CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
7 March 2006
Product News
PTC Announces Pro/ENGINEER® WildfireT 3.0
PTC announced the availability of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0, a major release of its MCAD/CAM/CAE software and an integral component of PTC's Product Development System. Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 helps users get their jobs done faster and easier, with best practices in mind. Additionally, PTC is delivering the highest-quality new release of Pro/ENGINEER in the company's history.
Today's increasingly complex product development environment requires that engineers shorten time-to-market by compressing development cycles without compromising results. To successfully meet these challenges engineers are seeking solutions that enable them to increase their personal productivity and the efficiency of the processes they employ throughout the product development cycle. Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 focuses on solving these specific challenges.
Highlights of the new release targeted at improving personal productivity include:
• Fast Sketcher --a reduction in the number of menu picks required to use and exit the sketch environment improves performance with large sketches up to 80%.
• Fast Assembly --the modernized user interface and optimized assembly workflow dramatically increase the speed of assembly, up to five times faster, while new support for Windows® XP 64-bit systems enables retrieval of very large assemblies.
• Fast Drawings --the ability to add shaded views to traditional 2D drawings helps clarify design concepts faster and removes ambiguity. Improvements in the drawing environment will yield an increase in productivity benefits up to 63%.
• Fast Sheetmetal --the capability to interpret design intent enables the creation of sheetmetal features up to 90% faster, while also reducing the number of features by up to 90%.
• Fast CAM --enhancements to the manufacturing user interface speed the creation of manufacturing geometry by up to three times.
"The new sketcher palette in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 is a welcome addition to the product!" said Mike Brattoli, engineering systems administrator, Moen. "The palette also provides an easily accessible central location to save our sections. This will shorten up our design time considerably."
Process productivity is the second area targeted for improvement with Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0. Key features include:
• Smart Process Wizard --the inclusion of a new, customizable Process Wizard allows companies to capture expert knowledge and leverage their best practices and recommended approaches for different processes.
• Smart Model --the ability to embed manufacturing process information into the model makes it easier to design for manufacturability and helps promote best practices.
• Smart Sharing - the introduction of portable workspaces that track all changed, new and unchanged files facilitates offline access to CAD data and helps improve collaboration with external parties.
• Smart Interoperability with Windchill® and Pro/INTRALINK® - automated reporting of bulk items, item check-out on-the-fly only when changes are made, and the addition of a status column in the model tree to report the database status of an item provide a streamlined process for accessing information.
"The Process Wizard in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 is going to be extremely useful in our environment," said Vaughn McDaniel, mechanical engineer, JR Automation. "We have a couple of FEA experts who use the application regularly, but the majority of the engineers don't use it that often so they always need to refresh themselves on exactly what needs to be done. With the wizard, you have that refresher at your fingertips, so any engineer can just jump in and start with the analysis."
"Our customers need solutions that enable them to optimize their product development processes and get their products to market faster and at lower costs," said Mike Campbell, vice president product management, PTC. "Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 delivers capabilities that remove impediments to personal and process efficiency during product development. "
"Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 represents a tremendous investment by PTC. We are very pleased with the results and the customer feedback we have received," said James E. Heppelmann, executive vice president, software products, and chief product officer, PTC. "Also, we've reaffirmed PTC's commitment to quality, ensuring that Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 delivers the highest quality of any new Pro/ENGINEER release."
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 Upgrades and Product Availability
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 will be available later this month. Active Pro/ENGINEER customers will automatically receive this new release free of charge under their current maintenance coverage. For more information on Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0, please visit the Pro/ENGINEER product pages at http://www.ptc.com .
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