Pro/E Ease of Use /

I am a student looking for some information about Pro/E to include in a Research Paper. In the paper I am including a comparison study between Pro/E and SolidWorks. I have a couple of quick questions below. I am hoping to get a decent response to the questions I have here.


1. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the most difficult and 10 being the easiest how would you rate Pro/E'sease of use?


2. What training courses did you complete, or what do you feel is necessary to become efficient in Pro/E?


Thanks. I hope you all have a Happy HolidaySeason.

I believe Pro E is easy to use, but what is expected is not easy to do.... I will give it a 5 rating..


I took a couple of courses at the tech to get a head start, but it will take years of experince to become very efficient at it, because it is a very versile tool and can be customized per user. It has alot of options that you have to play with to become good at them all..


I would say that intent manager was a big step in user friendly. The pattern feature in WF2 is leaps an bound better than it used to be also... I have been a user since 2000i...

I have been a user since 2000i and WF2 is a huge leap ahead. However changing to WF meant that we all required major hardware changes to our graphics cards and hardware.


We had graduate engineers starting with us that have only used Solid works before and have found the terminology the hardest to come to grips with. However they have all mentioned how powerful it is once the fundamentals have been mastered.


I would tend to believe that WF2 has the edge on Solid works at the moment but WF does have some dreadful configurations, shelling out to notepad looking screens to configure it! (ie print/plot pens).


I would rate it 9/10 functionality, 5/10 for ease of learning and PTC support 3/10. The support on this side of the world links up with China or India. If you can get over the language barrier they refer you back to the manual- or dont even bother getting back to you. The most help that I have got so far is from this forum!

I've been using ProE extensively since 1995 and it is much improved since then.


The old menus were so cumbersome and layered they virtually forced you to make dozens of macros to operate efficiently. The new interface is far more transparent and better organized. I'd give it a 7 out of 10. And from what I've seen of WF3 that will go up to an 8.


I used ProE in college and had three training courses early on in my career. But because the software is so customizable, you need to use it for a while to feel really comfortable with it. The best thing a training course can do is show you basic feature functions and modeling techniques.


Even more important, I think, is a work environment that allows the time and opportunity to be experimental and creative.I don't think I've done anything the exact same way twice. Finding new and better ways to do things is a major part of the appeal of the work. I know of companies that have very rigid CAD standards right down to the order of feature creation in a model. To methat's like giving Van Gogh a paint by numbers kit.


Also take a look at the guts of models made by the experienced users in your office or on the webto see how they did things. Incorporate the parts you like into your own work and feel free to change them around. CAD modeling is a bit of an art. The best models not only look good they have elegant strcuture. Think of it that way and you'll not only enjoy your work more, your work will be better for it.



Edited by: tshamp