Pro/ENGINEER Assembly and Tolerance Analysis

Vincent Pihlstrom from PTC presented the Pro/ENGINEER Assembly and Tolerance Analysis PUP with some help from Raphael Nascimento. There was information from both Wildfire 4.0 and the upcomming Wildfire 5.0 release. We'll start with Wildfire 4.0:

• On demand enhancements. The on-demand mode is now the default setting.
• Display tricks. You can make components in an assembly transparent. When making a model active, all other models are dimmed.
• Assembly control of part layers allows you to change part layer settings in and assembly without plussing the part model.
• New GUI based replace tool allows for a virtual interchange group without any backage. Replace with different components without having any children fail.
• Global refernce view enhancements. Fix parent child issues right in the tool. Fix ghost objects. If you don't know what a ghost object is count your blessings.

There is also a list of new things comming in Wildfire 5.0:

• Preview in the view manager tool. Preview simplified reps before you open them.
• New simplified rep definition tool with very easy compnent definition. Exclude is the new default and there is a real time preview window of the rep your are defining.
• The accesory window (component placement window to you & me) has been enhanced. It can now be docked in a corner of the screen so it will not disapear behind the main window.
• The repeat command is now in the RMB menu. Can choose which constarints to re-apply between consecutive placement of repeated components.
• New explode U/I that is very nice.
• New envelope enhancements and a new associative solid shrinkwrap model.

Raphael also spent a few minutes explaining some streamlining of the 1D tolerance analysis tool.