How easy is Pro/E? 3

[Doohickie]

When I was a newly minted engineer in the 80s and into the 90s, I did a lot of design work on CADAM, and to a lesser extent on CATIA and AutoCAD. I have a natural aptitude for picturing things in my mind and transferring them into a CAD program.

The last five to ten years, I've moved over to doing some project management, systems and test engineering, but I found out today that my current work group may be dissolved. My manager said he can put me to work doing some CAD design using Pro/E if it comes to that. I told him I could pick up Pro/E quickly and wouldn't mind getting back into design at all.

So now that I've sold myself into a Pro/E job, my question for the forum is can I do it? For those of you familiar with, say, CATIA (my most recent CAD work experience), how hard is it to pick up Pro/E? What resources would you recommend to rapidly get me up to speed?

To be honest, I'm almost hoping my current group does go belly up if it means I can get back to doing design. I enjoyed it when I got to do it in the past.

 

[Heckler]

Pro/E is not hard to learn but it's hard to master. It's nothing like CADAM or AutoCAD. What version of CATIA have you used? I would buy a good book and check the resources in the FAQ section.

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 4.0 & Pro/E 2001
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

This post contains no political overtones or undertones for that matter and in no way represents the poster's political agenda.

 

[slamdfullsize]

Like Heckler said, I'm still in school for ME, but one of our classes spent half a semester teaching us ProE. Now granted they didnt go into great depth, but from the basics that I learned in that class, I have been able to create some pretty neat parts. There is still much I dont know, but I know enough to make me dangerous (that make sense?).

However, for your unique situation, I would look into a few things, definately pick up a book. Make sure it is the same version as some features seem to change slightly between updates (nothing that cant be figured out, but it helps when ur first starting out). Also, if you are going to be using Mechanica or any other part of the ProE package, pick up books on those as well.

What would be best, of course, is to see if your company would pay for a ProE class. They might have one at your local community college, if not there are several companies that do such classes.

Good luck

 

[cadcamguy]

Okay, it's $300 for the ProE Personal Edition, but it certainly would allow you to get your feet wet in the meanwhile...

http://www.journeyed.com/itemDetail.asp?ItmNo=60014903N

and it's not going to harm you...might cause you some headaches ;-)... but at least they would be at home ...

 

[Doohickie]

Thanks for the resources; I'll take a look.

Whether or not I will need to use Pro/E in the short run is up in the air right now but it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get more familiar with it. I'll also have to see if my home PC has enough power to run the Personal Edition.

Thanks a lot for the help and links. If I end up getting back into CAD, I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions.

 

[Doohickie]

cadcamguy: That package is called Pro/E Wildfire; what does "Wildfire" mean?

 

[cadcamguy]

what does "Wildfire" mean

I always thought it was a song by Michael Martin Murphey

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Q_89EL-js&feature=related

but seriously just a name they picked cause I guess they thought it would mean more than ProE r2006...etc

 

[cadcamguy]

u might be able to still get WF2 for less than the $300 dollars they want for WF3 ... kind of depends what rev. your work will be using.... we still are on WF2 where I am , so that's what I got

also if you sign up for a class you can get it for $100 as a student...

btw ... not sure if it really quite official yet.. but WF4 is out.. but I don't think there will be a PE out for awhile

 

[Doohickie]

Okay thanks. If I switch over to the job with Pro/E I'll be in another office and don't have easy access to the Pro/E computers right now, so I have no clue which version they're using. I understand that it's best to learn the same version I'll be using at work, but if I can get close for $100, that at least gets my foot in the door. I guess I'll check to see if Pro/E is offered at the community college.

 

[Doohickie]

My manager said the version of Pro/E they have is "2001". That sounds different from the 2.0 format. Is that an antique or what?

 

[Hora]

It is not so "antique", is still good and stable, but more clicks to do. The big difference between 2001 and Wildfire is the graphic interface and sketcher. Patterns are more powerfull in Wildfire.

-Hora

 

[cadcamguy]

No not really... it does not have some of the bells that wf has... it has more of a menu driven interface... in a lot of ways .. I like it

You are probably going to have a harder time finding a r2001 PE tho....

Not sure on the legalistics on buying it on ebay or the likes.. i don't think it's resellable.

You certainly will stand a better chance if you are in a larger city..by checking around at some of the uni's there... but more than likely , all you're going to find is WF

might check with the manager and see if there if there is anything available there at work

 

[mjcole]

Wildfire is a good tool but there has been very little development of new tools and the sketcher is almost identical to the 2001 version in terms of functionality. If something goes wrong in your sketch you'll need to do most or all of the work to find out what it is. I'd suggest going for a walk if/when you start to get frustrated.

"That package is called Pro/E Wildfire; what does "Wildfire" mean?"

I thought it was just the oppositte of Windchill.

Michael

 

[ProEDesigner00]

Wildfire is the new catch phrase PTC came up with. I begain my Pro/E experience on R19, I got to enjoy having to generate your sketches for Pro/E to recognize the sketch and then produce the 3d geometry. I miss the pull down menus. It was alot faster to go through the menus then it is now. I know I am going to get flack here but the perifery of your vision could "see where your curser had to be to select what you wanted and then as those picks were repeated you could create your own functional map keyes instead of all the Icon driven stuff. I have very little Icons around my window so a person can actually see the working screen as a good size. When I was being trained in WF2 several years ago I told the PTC rep that they will realize they had things right back in R16. The functionality is better no doubt but all this trying to do things the windows way is not all favorable. my 2 cents

 

[Heckler]

Wildfire is the new catch phrase PTC came up with

PTC really bollocks things up when they came out with WF1.....WF3 is heading in the right direction but I've always believed that Pro/E 2001 is the best full functional version of Pro/E

"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 4.0 & Pro/E 2001
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

This post contains no political overtones or undertones for that matter and in no way represents the poster's political agenda.

 

[ProEDesigner00]

I agree

 

[davidinindy]

"all this trying to do things the windows way is not all favorable"

Well, I for one like things to work at least similar to all other windows programs.

"Save as", for one... In all other programs, the new copy becomes what's on the screen, and you can start working on it.
Pro-E is not that way, and after three years, I still catch myself changing the old file, instead of the new one.

As to how easy it is to learn, I agree with the first answer. It's not hard to learn and become productive, but I don't know anyone who has mastered it.
With all of the cryptic configs, and hidden options, It would be a full time job investigating all of them.
it is not intuitive at all.

David

 

[davidinindy]

Oh... and not being able to have file names or folders with spaces... Goes against all other programs. This makes it really combersome working with imported files. You have to rename them and use underscores, or dashes in place of spaces. UGH!

David

 

[Hora]

David, think before writing...about "save as". The part you want to save as maybe is included in many others assemblies. If you changehe name of a component, you will screw up all other assemblies. Sorry, but the way it was implemented is the right way.

CATIA is working as you described and is awfull.

-Hora

 

[davidinindy]

I'm sorry... I meant "Save a copy"... My mistake.
When making a new part that's similar to an existing one, I often do this.
This is a perfect example. In other programs you can "Save as" and it saves a copy of your file and makes it active, while keeping the existing file intact.
Pro/E's version is "Save a copy", yet it works differently.

David