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Best Tutorial Books WF 4.0

A

Arbiter

New member
Hi Folks,
I am working on designing my own aircraft to build and I have selected Pro/E Wildfire 4.0 as my platform to use. I have gone through the Cellphone tutorial for Pro/E and learned quite a bit. However, it falls short of my needs. I am hoping to be able to learn the following:

-How do I best manage large assemblies
-What is the proper way to create the surfaces that make up the fuselage and the wings (Solids/Quilts Etc..)
-How do I manage layers and set up config.pro file to meet my needs (Tolerances, display settings, accuracy, etc...)
-How to use Pro/E in general
- And ON AND ON AND ON!!!

My question to the resident experts is:

What would you recommend for books and how-to guides that provide a structured way to learn all the facets of pro/E, Mechanism, and Mechanica. I've got a lot of work I need to do in order to accomplish my goal, and I don't want to start on a decade long project without a decent understanding of Pro/E at the get go. I really appreciate your time you've taken to help me so far on this forum, the information has been invaluable to me so far! Thanks!

-Chris Z.
 
Bart,
I would like nothing more than to take a 4 week class!!! But it's $4800. This is not for my professional career (Where I work we use Unigraphics and Engineers don't do the CAD modeling work anyway) so I definitely don't have that kind of budget for training. You folks over at Design engine look like your classes would be awesome and very very helpful. Unfortunately I cannot afford it or the time off work to do it... :(
smiley19.gif
. Thank you for the suggestion, and if I am ever in a financial position to do so and it would still be beneficial I would love to take one of your classes. Especially the surfacing one! Thanks!

-Chris
Edited by: Arbiter
 
there is a delema worthy of discussion.

Let me paint my learning curve/progression. First we state one obvious point. Engineers tend to learn on their own... Thats why you hire an engineer because they figure out how to do things.


I learned surfacing on my own... after two years of using it (1994) I was the expert. I imported geometry from Alias, rebuilt it in Pro/SURFACE and basically set standards at Motorola for managing import geometry.Three years (1997) later I realized only in hindsight how little I knew after that two year mark of 1994. Five years later 2002 I forged new modeling techniques and incorporated surfacing from the high end Alias users. I sat at GM at night watching learning listing.... then tried all that in Pro/E pushing hard on what I knew to forge further. I realized how much more I knew about surfacing from that 1997 mark. I hit road blocks and used software to surpass the road blocks. five years later... its 2007.

I designed the surfacing week so to aid participants to compress that learning and discovery time of 10 years into a five day workshop that I wish I could have had 15 years ago.

So the delema is simple. What is your time worth and how much money can you make with these tools/skills?For me I know I would have failed less, modeled faster, created modifiable models, satisfied the design teams, made managers happier, kept that one job, charged $10 more per hour, and end the end made more money.


Edited by: design-engine
 
Bart,
It's an amazing story, and I cannot disagree with anything you said. $4800 is something I don't have, and when I do I will need every penny to put into materials to build the project as there will be many "learnings" on that end too that your courses won't help with. That "when I do have the" is 5 + years from now if I started saving now. It's going to be a struggle just to come up with the $200 or so for the books. I don't disagree with what you said, but there is the reality of the fact that where I work, a background in Pro/E is meaningless, and I am not going to moonlight because I want to devote my evening time to my family and this personal project. Do you have any $200 comprehensive textbooks, or just courses to offer? Because I don't have the money, I don't have the 4 weeks to completely devote to this, and because I don't have any professional reason to learn Pro/E, a $4800 course doesn't make sense for me, even if the other path is more of a struggle.... Any suggestions on books that would be best to get into Pro/E?

-Chris
 
I wish my employer would send me to your courses! So many good ones... I don't want to learn Unigraphics though since I can't use it at home, and we don't use Pro/E here! For shame ;)...

-Chris
 
Do a search here, I think it's been discussed before. If I remember right, the name Roger Toogood was a name thrown out there. Look up his books on Amazon.
 
______________________________________


Let me paint my learning curve/progression. First we state one obvious point. Engineers tend to learn on their own... Thats why you hire an engineer because they figure out how to do things.


_______________________________________


I like this


_______________________________________


For me I know I would have failed less, modeled faster, created modifiable models,


________________________________________


This really can make or break a business. Yet is so amazing how many managers dont see this. In my old workplace they had some standard machinery which they would use engineers to remodel for each new application. But you spend a extra unit of labour to automate the process making smart models which can easily be modified, essentially templating the design.. BOOM you cut the workload of that project into just afew small data inputs, refresh, and print.


The catch is, funding. If your a startup company which is were i would think Arbiter is, then 5k is a significant amount to fund out of your own pocket. If your working for a large company its a no brainer. GO do the training.





my 2c
 
Iteach an introduction to engineering design course andhave used Toogood for the CAD portion of the class. Presently we are using Kelley (Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4.0, Instructor; McGraw-Hill) and have used it since Wildfire 1.0.


It is a little under $100 and you may be able to find earlier versions to match your version of Pro/E.


He does get into boundary blends, sweeps, blends and VSS.
 
Another good source is www.cadquest.com


Steven Smith is the author and has various Pro/E topics covered and various versions.


If you can't afford a class, this is the next best thing.
 
The elearning library is $1300 and is perpetual but new classes added after your purchase date are not added unless you get maintenance. If you are a student at a university thereis astudent edition elearning library for ProE that is $85.
 
Hey Folks,
Thanks for all of the great ideas on here! I want to clarify one thing clearly. I am not a start up :). I am working on designing my own airplane as a hobby (Messed up, maybe, but the process is full of learnings) so I do not have anything close to a start up budget :). If I was going to do a start up, I would def take Bart's courses since they are obviously highly rated! I just wanted to clarify that! Thanks again for your inputs, it sounds like the Toogood tutorials are the most well known. Thanks!

-Chris
 
If i were you I would hang my hat on the online education / training that PTC offers. This lets you work at your pace when you want and you can select areas that are of interest to you now, like making config files and tolerance setups.


Without sounding harsh, it appears you really need to take the basic courses either in class or online at PTC-university to get you the foundations that are very important to Pro-E and successfuluse. THen as you grow your project you will be able to reference lessons that help you. I beleieve for $850.00 you will get a 1 year subscrition. Actual classes are better but expensive and very time consuming but worth every penny.
 
eharmony,
I like the classes approach. I know I am way underfunded though. I am going to need to buy a diesel engine that is $65K in the not too distant future, and I get something like $200/month max to devote to this project. So shoestring budget doesn't even come close :) to describing how thin this design budget is (It's a hobby, and it going to take decades). I definitely need something permanent, and $850/year isn't going to do it. I agree classes are the most useful, but I don't have the mega bucks for that. so for me at least, my only option is books... unfortunately :(. Maybe at some point work will allow me to take the courses. But I am not so certain! Thanks for the op/ed though :).

-Chris
 
I would have to say the better of the books from my experience are the CADQuest books. I did not really like the TooGood books. They are well suited to a College Classroom situation, but not for everyday questions.


CADQuest has a lot more information in there books and they have more books available.


I am the CAD admin at Philips Ultrasound. I had Bart out to do some training for us. It was a great class. I will have him back if I can ever justify it again.


Do you have any extra modules for your Pro/E license? What version are you running? Are you using the full license or just a student addition? If you paid maintenance you can call PTC Tech Support to ask for modeling help as well if you are stuck.
 
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