NX Synchronous Modeling: The Tools Practitioners Actually Reach For

Two independent practitioner write-ups converge on essentially the same shortlist of synchronous-modeling commands, which is a useful signal for which tools matter most day-to-day.

Move Face, Delete Face, Resize Face (Swoosh Technologies, Dominic Santoro, October 1, 2020)

Context: synchronous modeling is especially valuable for imported files (STEP, STL) that arrive with no editable feature history.

Move Face — extends or retracts an entire face along a selected plane or angle.

• Workflow: select target face(s) → choose motion type → define vector direction (plus pivot point if rotating) → enter a distance (positive/negative) or drag the handle interactively.
• Gotcha: despite being a "direct" edit, Move Face is recorded in the model history and can be edited later (double-click/right-click), so it's not entirely history-free — a detail that surprises users expecting synchronous edits to leave zero trace.

Delete Face — removes a feature like a hole cleanly.

• Key tip: enable the "Heal" option in the dialog so NX automatically fills the void left behind. Skipping Heal is a common cause of leaving an open/invalid body after a delete-face operation.

Resize Face — changes cylindrical feature dimensions (e.g., hole diameters).

• Selecting a face auto-detects its diameter; there's an option to resize all equal-radius features at once, useful for updating a family of same-size holes in one action.

Source: Synchronous Modeling Top 3 Tools: Move Face, Delete Face, Resize Face — Swoosh Technologies

Six-tool overview (Siemens Designcenter blog, Alex Discher)

• Move Face — reposition geometry directly, drag via directional arrows or type exact values.
• Resize Hole — edit multiple identical holes at once using "Find Clone" to keep a family of holes consistent without editing each individually.
• Replace Face — swap one face for another; particularly valuable on imported models that have no feature history to edit conventionally.
• Delete Face — remove geometry directly without navigating the (often nonexistent) feature history.
• Resize Pattern — auto-detects patterned features and lets you adjust instance count and pitch distance directly on an imported/dumb body.
• Radiate Face — offsets revolved geometry normal to the axis of revolution rather than to the surface normal, which matters for keeping cylindrical/revolved features and interference fits dimensionally correct after an offset.

Source: Designcenter NX | Tips & Tricks | Synchronous Modeling

Practical takeaway

If you only learn a handful of synchronous commands, practitioners converge on: Move Face, Delete Face (with Heal), Resize Face/Hole, Replace Face. These four cover the overwhelming majority of "fix up an imported part" and "quick edit without rebuilding history" tasks that come up in real design work.