Can SWx user learn to love ProE? 1

[jodamin]

I have been a SWx user for the last several years. Now, my mgmt has mandated that I work with ProE.

Keeping a good attitude is a daily struggle. ProE seems so cryptic, sluggish, inflexible, stodgy, (I could go on) and, too often, downright stupid.

In spite of all that I must make the best of it, and, please believe me, I am trying.

I would be interested to hear any words of advice and/or encouragement. There is no shortage of study materials, but if anyone can recommend any source(s) in particular, that might be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Jodamin

 

[Hora]

Jodamin,

Welcome to our club. Pro/E is less user friendly than SW. Especially ProE 2001. Wildfire is different, more Windows based.

Search for tutorials on the net , go to

http://www.proecentral.com

or

http://www.frotime.com

and download parts. Then roll back the models and try to understand how the models was done. Keep practicing and stay positive. You'll not learn the program in one day, but you will understand the functionality quickly. Then take the books/html help files and read about specific functionalities. Then the fun will start.

Also, search back on this forum and you will have more addresses for tutorials. Other people like you put the same question.

When you're stuck, search the forum first to find if someone else had the same problem. Do not search only on the first page of the folrum. This will take time, but one day you will discover that you'll love this program.

Good luck!

-Hora

 

[mloew]

Jodamin,

In addition to Hora's suggestions, please also check the FAQ section for this forum. My best advise is to learn to think like the software. Once you become accustomed to the layout, it becomes intuitive. Frustration comes from inconsistencies and when thinking back to how it was done in the other package.

One thing that you will find in Pro/ENGINEER that is not featured in any other MCAD software is Behavioral Modeling. Check it out.





Best regards,

Matthew Ian Loew
"I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days" -- M.C. Escher

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[Heckler]

Jodamin,

I feel your pain. I came to Pro/E from six years of SWx and I can honestly say it has been a love/hate relationship but Pro/E has some goodies that SWx just falls short on. And from what I read I've just skimmed the surface of Pro/Es potential. But this site has been a great resource along with the links to other useful sites. Best of luck and remember yell if you need some help.

 

[rockguy]

jodamin,

I also feel your pain. I just started demoing Wildfire 2 after using SW for 6 yrs and it seems the UI was developed 20 years ago. I feel like I'm looking at a windows 95 screen. I understand what is going on but it seems very difficult (non intuative) to achieve even basic parts. When I learned SW I was modeling good parts in a couple of weeks time. A week with the demo and I just can't seem to pick up the interface. To many questions, dialogs, clicks, options, etc.

Is it true there is no "shaded with edges" view setting like SW? I can't find one and I'm having a very difficult time viewing parts in shaded mode.

I hope it gets better. Most times I get started and then fustrated and then more fustrated and after a few hours I've just had enough.

 

[Guest0527211403]

There is a config option "show_shaded_edges"... set it to "yes".

-Mark

 

[rockguy]

Thanks, justkeepgiviner. I'll see what I can found about these config options and see what I can do about changing it. If I change the config does it place a button on the toolbar like the "shaded", "wireframe", etc view buttons or do I have to keep toggling the config to yes and no?

Again thank you.

 

[Guest0527211403]

No problem.

Your best bet is to save the config.pro file (At the top of the configuration options UI there is a save buttom) to the working directory that Pro/Engineer starts up in. At that point, shaded models will always have their edges shown. If you want an on-off button, you need to make a mapkey and add a button (in other words, don't worry about that right now).

If you are unsure of Pro/E startup working directory, load up Pro/E, press "open" and the directory that you first end up in is your starting working directory.

Any options in the config.pro file that is in the startup working directory are loaded up with Pro/Engineer at startup.

You can also create a more "global" config.pro file if you create one in your root directory (usually c:/ on windows machines). There are actually 4 locations that Pro/E tries to "grab" config.pro files from on startup, allowing you to have varying levels of standardization and customization.

-Mark