Purchase Wildfire Foundation Advantage ?

[ncprogrammer]

I am considering buying the Foundation Advantage Package. They currently list it for $4,995. and you can get an
module upgrade for "free", I would probably pick the milling package.

I don't know much about Wildfire but have driven UG and Catia V5 for quite some time now. The price is very attractive but I want to know if it is reliable enough to
actually use in the real world.

Any thoughts ?

Thank you

 

[Heckler]

NC,

I would do a search on this forum. This topic has been chewed like a cows cud. I personally, will stay with Pro/e 2001 until WF3.0 or whatever PTC is now calling it. I'm not impressed with PTC customer beta development program. I must suggest if you decide to spend that coin please get the support contract so you can upgrade when changes occur.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
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_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford

 

[dgallup]

Note that if you take that "free" module and want maintenance, they are going to charge you maintenance on the retail price of WildChild PLUS the module. WF2 is definately stable enough for production use.

 

[ncprogrammer]

dgallup,

You were right about the extra maintenance. I would definitely get maintenance even with the added cost.

Does anyone know how good PTC's tech support is ?
How about the surfacing for lofting ?

Thanks again.

 

[Heckler]

It takes a while to get an answer from tech support if your question is of any complexity. I get better response from this forum.

 

[Guest0527211403]

In regards to the surfacing question, you might want to make sure your package includes Interactive Surface Design (ISDX).

Wildfire 2 gives you some new options in the ISDX interface for creating lofted surfaces which may be to your benefit. Depending on the form itself, however, you may be able to get away with this using regular Pro/Surface.

I also agree with Heckler about PTC's support. At my last job (I don't have access to it anymore) I got completely fed up with everyone I was dealing with, since they weren't even listening to my problems and offering really bad solutions (when they actually came up with one, that is). I've noticed a steep decline in the quality of PTC's tech support over the past 2 years.

 

[williaps]

If you are interested in NC-Programming then I would wait for WF 3.0. PTC is redesigning the Pro/NC interface from the old menu driven system to the new dashboard system. I would definitely wait if NC-Programming is your focus.