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Workflow efficiency and productivity take center stage.
THE NEWEST VERSION of PTC's flagship design application, Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3, was a bit long in coming - shipping about 18 months after the previous version instead of the usual 12 months-but the result is worth the wait (figure 1 ). Instead of just piling on a zillion new features and capabilities, PTC (like some of its competitors) chose to improve Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3 in other ways that matter to most customers, namely, software stability, better consistency across modeling functions and promotion of more efficient workflows. Although these areas of enhancement may lack wow factor, they will definitely be beneficial to most users in terms of productivity.
I had my first exposure to Pro/ENGINEER in 1994. On the one hand, I was impressed with what it could do, but on the other, I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of options and the strict rules that you had to follow when designing anything. At that time, you were forced to adapt to the design tool, and not the other way around. I wondered if Pro/ENGINEER would ever become a truly usable design tool. Now known as Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, it certainly has had its ups and downs over the years. Though far from perfect, it has come miles in terms of approachability and usability.
Like any resident software application, it has to be installed before it can be used on a computer, and I need to say a few words about the installation procedure for Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3. It seems more difficult than it has to be, and that is really my only major complaint about the application. As I've said in the past, I can understand PTC's concern with ensuring that it's dealing with legitimate users, but the installation procedure took much longer than what I'm accustomed to with most other MCAD products. I did, however, receive some excellent installation support from PTC. After the installation glitches were resolved, I was on my way and ready to get down to business with Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.
Resolving Old Issues
Until a few releases ago, one of the most daunting aspects of learning and using Pro/ENGINEER was its multiple layers of cascading menus. In addition, one of the biggest...