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Nits to Pick

Great list Mindripper. Can you elaborate on what is not WYSIWYG?

BTW - I had to work with SW on a project recently and I'm beginning to agree with you (gasp!) on the graphics - with a caveat. You have to turn off the default edge display. Seeing all the edges drawn on the part makes it look cheap and cartoon like. Turning them off is actually quite nice.

Oh, and SW is not so 'Windows compliant' either. Its proprietary window border graphics doesn't play well with WebEx. The application sharing controls don't display on SW making it difficult to see that you've shared the SW window and hard to turn it off.
 
A couple more:
  1. Drives don't appear in drive letter order in the file browser.
  2. Files don't sort in alphabetical order, the capital letters are sorted separately from the lower case.
 
Sometimes when you are defining/redefining a feature you can hide other features in the tree. Other times you cannot. I have no idea what triggers the behaviour.
 
" 2) Sometimes the <ctrl> button is needed for multiple
selections, and sometimes it isn't.."


This is a real mess. When creating a hole concentric to a
circle the software prompts for a surface, then for an
axis yet you have to hold down the control key, why? If
the only other selection it will accept is an axis why
does in need the control key?

When modifying a simplified rep, select a bunch of parts
to exclude, you don't have to use the control key but you
can select all you want. What happened here PTC? Also
there is no way to see what you just selected, you would
think it should show you a list or highlight the parts,
nope, you are blind picking the whole process and doing
multiple select withouth the control key.. Yes, selection
is very very inconsistent.
 
Try to resize the mass properties screen... WTF is going on
here, its like some weird stretchy thing going on and yet
you can only make the window show a couple more lines that
are word wrapped. Try this on a 10,000 part assembly where
you want to find those few parts that have a wrong value.
It is real difficult to visually scan three lines at a
time. Don't reply to me to use the search , been down that
road, it does not work!
 
A couple others:
  1. Shift needed to select a chain of edges, not control. I understand the logic of building a chain, like a chain of cells in Excel, but it doesn't really make sense here. As mentioned, it should be consistent across Pro/E, either control is needed or not. If shift is going to represent a string of entities, let us use control too and let us use shift in other areas. I'd say abandon shift, personally.
  2. Progression of picks doesn't always work well. The hole dialog is one place, defining an external copy geom is another. In many cases, when defining a feature initially, Pro/E will go to the next pick when the current one is satisfied, but it doesn't always work right. Sometimes, the box is highlighted but selection actually picks something else (CS orientation definition)
  3. Smart selection doesn't work as expected in assy mode. In part mode, it filters by feature first, then after selecting a feature it goes to feature entity. In assy, it filters by component first, but selecting a component doesn't move down a level to feature it goes straight to entity.
  4. Query selecting through a model doesn't progress through linearly, as if traveling through the model.
Getting a little esoteric, but still ...
 
gelanz said:
Try to resize the mass properties screen... WTF is going on
here, its like some weird stretchy thing going on and yet
you can only make the window show a couple more lines that
are word wrapped. !
Click to expand...

Yea, there are several dialogs that don't stretch in smart ways. They reveal more empty gray space rather than enlarging the data fields.

On the other hand, try to re-size dialog boxes in other programs. They simply won't in most cases. Kudos to PTC that we can re size nearly all the dialogs in Pro/E, even if they all don't work as we'd like.
 
To pick a csys you have to pick the label(must have display
label on). To pick a datum you can select the

tag or the datum plane. To pick an axis it will not select
the label, only the a axis line. To pick a point

it picks the label or the point.

Solution: Make selection consistent.
 
In assembly mode the assembly constraint dialog covers up
the model tree or layer tree. You have to close
the dialog to see the tree. Also you cannot look and see
your constraints. You have to hold your mouse over
them and wait for proe to pop up(way too slow) a dialog
with the info. WF2 was much better.

Solution: Make dialog box movable and increase field to see
constraints. (go back to WF2 is best)
 
You can only copy geom from Master rep. The problem is
master rep is too memory intensive and will not load.

Solution: Make copy geom work on siplified reps.
 
Pipe failures occur when you change a model and the bend
criteria are out of limit. Only the pipe solid
should fail. Once the pipline fails there is no recovery as
resolve mode puts you in "resolve part" mode.
Pipe routings are not created in "part mode", only assembly
mode.

Solution: Make pipeline remain intact even though it is out
of design limits. Fail only the solid pipe model. This
lets the user recover with a visual reference of where the
pipline is located.
 
There is no tree column to display "read only" status of
features.

Solution: If you can set a feature to read only have
capability to show it on model tree status.
 
gelanz said:
In assembly mode the assembly constraint dialog covers up
the model tree or layer tree. You have to close the dialog to see the tree.
Click to expand...

Go into your window customizations and move the model tree to the RH side.
 
Cannot remove default csys from view zoom. A component
modeled in place 1000 inches offset from default
will zoom to include default csy even though it is not
displayed(layer is off). You cannot see your part, it is
one pixel on your screen. You have to start minnig for
it.

Solution: Make a "set bounding box" option to control
zoom size or zoom only items displayed. Other CAD systems
have it.(This option was
in Autocad 25 years ago!) I believe PTC is the only CAD
package that will not "zoom only visible items" I
checked CATIA, UG, INVERNTOR,Solidworks, SOlid Edge ,
they all can zoom only what is displayed.
 
When sketcher doesn't automatically select a 2nd reference,
it forces a mouse click to close a dialog box. The default
(middle mouse) should be "yes" to the question "sketch
anyway?". I completely understand defaulting to no on
certain question so that you don't get middle-mouse happy
and make a irreversible mistake. But in this case, nothing
negative would happen. It's annoying when you can't middle
mouse out of the onslaught of dialog boxes.
Edited by: MGortner
 
I have too many nits to pick. Besides, it is not worth the anguish. PTC is too busy making up new names for software than to address issues that us everyday users have!
 
Why does every pipe feature default to .048 in dia? Most
places in the software it remembers your last input.
 
When working in a drawing with multiple details, eventually
a part gets obsoleted so you clean up your folder and next
day there is no way to open up the drawing unless you bring
back that file. It would seem like the software (Pro-
Detail) should be smart enough (like Solid Works or Pro-
assembly go into redefine and allow you to delete it.) to
open up the drawing and that view would not be displayed as
you would expect. I have had this happen on several
occasions working in drawings with large family tables
details and one part gets deleted and all 6 sheets are DOA
until you can figure out which part is missing. PTC should
make software consistent between modules!
 
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