manufacturing career with this free student edition of NX. It provides comprehensive 3D design tools, including wire-frame, surface, solid and synchronous modeling, as well as a full suite of CAM programming tools. NX Student Edition brings you the most powerful and integrated design, manufacturing and simulation software for free.

A girl on a laptop designing a coffee machine in NX CAD
On-demand webinar

NX Student Day 2024

Register for NX Student Day 2024 where you will learn from academic and industry professionals how to jumpstart your engineering career and be prepared for the next generation of engineering.

Watch now on-demand to hear from representatives from Bombardier, Seneca Polytechnic, TÜV SÜD, SONY, Prolotek Technologies, Sansera Engineering and Siemens Digital Industries Software.

3 students in a library working on homework

Free NX CAD: NX Student Edition

NX Student Edition is a comprehensive software download for NX CAD and CAM. It is only available for Windows (64-bit). The current version available to download is for the December 2024 release of NX.

NX Student Edition includes:

  • Comprehensive 3D design tools including wire-frame, surface, solid, and synchronous modeling
  • Full suite of CAM programming tools to allow creation of NC data for 2- to 5-axis and wire-edm machine tools
  • Sophisticated freeform shape modeling, surface continuity, analysis, and visualization tools
  • Output to 3D printing format supported

It's easy to start your engineering journey. Simply visit the NX Student Edition page, sign up for an account, confirm your email and enjoy your free student download!

Siemens Xcelerator narrow logo

NX Curriculum Package

Learn NX CAD at your own pace with this eBook, embedded videos and lab exercises.

How to get certified in NX CAD

The NX Design Associate (recommended for students) and NX Design Professional certifications are awarded to students who pass the respective exams. They are virtually proctored exams.

Students who have access to NX through their academic institution will need to reach out to their school or their Siemens account contact for information on vouchers or discounts for the certification exams.

Students who do not have access to NX through their academic institution can use the NX Student Edition for the certification exams and Siemens Xcelerator Academy courses.

NX Design Associate

This certification exam validates knowledge of determining modeling strategies; creating & editing solid models, assembly models and structures; parametric vs. non-parametric modeling techniques and associative links between parts using NX CAD.

NX Design Professional

This certification will validate abilities and competencies on surface modelling processes and curve geometry; PMI structures and 3D model usage for downstream application; HD3D tools and validation features and documenting with drafting using NX CAD.

Siemens Xcelerator Academy

It is highly recommended that you follow the Siemens Xcelerator Academy on-demand courses to prior to taking the exams. As a student, you can receive free access to Siemens Xcelerator Academy through verifying your academic status with the SheerID verification process.

Credentialing exam

NX CAD certifications

Ready to prove your knowledge of NX CAD? Register for the NX Design Associate and/or NX Design Professional exam and get your digital badges for NX today!

Two digital badges reading "Siemens Xcelerator Academy Certified NX Design Associate 2025" and "Siemens Xcelerator Academy Certified NX Design Professional 2025"

Frequently asked questions - NX CAD certifications

Learn NX CAD on Coursera

Two new courses are now available for free on Coursera for learning engineering with NX. Note that the paid Certificate offered by Coursera for completing and passing the courses are separate from the Siemens Xcelerator Academy NX Design Associate and NX Design Professional certifications.

Intro to Siemens' NX: Engineering Essentials and Part Design is a 15-hour course to learn the essentials of NX CAD/CAM/CAE tools. Prior experience is not required.

Siemens' NX Mastery: Advanced Design & Applications is a 14-hour advanced design and 3D modeling course that builds upon the prerequisite introductory course.

NX for educators & academic institutions

Are you looking for information on behalf of an academic institution? Explore our free academic resources.

Get empowered to teach your students how to create the innovations of the future. The Siemens Academic Partner Program enables free access to student engineering software, training, and curriculum.

Free engineering curriculum material downloads are also available on our website.

Student competition teams can also leverage the Academic Partner Program for free software access for your teams.

For information about getting NX CAD/CAM/CAE software for your school, learn more from the NX Academic edition fact sheet.

Academic Partner Program grant application

Request academic products to support classroom instruction or student teams.

On-demand webinar

What's new in NX Academic Edition

Watch the on-demand to learn about the newest CAD features in NX Academic Edition.

You will also learn the benefits of using, teaching and learning with the newest software, how to update your NX Academic Edition and more about our free student resources.

NX capabilities featured in this webinar may not be available in the free NX Student Edition.

A girl using NX Performance Predictor on a desktop computer.

Stay up to date with us

Keep up to date on new capabilities, events and tips with blogs from NX CAD or the academic team. The NX CAD blog includes Tips & Tricks, How to, What’s New, Introducing and Clicks & Tricks series to help you learn as new updates are released.

NX Design

Academic

Community forums for NX academic

Want to start a discussion, join a conversation or need help? Check out the community forums!

Siemens Software Student Connect LinkedIn

Related resources