Vroooooom!

Todays keynote woke everybody up. It's not very often the presenter rides in on a racing motorcycle. This was after a very bass heavy intor movie. You could feel your clothes vibrating, yikes! Harald Plöckinger from KTM Sportmotorcycle AG talked about how they implemented Windchill to connect their partners in their supply chain. It was quite an undertaking considering all that goes into their product. A great wake up call to start the day too.

The Blimp, the Blimp!

No, really it's there. Very small but how often do you see the Goodyear blimp outside of your hotel room?

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 Tips

Roberto Sanchez from NxRev did a great job with 25 tips in 45 minutes. A lot of good stuff, especially on intent references. Check it out at the PTC/User website here.

John Abele

I got a chance to briefly meet John Abele. He was talking with a group of young students involved with the FIRST Foundation. It was fun to see those kids hanging on every word. It was also interesting to hear him throw around Skype, Twitter and all the other social networking terms with the kids. I have some catching up to do.

Data In, Data Out

The Product Update Briefing for Pro/ENGINEER Data Exchange was today as well. Asa Trainer, the PLM for that group of functionality was on hand to conduct it himself. A lot of interesting news on this front, which includes the Import data Doctor product.

A few of the highlights are:

• Direct import support for Solidworks 2007 & 2008.
• Direct import support for Autodesk Inventor
• Expanded granite based interoperability between releases of Pro/ENGINEER
• 3D data exchange of non geometric data such as parameter values, annotations, and layer status. This is becoming increasing important in the area of line term data archiving.
• Improved Import data Doctor interface even beyond the overhaul done in Wildfire 4.0.

On the horizon (not in 5.0 beyond perhaps beta testing) is a product they are calling the Legacy Drawing Associator. Quite simply this is a tool to associate imported drawings to the imported modals that once drove them. The tool will extend to associting the views and annotations too.

Tuesday Keynote

Tuesday's events began with a keynote presentation by John Abele. John Abele is the founding chairman of Boston Scientific. Currently the chair of the FIRST Foundation, he is heavily involved in its' mission of getting kids interested in science. Mr. Abele was also key in the Search for the USS Grunion project. The Grunion was a Gato class submarine lost with all hands (including John's father, Lt. Cmdr Mannert Abele) during WWII. All of these different life experience were used to extract lessons we can all apply in our lives. It was great to hear him speak. I recommend it if you are ever lucky enough to get the chance.

Pro/ENGINEER 2D and 3D Drawings

Raphael Nascimento presented the Pro/ENGINEER 2D and 3D Drawings topic. Like Vince, Raphael covered both Wildfire 4.0 & Wildfire 5.0 topics. Like many of you we are currently on Wildfire 3.0 until we complete our upgrade from Pro/INTRALINK 3.4 to PDMLink 9.0, so it was nice to see both.
Wildfire 4.0 2D drawings:

• BOM ballons for non geometry items like bulk items.
• View name placement location choices.
• Add text locked to GTOLs around them in certain areas.
• Offset notes from axis or point locations.

Wildfire 4.0 3D drawings:

• Flat to screen annotation plane. Good for a 3D title block or notes.
• Driving dimension annotation features.
• Can change annotation orientation planes and set default active plane.
• Improved transfer of annotations from Pro/E to Productview.

Wildfire 5.0 2D drawings:

• New ribbon user interface. RMB pop up menu choices context sensative to which ribbon you are in.
• Drawing sheet tabs along the screen botton like Excel.
• A new drawing tree tool similar in function to a model tree, but for views and items in a drawing.
• Round decimal places on a shown dimension in a drawing without rounding the model dimension and affecting accuracy of model.
• Center leader dimensions.
• WYSIWTG Print preview functionalty.

Wildfire 5.0 3D drawings:

• Nammed layer states. Use for 3D drawings combined views.
• New datum target annotation type.
• Tabs for 3D drawings listing combined view, like Excel page tabs along bottom.
• Weld symbols as 3D annotations.
• Can annotate on cross section edges without any work arounds.

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.

Nice Digs

Just so you know the Rosen's website is not embellishing, here is a room shot. Also here is a view out my window. Just like the view out my picture window at home... I should live so long.

The Pro/ENGINEER Core Design PUP (Product Update Briefing) delves into core Pro/E enhancements deeper than Mr Campbell can go during his roadmap session. Brian Thompson held this session this year standing in for John Buchowski (if you meet him it is pronounced Boo-hoff-ski by the way) too. Lots of stuff here. Not the least of which is:

• Live interactive UDF placements. UDFS based on a coordinate system can be placed directly on a surface. There is a real time drag preview of the UDF just like any other feature preview. Very handy.
• Enhanced Hole tool with NPT, NPTF, & ISO 7-1 tapered holes.
• Sketch point patterns. Pattern features to follow a set of skecthed points
• Geometry patterns. Similar to patterning a set of copied surfaces & solidifying, but built right in. Very speedy.
• No divergent Edit --> Setup mode choices. Those properties are all consolidated under a GUI. Find this GUI by hitting File --> Properties. Just like Windows.
• Graphical browsing. The file open tool displays 2D thumbnails. This are links to viewing a 3D preview ala Productview.
• UV patterns (nope, I couldn't tell you what UV is). Create a pattern following the grid intersections of a grid mapped onto the countour of a surface.

This Looks Familiar

I know this guy from somewhere, but I can't place it. I like his shirt though. The people doing the multi media slides at the show seen to as well. Maybe I can set him up with my wife.

The Vendor Display Floor

The vendor booth is where you can visit PTC development staff and the PTC partners. It is a great chance to do some deep diving on a specific topic. You get an opportunity to go into more detail than is possible during the large presentations. Bring your best question and play "stump the chump". They like that. No, really.

The Pro/ENGINEER Roadmap

Michael Campbell's Pro/ENGINEER Roadmap is alway a no-miss session. It is one of the best sources for current enhancements and the MCAD vision going forward. Just remember that forwad looking information is subject to change...
Among the bigest highlights for Wildfire 5.0:

• New "lite" modules. New subsets of functionality provided with the base Pro/E package to give users a taste of what's in there. Among the lite packages are Mechanica, CAM and Framework lite packages.
• Dynamic editing of features with real time regeneration.
• No resolve mode failure resolution
• New drawing "ribbon" menu (think Office 2007) for the drawing mode.
• Overhaul of the weld and cabling packages.

More detail on specifics with the individual product update briefings.

PTC Technology Vision & Strategy

Jim Heppelmann presented on PTC's vision and strategy during the first group meeting today. He was joined by Brian Shepard as well. Jim listed the business strategy as a four pronged approach:

• Grow by solving customer problems


• Technology leadership commitment


• Efficient operations


• Stable predictable business

One of the main initiatives going forward is social networking. Think of communication during the design process with status communication, IM, and collaboration. This is being most represented in the ProductPoint tool. This is the data management tool based on Microsoft's Sharepoint tool.

Along the business theme, the Windchill product now over 615K active seats, and is the largest area of growth for the company. One of the lastest initiative in the link solutions is requirements. PTC's aquisition of InSight plays into that. It is a requirement management tool that tracks substances and chemical components of parts down through the supply chain. This is only going to grow as new manufacturing and recycling laws are applied in the US and abroad. Windchill 9.1 bring some enhancement with regards to handling CADDS, Catia V5, and IDEAS data. PTC also announced the aquisition of Relex. This is an Engineering reliability and maintainabilty tool which I'm sure we'll here more about (if you are not familiar with it) in the months to come.

Brian Shepard discussed Wildfire 5.0 enhancements. There are 330+ enhancements in Wildfire 5.0. I will group most of those under Michael Campbells Pro/ENGINEER Roadmap session when I post that.

Things Have Gotten Started

The event thas begun here in Orlando. The main stage is up and running and the introduction ceremony is about the begin. I will try to post as time allows during the day if possible. The venue this year continues to impress. The meeting facilities and vendor floor are every bit as nice as the rooms & grounds here.

On The Ground

Hi Folks,
Well, I made it in one piece down to Orlando. An uneventful trip down. So far I have been to the presenters orientation & the general reception on the main vendors floor. I will bring my camera tomorrow to try to give you some flavor of the facilities here. I think the PTC/User board has hit one out of the park here. Rosens's Shingle Creek is a top notch venue. They have treated us like royalty so far. I will post more tomorrow. Hope you all are having a peaceful evening wherever you are.
Mark

Welcome

Welcome to my PTC/User 2009 World Event blog. This will be my fifth time attending the conferrence, and second time presenting. I started with 2005 event that was also in Orlando at the Marriott World Center. I plan on posting about the various sessions I attend, the vendor booths, and the facilities in Orlando. I will be bringing my camera along (sorry no super phone yet, guess I am a luddite). Not as nice as being there, but with corporate travel budgets being what they are now many of us don't have the option. Hope to see some of you down there.