Any ProE Users?

[kathy]

Joy, Joy, Joy

 

I got to load up ProE Wildfire last week, and enven had plenty of time this week to work through the tutorials. Now I'm making parts.

I was playing with the older 2000i version earlier this year and the interface is so clumsy that all I could think of was "I never want to have to learn this!!" On the other hand, the only was I can describe the Wildfire interface is 'sweet'.

 

I know that this is a Mastercam Forum ( ) but I bring up the analogy that upgrading to a new and better interface isn't all that painful.

 

Kathy

[Guest]

Hi Kathy,

When I bought CAD/CAE, ProE was not even on the list of systems I was courious about.

Two reasons, clumsy beyound words and they do not play well with others.

I have heard they are getting more difficult in the file sharing department.

The translator price is extorsion and I refuse to pay it.

Good to hear they are getting easier to use and it is great that you like it.

[I.C.O.N.]

A quick note on the translater for Pro-E

IT IS NOT WORTH IT. until you can bring the model tree in with the solid(want for V10) it is just as easy to bring in a .igs and create the solid off of surfaces.

[Keith Graydon]

Hi KAthy,

 

Yes i use PRO/E occaisonally. 2001i latley. we will get a new install of Wildfire as soon as our overworked and overwrought it dept gets on it

[Brent Wilkerson]

ProE .... boo...hiss.....

 

My fav's AutoCAD for 2D and SolidWorks for 3D. You almost could buy both for a seat of ProE.

 

I used it a few years back and just don't understand why some people are just so into it. If a ProE'r would ever take the time and see SolidWorks and see what it can do above and beyond I'd be amazed... along with them.

 

Maybe my experience has been different though.

 

Just my two-cents.

 

 

[ 06-20-2003, 02:02 PM: Message edited by: Brent Wilkerson ]

[kathy]

I can see you all share the distinction I was tying to make between 2000i(& earlier) and Wildfire! I never thought I would be this hip to ProE. I will keep you posted as I get more seat time.

 

Translation Issues - yes the biggie! 90% of what I do is 2 1/2 D wire frame flat panels. The complication is the feature attributes of the various hole size / type requirements. My goal would be to have all of these requirements modeled into the CAD model and than the information input into Mastercam in a useful way. I could than just plug in the information and run with it. Now, ProE, Solidworks, Ideas, UG - it doesn’t matter - the imported wire frame and surfaces (no - solids won't help) are just 'dumb entities' and I have to detail the requirements again in Mastercam.

 

For imported surfaces from ProE to Mastercam I used the ProE translator. Pricey, but well worth it. The iges translation gave me surface deviations.

 

I’m going to be playing around with some of the other translation methods. I’ll keep you posted.

 

Kathy

[pronc]

Hi Kathy,

 

we have mastercam and pro- v2001 here. they won't upgrade to pro-e wildfire until intralink v3.3 up and running. i am a wildfire beta tester and having a hard time with it. i guess i'm so used to the old interface.

[Thad]

A little off topic here, but what is the "i" at the end of 2000? Is it similar to the "i" often seen in Autocad versions? I always wondered what that meant.

 

Thad

[kyle]

for autocad files imported into proe there is a free module called autobuildz for creating 3d solids from 2d models, is not a perfect tool but would be beneficial for new users to proe. I much prefer proe to solidworks, granted ease of use is definately there for solidworks but wildfire has come a long ways, even seems like they were looking at solidworks for ideas, imagine that.

[kyle]

as far as price goes you may want to take another look...you can get a foundation seat of proe for under 5k pretty comparable with solidworks.

[Mick]

I've worked pretty closely with designers using Unigraphics (I used UG myself), ProE, Solidworks, SolidEdge, SDRC and Autodesk (Inventor and Mechanical Desktop).

Out of all of them, I'd hasten to say (noting that this is purely my experience) that ProE seemed to perform the best at free form modelling.

I had a couple of problem fillets in UG (I was a UG user at the time), that just couldn't be made to work. I exported the model to a friend of mine who runs a design business with ProE, and he modelled the fillet within minutes. He's produced some really nice designs using that product. Of course, I've heard horror stories about the CAM side of ProE, but I've never really seen much of it myself.

Still, I've seen people do great things with all of the products above. I guess it comes down to experience

[beav700]

I have used ProE 2000-2001 at my last job and now running UG NX. UG seems much more powerfull but so is the price (nearly $30,000 for my seat). If I was to choose between ProE and SolidWorks, I would pick ProE anyday. SolidWorks just feels like a toy for some reason. Nice for simple stuff, but when asked to do some more fancy modeling, it's very limited. I only had the seat for one day and one day with the demo guy which could not do anything we wanted when he came to our plant for a demo. He kept getting error massages and was coming up with lame excuses for everything. Maybe SolidWorks 2005. ProE was much more powerfull for the same amount of money. But ten times harder to learn. I was amazed how easy SolidWorks was. Kids in High schools can learn this system. I see people in PC gaming community that use SolidWorks to add 3D objects to their games and none of them used any Cad/Cam before.

 

[ 06-21-2003, 10:36 AM: Message edited by: beav700 ]

[BernieT]

Beav! Haven't heard from you in a while.

 

Interesting that you use UG NX. Our designers here at Wilson just bought NX. Boy are their heads spinning right now. Would you tell me who is your dealer? They are having problems just getting the system running and I wonder if someone else might be able to help. (I'm not at all sure the problem isn't themselves, though!)

 

Did you order this beautiful weekend weather??? It is a pleasure to be outside. Wife and I and some friends are driving to Milwaukee this aft just for the drive.

 

[TeccBoxx]

Hi, Kathy I use 2001i alot and was wondering if they changed the Datum planes around or if they still use that crappy datum selection that they have always used.

 

If it wasn't for the datums I would say Pro/E is the best 3D Cad package. Anyway thanks I should look into Wildfire then.

[beav700]

BerTau

 

I'm no longer in Chicago. Moved to NY for new job and the job in Chicago had ProE 2001. Moving to NX was the best think you guys could do. Tust me, that system can do anything with FreeForm and Direct Modeling package. Add Assembly, Studio and sky is the limit. Nx2 is on it's way, which merges the best of Ideas and UG into one package.

I would not use UG for Manufacturing!!!

[Greg Williams]

quote:

---

ProE .... boo...hiss.....

 

My fav's AutoCAD for 2D and SolidWorks for 3D. You almost could buy both for a seat of ProE.

---

Sorry Brent but I think you have beeen a little misled. I dont know about the USA bit here in Australia

solidworks costs about 12K for the basic pakage

Autocad 2004 costs about 6k

Total = 18k + Maintenance

 

Pro-E Wildfire costs 10k + Maintenance for the basic pakage!

18k will get you most add on's but at the end of the day it all depends on what you need to do with the software.

 

 

[ 06-22-2003, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: Budgie ]