Dumping Inventor, switching to Wildfire 1

[Qube]

Hello eveyone,

Finally we dumped Inventor. That piece of software is just JUNK. We've lost 100's of hours solving errors, loosing data because of unstability. Not speaking of the poor 2d speed/capabilities. We don't start any more new projects in this poor software. We temporaly switch back to autocad 2d (yep, back to the future?).

But, We're looking for new 3d-software. We do understand the advantages of 3d-designing (but not in IV). We think maybe Wildifre can be our solution for our problem. This is what we need/do.

- We Design machines/contstruction for e.g. transmition of bridges. Every New project is different from the other...
- 9 Designers. None working on the same project
- Need Always *.DWG's at the end (Whish of the Client). So the conversation to autocad must be smooth/fast
- Use a lot of weld-assemblies
- 3000-10000 parts
- Must be a stable software this time. No 6 crashes a day this time please
- Fast opening/generation of 2d-drawings.

Is Wildfire a way to go for us?

Ps. Is there a way to convert our IV-stuff to wildfire, without loosing the sketches/features.

Kind regards

jurgen

 

[Hora]

Jurgen,

Pro/E is good enough for you. But you must have the right hardware, too. To manage 3000-10000 parts you need a powerful computer (think at Xeon), a fast OPEN GL graphic card and a lot of RAM.

By the way, there are assembly cuts in your models? The assembly cuts are very heavy features.

There is no way to convert your Inventor files into PRO/E without loosing the history of model creation by using the import function.

Check with the Right Hemisphere (

http://www.righthemisphere.com).

They have some powerfull convertors able to read native files and then export them in a variety of formats.

-Hora

 

[hinterneder]

Jurgen,

The key item for selecting any piece of software (especially CAD) is to try it out with what you actually do.

That said, I would be interested to understand which version of Inventor you are/were using, and what sort of hardware you have/had, as that can make all the difference, especially with crashs even by staying on the same software (various drivers also play a part).

FYI, a previous employer of mine went to ProE on Windows from I-DEAS on Unix (for ~10k part assemblies), and crashes went from ~once/week to several times/day, so be careful what you wish for ;-)

-Ed

 

[Qube]

I'm working almost 2.5 years on Inventor now, so I'm quit sure when I say it's Junk for larger assemblies. I never decided to take IV in the first place. Proe was too expensive they said. And look now, after 2 years ;-).

Ok, IV-story is over. They keep telling me/us over and over maybe in the next release....Bye cu, never again.

Now, As you said, we have to test the software and analyse it propely. Is there a way to get an assembly from someone with many parts (e.g 3000?) so we can check 2d-speed of wildfire.

Kind regards

 

[ProEpro]

ptc can send you are car. If you need more parts pattern it.


ProEpro

http://www.whitelightdesign.com

Pro/E FAQ

http://www.whitelightdesign.com/servicestips.htm

 

[ProEpro]

Also make sure you try out all of the large assembly managment tools. Don't just sit down and open files. There are simplied reps which let you work with diferent pieces of the model. Only the models you need are loaded into memory. They can also let you load only graphical data for display. This is great for making drawings. There are also shrinkwrap features which replace several components with one block with the corecet geometry.

If you need more than 4 gigs of ram you will need to switch to a 64 bit platform like Itanium or Athalon64.

ProEpro

http://www.whitelightdesign.com

Pro/E FAQ

http://www.whitelightdesign.com/servicestips.htm

 

[ProEDesigner00]

Greetings

I am a Pro/E user and have had experience with very large assemblies like this. First and foremost hardware is key. My brother builds the workstations at his company and is investigating the new Pentium4 chip just released. He is very impressed with the buss speed and the mother board availability for this chip and the fact that you can get up to 4 gig of ram now. Makes for opening complete tractor assemblies alot faster.

Second is knowledge of how these large assmeblies are put together. Experience is a huge factor in this or someone well read to be able to apply the advanced methologies that Pro/E has to offer. There is a new way to assemble large assemblies that I am just now learing about and it has to do with "mapping" the parts into an assembly. I do not know much to tell about this process. A friend of mine who followed in my footsteps at a customer of mine told me they used my assembly as a reference to do this new mapping technique. She said once learned the process was fairly easy and very stable and the flexibility of movement was abit easier in her opinion than using the skeleton method.

The other key factor in large assembly management is your data storqage. You want to spend the upfront money on someones talent to set up Intralink properly.

Have a great day

Norb
Norb_g@hotmail.com

 

[ProEpro]

BTW there is a section with more details on 64 bit systems in my FAQ.



ProEpro

http://www.whitelightdesign.com

Pro/E FAQ

http://www.whitelightdesign.com/servicestips.htm

 

[Qube]

Thx for the replies.....

I have worked some couple of hours with pro-e 2001. I'm wondering now, is the new wildfire become "more" user friendly? I remember 2001 was rather hard to learn. Software like Inventor/Solidworks are easy to learn, is wildfire comparable?

What is the estimated learning curve (we do have much experience in Inventor, so it helps a bit)

kind regards

 

[ProEDesigner00]

Qube

I have about 12,000hrs on Pro/E products. I am not a master at it yet. I can get around quite comfortably. Wildfire has taken a different form from what I understand. I suggest that any tips or insights as to how to do things can be picked up on by becoming a member of this site.

http://WWW.prouser.org

It has an email exploder you can set up to ask questions and review questions asked ext. You can set the exploder up so you get "live" email responses or you can set it up so you get a summary of emails sent for the day. Depends on if your company monitors email traffic to your account.

Again it might be helpful to bring on one or two "guru" contractors to be mentors in your company so you can tap their resource of knowledge to help you get to running well. Perssonnally I know several companies still refraining from using Wildfire do to some unstblility in different areas of this release of Pro. Untill I know these particular companies who are my customers change I will not leave 2001. just because I do not want to trump their ability to read the new release models in an older version of pro. If your company is looking for somehelp I would be interested in contracting into your company to help you get going.

 

[peglor]

Wildfire is an improvement over 2001 in terms of learning the interface as it tries to behave more like other windows native programs. The on screen display of the model is excellent (A 64 Mb graphics card is the minimum spec for Wildfire - anything less won't work properly), which does reduce the amount you need to move the model to see different features in detail. Also the model now rotates on the point you drag from on the screen rather than the roll centre when you turn the roll centre off - this makes a huge difference when you're looking at large models with small features or high aspect ratios. As for handling large assemblies, the more processing power you've got available the better it works.

With experience in 3D modelling already you should be able to produce pretty much all the basic features within a few days. Take time to understand the intent manager for making 2D sketches though - If you understand what the computer is doing it will make your life a lot easier - if you don't it'll drive you crazy.