Continue to Site

Welcome to MCAD Central

Join our MCAD Central community forums, the largest resource for MCAD (Mechanical Computer-Aided Design) professionals, including files, forums, jobs, articles, calendar, and more.

Wildfire praise and boo hoo’s

Interesting web links. Bart Brejcha needs a proof reader in the worst way! Seems like most of the functionality that was added to ProE is involved with surfacing (it's still ProEngineer, Wildfire is the release; a point that seems to be missed by Mr. Brejcha). Not being a big user of surfaces I'm still in the yawn stage as far a Wildfire is concerned.



They've greatly improved the help files but I'd hardly call that a revolutionary release. More of a fix what was broken which I think PTC should focus more of their attention on.



The much acclaimed user interface is a gooey mess. Even Mr. Brejcha (never met new software I didn't like because I get to sell more training classes) admits that the interface jumps back and forth from the new more Windowsy interface to the old menu manager. What's sad is that functionality that was in the menu manager is gone (e.g. no query select). I've got nothing against changing the pan and rotate to the middle button or adding zoom in/out with the scroll wheel but how do you zoom to a specific box without having to go up and click on the +Magnifing glass, go back to the model and then click to get out of the zoom mode?? Overall they seem to have made as many things harder as they did easier.



According to the article SKELETON - With Pro/ENGINEER 2001 foundation, a user in the past could not do a data share. With Wildfire foundation you can. You just can
 
Query select isn't necessary anymore in Wildfire; that's why the specific command isn't available. If you want to query through a list of possible choices when doing a pick, all you need to do is click with the right mouse button, and the underlying selection will highlight instead. So in essence you're always in Query Select mode. (Pick from List is available from a right mouse click and hold.) IMHO this is a massive improvement over the old Get Select menu.



David Martin

Torgon Industries
 
>Query select isn't necessary anymore in Wildfire;



I was afraid that was the answer. The cycling through entities is a really lame replacement for query select. Often you can't get the entity you want without zooming in (which is harder in WF). Also, what feature is currently highlighted is very difficult to tell. It's certainly much easier and faster to pick from a list.



Gotta love how PTC has decided to eliminate many of the nuts and bolts features in the name of ease of use and call it an upgrade. Whoever is pushing the text is evil mantra at PTC needs to be sacked ASAP!



Regarding the notion, With Pro/ENGINEER 2001 foundation, a user in the past could not do a data share. With Wildfire foundation you can. I just tested this out. The feature is based on the new license and works the same with 2001 as it does in WF. Yes they included it this with the WF release but you don't have to be running WF to use it and it's certainly not a new feature in ProE. Gotta thank whoever at PTC pushed through the idea of enabling the upgrades for prior releases.



I'm at a point now where I can work with WF on some non-production items. The scales are tipping more toward sticking with 2001.



Bart Brejcha's article asks What does the name Wildfire imply?:



wild.fire \'wi(*)l(d)-.fi(*)r\ n 1 : a sweeping and destructive conflagration



-Bernie-
 
If you want to use the old style of Query Select, then right mouse click and hold and select Pick from List. And this Pick from List corrects one of the deficiencies from 2001 Query Select; previously, right mouse button could only advance down the list once. Now right mouse click from Pick from List cycles through the list over and over.



Wildfire is so much better than 2001 because it makes the user so much more productive. You can truly focus on the model now, with all the drag handles and all the new options they've added to right mouse button functionality when you're creating or editing the definition of something.



At first I found all the new icons and dashboard buttons a little overwhelming, but once you get over the learning curve (which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be), the capabilities save so much time-- toggling a feature between being a cut or a protrusion, solid or surface; changing pattern definitions; assembling components using component interfaces, etc.



David Martin

Torgon Industries
 
Thanks David,



Score one for WF.



Safety note, you have to have the mouse pointer over where you'd be picking before holding down the right mouse button (makes sense). Works like a charm. I'd never used the right mouse button to cycle through the list; pretty handy.



>changing pattern definitions; assembling components >using component interfaces



These are two things I've yet to dabble into. Both hold the potential for converting me to the WF camp.



I still think if they're going to throw the menu manager up there anyway they might as well have included Pick from List (use the new verbage for consistency).



-Bernie-
 
Yeah, I can't wait until the menu manager is completely gone from all modes of Pro E. Sounds like it'll be 2005 until that happens.



Defining component interfaces at the component level was available in 2001? I know they wanted that ready for the 2001 release but didn't finish the code in time. But here are a couple things that were definitely not available in 2001: autoplacing components using temporary interfaces, and dragging components from the browser window into the graphics area and having them autoplace. (That's just neat.)



The thing that really sells me on Wildfire as opposed to 2001 is not having to follow a rigid sequence of selections in order to create or edit the definition of a feature. You can do things in the order you want to, and you're focusing on the model and not the menus when you're doing it. For example, when creating datums in 2001, you pick the icon, then choose from a list of options for how you want the datum constrained. Now you focus on selecting the references, and the method is implied. (Except for 4 types of datum curves, IIRC.) It's so much faster, and the tools are so much more consistent in the way they operate.



Dave Martin

Torgon Industries
 
2001 Hidden config.pro option:

ENABLE_COMPONENT_INTERFACES yes



I've only tried it a few times just to see how it worked. I've not enabled it for our users here as a default.



-Brian Adkins
 

Sponsor

Articles From 3DCAD World

Back
Top