Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0: new user interface makes powerful capabilities more accessible

CADalyst, August, 2004 by Jeffrey Rowe

WAY BACK IN 1994, I RAN Pro/ENGINEER on a DEC high-performance Alpha workstation--I can't remember what the specs were--under some flavor of UNIX. On one hand, I was impressed with the program's features and what it could do, but on the other hand I felt overwhelmed and frustrated by the sheer number of options and the strict rules that I had follow to design anything remotely complex. At that time, it was a one-way street--the design engineer was forced to adapt to the design tool, not the other way around. I wondered then if Pro/ENGINEER would ever become a design tool for mere mortals.

Ten years later, the product is called Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire and it's well on its way to being an approachable program for all designers. We thought it was time to see if today's Wildfire is treading water or spreading its wings with regard to its features, capabilities, and future. The product I review here is the Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 Foundation Advantage package.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0, I must say that the installation procedure is more difficult than is necessary. Before you install the software, you have to obtain a license pack that permits installation and loads a setup utility. I installed Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 and a couple of other modules on a standalone machine and was somewhat taken aback at the number of codes, IDs, and numbers I had to supply for installation. I can understand PTC's concern with piracy, but this procedure took me hours instead of the minutes I've become accustomed to with most other MCAD products. I'd almost prefer a hardware dongle. Once installed, the program said my license was lost whenever I left it idle for a few minutes. It hiccupped the first couple of times during simple procedures when sketching and adding features. And it automatically shut down and rebooted my machine. Fortunately, this didn't occur too often. Although they were a bit disconcerting, once these few glitches were resolved, I was able get down to business and build some parts.

What's New With The Interface?

In the past, one of the most intimidating aspects of learning and using Pro/ENGINEER was its user interface, namely the layers upon layers of cascading menus. Although those are mostly gone and the user interface has made great strides, it's not fully Windows compliant. Because of its legacy, it still has a UNIX-like feel and behavior in some areas. This version, however, supports multiple undo and redo for all operations with features, components, and drawings, as well as comprehensive feature and geometry cut and paste.

One of the hardest things that confronts a user new to CAD or to a certain program is, "Where do I begin?" When you start Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0, a browser displays in the main part of the graphics window labeled Resource Center. Here you find a number of tools to help get you started, such as productivity tools, tutorials, and Help tools (including a quick-reference card that is invaluable for new users). Although I found the context-sensitive online Help system and Help Center somewhat quirky, incomplete, and inconsistent, they proved adequate once I had some practice in navigation. The Help Center is categorized by Pro/ENGINEER functional areas, such as fundamentals, detailing, assembly, and welding.

What most other CAD systems call a history tree PTC now calls the Navigator. Found on the left side of your graphics window, it has four tabs across the top to access various groups of data sources and capabilities, both locally and across a network. You can minimize it to maximize your workspace. The Navigator is quite handy--think of it as Windows Explorer on steroids.

At the bottom of the screen is the Dashboard (figure 1, p. 30), first introduced in the previous version of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire. It was meant to replace the clunky Menu Manager and has, for the most part, although it still shows up periodically when you don't really want it to in some editing and drawing situations. You use the Dashboard for one of two modeling approaches in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, and it guides you through the process with menus and dialog boxes.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

With the Dashboard approach, you execute an action first, then select references where you want to apply the action. For more advanced users, the direct modeling approach lets you work directly on the model by selecting the references first and then applying an action. With a little practice, you'll come to prefer the direct modeling approach more than the Dashboard because it's a lot quicker. However, you can combine and use either approach to fit your particular design style. Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 also supports top-down modeling, which is best suited for designs that undergo frequent modifications or for diverse types of designs, and bottom-up modeling, best suited for designing similar products or those that don't require frequent modifications.

Modeling Parts

When you start a new part or open an existing one, the graphics window replaces the browser window. In some instances, creating a feature-based, parametric part in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 takes a few more steps than in other MCAD packages, but the result is basically the same. You start with a 2D conceptual layout sketch, add basic geometric entities, and dimension and constrain the geometry. To build a 3D parametric part from the 2D sketch, add features such as extrusions, sweep, cuts, holes, and the like. Finally, modify and resolve problem part features to suit your design.