How easy is Pro/E?
How easy is Pro/E?
(OP)
When I was a newly minted engineer in the 80s and into the 90s, I did a lot of design work on CADAM, and to a lesser extent on CATIA and AutoCAD. I have a natural aptitude for picturing things in my mind and transferring them into a CAD program.
The last five to ten years, I've moved over to doing some project management, systems and test engineering, but I found out today that my current work group may be dissolved. My manager said he can put me to work doing some CAD design using Pro/E if it comes to that. I told him I could pick up Pro/E quickly and wouldn't mind getting back into design at all.
So now that I've sold myself into a Pro/E job, my question for the forum is can I do it? For those of you familiar with, say, CATIA (my most recent CAD work experience), how hard is it to pick up Pro/E? What resources would you recommend to rapidly get me up to speed?
To be honest, I'm almost hoping my current group does go belly up if it means I can get back to doing design. I enjoyed it when I got to do it in the past.
The last five to ten years, I've moved over to doing some project management, systems and test engineering, but I found out today that my current work group may be dissolved. My manager said he can put me to work doing some CAD design using Pro/E if it comes to that. I told him I could pick up Pro/E quickly and wouldn't mind getting back into design at all.
So now that I've sold myself into a Pro/E job, my question for the forum is can I do it? For those of you familiar with, say, CATIA (my most recent CAD work experience), how hard is it to pick up Pro/E? What resources would you recommend to rapidly get me up to speed?
To be honest, I'm almost hoping my current group does go belly up if it means I can get back to doing design. I enjoyed it when I got to do it in the past.





RE: How easy is Pro/E?
Heckler![[americanflag] americanflag](https://www.tipmaster.com/images/americanflag.gif)
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 4.0 & Pro/E 2001
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
This post contains no political overtones or undertones for that matter and in no way represents the poster's political agenda.
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
However, for your unique situation, I would look into a few things, definately pick up a book. Make sure it is the same version as some features seem to change slightly between updates (nothing that cant be figured out, but it helps when ur first starting out). Also, if you are going to be using Mechanica or any other part of the ProE package, pick up books on those as well.
What would be best, of course, is to see if your company would pay for a ProE class. They might have one at your local community college, if not there are several companies that do such classes.
Good luck
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
http:
and it's not going to harm you...might cause you some headaches
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
Whether or not I will need to use Pro/E in the short run is up in the air right now but it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get more familiar with it. I'll also have to see if my home PC has enough power to run the Personal Edition.
Thanks a lot for the help and links. If I end up getting back into CAD, I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions.
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
I always thought it was a song by Michael Martin Murphey
h
but seriously just a name they picked cause I guess they thought it would mean more than ProE r2006...etc
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
also if you sign up for a class you can get it for $100 as a student...
btw ... not sure if it really quite official yet.. but WF4 is out.. but I don't think there will be a PE out for awhile
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
-Hora
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
You are probably going to have a harder time finding a r2001 PE tho....
Not sure on the legalistics on buying it on ebay or the likes.. i don't think it's resellable.
You certainly will stand a better chance if you are in a larger city..by checking around at some of the uni's there... but more than likely , all you're going to find is WF
might check with the manager and see if there if there is anything available there at work
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
"That package is called Pro/E Wildfire; what does "Wildfire" mean?"
I thought it was just the oppositte of Windchill.
Michael
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
Heckler![[americanflag] americanflag](https://www.tipmaster.com/images/americanflag.gif)
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 4.0 & Pro/E 2001
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
This post contains no political overtones or undertones for that matter and in no way represents the poster's political agenda.
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
Well, I for one like things to work at least similar to all other windows programs.
"Save as", for one... In all other programs, the new copy becomes what's on the screen, and you can start working on it.
Pro-E is not that way, and after three years, I still catch myself changing the old file, instead of the new one.
As to how easy it is to learn, I agree with the first answer. It's not hard to learn and become productive, but I don't know anyone who has mastered it.
With all of the cryptic configs, and hidden options, It would be a full time job investigating all of them.
it is not intuitive at all.
David
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
David
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
CATIA is working as you described and is awfull.
-Hora
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
When making a new part that's similar to an existing one, I often do this.
This is a perfect example. In other programs you can "Save as" and it saves a copy of your file and makes it active, while keeping the existing file intact.
Pro/E's version is "Save a copy", yet it works differently.
David
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
As of right now, I haven't heard anything on my job situation, whether my current position is going to continue or go bye-bye; the word is we'll find out in a week or so. One likely scenario will leave my current position alone for now, but my manager said it still would be a good backup plan to pick up some Pro/E knowledge.
I'll start out with the Guide, then see if I can get some time on Pro/E to play around (that office is a few miles from my normal work site).
Thanks for the tips, guidance and background.
RE: How easy is Pro/E?
You also may do your own Menu Mapper. The Legacy mode will enable a Menu Manager that is close to but not identical to 2001. It should help you out a bit. Even the Menu Mapper will allow you to see and take pictures of the Menus and sub-menus that exist and print them out for reference.
Feature > Create > Datum > Curve > 2 Projections
Select both Curves from Tree or screen while holding CTRL key, Pick Intersection from the Edit menu or Edit Features toolbar.
You can also select the first curve then hit the Edit Feature icon you want or have to use then pick the second reference and your feature is created. At first it took time to figure out what Pro/E wanted me to select to create specific feature but now it's really easy.
One thing of many that Pro/E could learn from SolidWorks is not to obsess on the CTRL key. In SolidWorks you can select a feature type then make selections without the CTRL key or make your selections and then select the feature type.
I don't expect any meaningful changes to Wildfire until WF7 or 8 if they get that far.
Michael