Pro/USER Exploder

[mgnt8]

I just noticed that the Pro/USER Exploder is retiring. I'm not sure how they lasted this long since the format is positively antediluvian.

It was a good idea 20 years ago, but that ship sailed long ago. I'll probably never go over to the "official" PTC community. It's hard enough getting through to technical support on that website.
This forum is pretty much dead too. The nail in the coffin was the format change, but the real death knell was when the server crashed and erased all the uploaded files. It was the CAD equivalent of the Alexandria library going up. So much collective knowledge gone forever. Thank God I downloaded Jeff Howard's surface/VSS/trajpar experiments. That stuff still blows my mind.

Looks like PTC sees the writing on the wall. The independent user community really kept everything going even as Pro/E went through all the name changes and the focus away from CAD. I wonder if all the PLM or internet-of-things users who will pick up the slack? Not likely.

CAD is becoming a distributed commodity and their traditional customer base, large enterprises, aren't using it anymore. Pretty soon we'll seen them finally wind down or sell out Pro/CREO to Siemens or Autodesk.

 

[krow72]

Thank God I downloaded Jeff Howard's surface/VSS/trajpar experiments. That stuff still blows my mind.

mgnt8 - it is sad how off track that PTC has gone from the end user and focusing too much on the politics (name changing, following Microsoft format, etc...) Even though Pro-E (that is still the name I call it) has its quirks, I still enjoy the software. I guess we just have to wait and see what happens from here.

On another note, do you still have the "experiments" and if so would you mind sharing? I still get confused using VSS because I only use it a handful of times.

 

[dgs]

I wonder if you've used the PTCUser exploder? Yes, the email based format is a bit old school, but it works well and the depth of knowledge there is unmatched.

 

[Brndn_4]

I don't have anything useful to add to their argument over there, but I have been following the ranting daily (hello Doug). I can understand their frustration. Ideally, I would love for their gurus to come over here or for the consolidation of expertise somewhere so I don't have to jump around, but it doesn't seem that all can play nicely under the same formatting because the preferences are just too drastically different. I am more in line with the younger generation Doug was talking about in one of his posts and I prefer this format, as I also align with Damian Castillo a bit more in how I use the site (daily summary emails, like I get from here) because actually traversing to the site 'as is' and trying to use it in this format is bothersome due to all of the redundant info in plain text.

I get it. If that works for them and they are practically refusing to change, then I will search wherever they go as well for the added expertise. In the end, I just don't want all of this "unofficial" support to fall through considering how we all know PTC support (Help Center included) can be.

 

[mgnt8]

I used the exploder for years.
I stopped getting the individual emails long ago and switched to just getting the daily digests for two reasons:

Every so often when I posted a reply, I would get flamed by some really old school punk who didn't like that I never worked on a drawing board or UNIX or horseless buggies or somesuch BS, and

my inbox always got flooded with the "Out of Office / Automatic Reply" junk.

When you just interact with it as a forum, you quickly find its really limited.

 

[dgs]

As a forum, PTCUser is pathetic, pretty much because it's designed to be used with email.

I've run into those folks a few times, but not often. Or perhaps I've not noticed because I started with a couple of years on a drafting table.

The out of office stuff largely went away a few years ago with a software upgrade that better filters them. Hasn't been a big issue for years.

It's still the most knowledgeable community of proe users around.

 

[dr_gallup]

I don't find the PTCUser forum to be any worse than this one. I don't go to it too often as I get the daily email summaries. In both cases they simply need to automatically truncate the replies after 100 lines or so. I tried to get people there to quite including 1000+ lines in their replies but it fell on deaf ears. It's is definitely the most knowledgeable Pro/E group around. I've never had bad responses from them and the out of office emails are a thing of the past.

The official PTC forum is a complete waste of time. I get emails from them occasionally saying I need to "update my profile" with lists of the most active topics which rarely change for months at a time. Most questions there never get a single reply.

As a forum, PTCUser is pathetic, pretty much because it's designed to be used with email.

I've run into those folks a few times, but not often. Or perhaps I've not noticed because I started with a couple of years on a drafting table.

The out of office stuff largely went away a few years ago with a software upgrade that better filters them. Hasn't been a big issue for years.

It's still the most knowledgeable community of proe users around.

 

[mgnt8]

I took two semesters of Engineering Graphics, drawing exclusively on a drafting board ( I must have been one of the last ones to do it). At first you try to reason with them, then you just write it off as a lost cause.

I found the exploder to be a useful well of tribal knowledge but often found the focus too insular and inward looking. Not anyone's fault. That's just what you ended up with an emailer.

 

[vibeguy]

dr_gallup has it right regarding the PTC community. I get e-mail's from it's robot all the time saying, "Update my Profile". I've already created my profile long ago and do check out their site from time to time, but like stated previously... Old stale questions with little to no reply activity, old uploads, the same PTC folks doing almost all of the question asking and little incentive to go explore the site. Speaking of the site - I find it's layout confusing and boring.

Bob Schwerdlin
Sr. Design Engineer
Dukane Corp.