Hora
New member
- Apr 23, 2002
- 585
I had the chance to see the new release of Pro/Engineer 2002 called also WILDFIRE. It was a 2 hours demo presented by PTC in Montreal.
From the beginig I can tell you that this new version is a huge change of Pro/Engineer. They changed not only the user interface, but the core of the program.
First of all, there are no menus at all on the right side of the screen. PTC said that the goal wasn't to transform the menus in icons, but to create a new powerful and logic tool easy to manipulate.
They gave a huge power to your mouse! All the features or actions are now on the right mouse button. The middle button will turn the part without pressing CTRL key. If your mose has a wheel for the middle button, then turning the whell will zoom the solid/draft in the screen.
There are no CUT and PROTUSIONS features! In fact they combined both of them in one single fature. You drag the mouse outside a solid you constuct a protusion. You push the mouse inside a solid you create a cut.
At any time of feature creation you can see the result on screen.
PTC added a dashboard on screen which can guide you on the feature creation.
Big changes in patterns. The demo I saw shown a round surface with a hole in a middle. Then, with a single click you tell Pro/E to fill the entire surface with a pattern hole. More than that! You can select the holes in the pattern you do not want to appear! More than that! You can now change the pattern from fill to circular! Or to spriral! All with a single right mouse button click. Remove the holes you don't want in your pattern. Is now simple like "good day".
Big changes in radius creation, too. Draft feature now is a play for kids.
Huge changes in rendering! You now can add smoke, lights and shadow to your model! The transparency is now great!
You can now e-mail an assembly directly from Pro/E sesion just clicking the right button mouse. Pro/E will zip all the parts of your assembly and will send it to your coleagues. In that way, you'll be sure that all the parts used in your assembly are sent.
All modules of Pro/E have been changed: Sheet metal, Cabling, NC machining, Toolkit, everything. Big changes. Nothig is like before. As I told you, they changed the core of Pro/Engineer.
Pro/E now can save the parts, assembly, drawings etc in 2000i, 2000i2 or 2001 versions. Great function!
But probably one of the most impressive changes they added is that now one you can use the deformed parts in your assemblies without creating instances! Let's say you have a spring and you must use it in several places in your assembly, but with diffent compressions. Till now the only way to do this id to create instances and place them in your assembly. The inconvnient was the material list will list all instances and not the "generic name" with a qty of your instances used in assembly. Now, this problem is gone. They created a special feature (deform) you can apply to your spring and use this deformed part in your assembly. Deformed once again and use it in other place. But is the same part! Finish with the instances. The BOM will give you the name of the spring and the real qty!. Great, isn't it?
I did't see the drawing module but I expect enormous changes there, too.
In few words, PTC did a great job here, and this new version of PRO/E will give big wings and power to the Pro/E users. At least, I saw something different and good! I can say as good as parametric dimensions introduced for the first time in CAD by Pro/E!
Congratulation to entire PTC team and to the engineers who worked closely with PTC to create this new release.
The Pre-Production version will be released in august 2002 and the final release probably in october.
-Hora.
From the beginig I can tell you that this new version is a huge change of Pro/Engineer. They changed not only the user interface, but the core of the program.
First of all, there are no menus at all on the right side of the screen. PTC said that the goal wasn't to transform the menus in icons, but to create a new powerful and logic tool easy to manipulate.
They gave a huge power to your mouse! All the features or actions are now on the right mouse button. The middle button will turn the part without pressing CTRL key. If your mose has a wheel for the middle button, then turning the whell will zoom the solid/draft in the screen.
There are no CUT and PROTUSIONS features! In fact they combined both of them in one single fature. You drag the mouse outside a solid you constuct a protusion. You push the mouse inside a solid you create a cut.
At any time of feature creation you can see the result on screen.
PTC added a dashboard on screen which can guide you on the feature creation.
Big changes in patterns. The demo I saw shown a round surface with a hole in a middle. Then, with a single click you tell Pro/E to fill the entire surface with a pattern hole. More than that! You can select the holes in the pattern you do not want to appear! More than that! You can now change the pattern from fill to circular! Or to spriral! All with a single right mouse button click. Remove the holes you don't want in your pattern. Is now simple like "good day".
Big changes in radius creation, too. Draft feature now is a play for kids.
Huge changes in rendering! You now can add smoke, lights and shadow to your model! The transparency is now great!
You can now e-mail an assembly directly from Pro/E sesion just clicking the right button mouse. Pro/E will zip all the parts of your assembly and will send it to your coleagues. In that way, you'll be sure that all the parts used in your assembly are sent.
All modules of Pro/E have been changed: Sheet metal, Cabling, NC machining, Toolkit, everything. Big changes. Nothig is like before. As I told you, they changed the core of Pro/Engineer.
Pro/E now can save the parts, assembly, drawings etc in 2000i, 2000i2 or 2001 versions. Great function!
But probably one of the most impressive changes they added is that now one you can use the deformed parts in your assemblies without creating instances! Let's say you have a spring and you must use it in several places in your assembly, but with diffent compressions. Till now the only way to do this id to create instances and place them in your assembly. The inconvnient was the material list will list all instances and not the "generic name" with a qty of your instances used in assembly. Now, this problem is gone. They created a special feature (deform) you can apply to your spring and use this deformed part in your assembly. Deformed once again and use it in other place. But is the same part! Finish with the instances. The BOM will give you the name of the spring and the real qty!. Great, isn't it?
I did't see the drawing module but I expect enormous changes there, too.
In few words, PTC did a great job here, and this new version of PRO/E will give big wings and power to the Pro/E users. At least, I saw something different and good! I can say as good as parametric dimensions introduced for the first time in CAD by Pro/E!
Congratulation to entire PTC team and to the engineers who worked closely with PTC to create this new release.
The Pre-Production version will be released in august 2002 and the final release probably in october.
-Hora.
