CAD CAM / Australia

Just quickly reviewing the the NC Sheetmetal Design enchancements that can be found in the widlfire 5.0 has shown that PTC always believes there is room for improvement.

 Some of the new enhancements to the NC sheetmetal desgin is the removal of the .mfg file type. Now for those of you who haven't used this option, mfg file type is the file type which was introducted into wildfire 4.0 NC sheetmetal design for the manfacturing side of Pro/E. The removal of .mfg file is being replaced by the .asm file type. This allows for easier data management of the manfuactoring model and provides functionality to the design as well.

Note that in Wildfire 5.0, when a .mfg file is retrieved, Pro/E will do the folllowing:

1. The model carries the information stored in the manufacturing model in memory.
2. Information is written to the assembly file on save.
3. The .mfg file is no longer required to open the manufacturing model. 

Another Feature which was improved in the NC sheetmetal addon was the Manufacturing Information Dialog Box. Addtional infromation such as the percentage of the scrap material of the stock used as well as the machining time of the part are displayed in the Manufacturing info dialog box to help with keeping track of waste and time taken during the manufacturing simulation stage.

For more information about NC sheetmetal Design, please vist PTC.com.

Tags: NC | Sheet | Metal | .mfg | file | manufacturing | PTC | Wildfire | 5.0 | scrap | simulation | improvement

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Going through PTC Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5.0, i noticed a new enhancement which is now made available to Pro/E wildfire 5.0, that is the Spark Analysis Extension. Now to me at first it was like about as clear as mud. However as you read up on the function, tinker around with the extension and view the videos provided by PTC, the function made perfect sense.

With Design any sort of product with electrical components and electricity running through it, there are two fundamental issues. They are clearance and creepage distances. Now as explained in the video, clearance distance refers to the shortest distance between electrical fields than can travel through a gas medium or in air. Creepage distances is referring to the shortest path in which electricity can flow through surfaces. Now both of these factors are important when considering the safety and reliability of the electromechanical part.

PTC-Spark Analysis Extension fully automates and highlights problem areas in which it occurs in your part or design. This saves time and money from going back to the drawing boards changing it in the design and then the prototype. The best part of this extension is changes to the clearance can be edited and then applied to the model followed by a quick retest. This make sure that you design is always to the highest standard that you can provide in your final product. Another reason why PTC Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5.0 has become so appealing to the Engineering Community

Tags: Spark | Analysis | Electrical | Electro | mechanical | design | CAD | Wildfire | 5.0 | PTC | Safety | Reliablity | Prototypes | Product development | creepage | clearance | automated

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29th of January 2010 was the PTC Solution Day in North Sydney at the Rydges. As CADDIT.net has mentioned in their article of the PTC solution day, the day revolved around showing off PTC's newest Brainchild Windchill 9.1 in how it can be incorporated into the Lifecycle of PLM. Greg Brown did a fantastic job captivating the crowds in the demos as well as the presentation.

PTC's Windchill is really leading the competition in this area with wonderful security management system for designs and intellectual property from formulas to analysis to manuals quickly and efficiently allowing for clients to interact with little hassle. Not only using Native files from PTC but also files from CATIA, inventor as well as Solidworks showing that PTC is really on the life pulse on the needs of companies and clients internationally.

The new enhancements of Windchill 9.1 is great but the most exciting thing for me was the new Wildfire 6.0 and its newest features and the line in which PTC is going to take. The changes include enhancements in the user interface, as well as introduction of 3D modeling based on 3D deformation. The best way to describe is like a ball of clay. Now by using the mouse you can pull the ball into different shapes and places molding the 3D model. Pretty cool in action.

There many other things which i can mention that was a real eye opener that day but i guess it is best to leave it to PTC to start the show. Until next time. See ya.

Tags: Wildfire 6.0 | Winchill | PTC | Solution Day | North Sydney | Security Managment | Intellectual Property | 3D modeling | 3D Deformation | 3D

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Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5.0 rolled out, it was promised that the ease of use was the greatest improvement made in Pro/E, and it shows. With the introduction of right click menus in sketch as well as new ribbon interface into Pro/E Wildfire 5.0, learning how to use the CAD system just got easier.

Now the right click menu can be operated based on the selected entities that the user has chosen. By holding down the right button on the mouse, a set of new options have been intregrated into the user interface. For example, let say you have selected two or more entities in a sketch which are identical to each other, but you need to change the dimensions of these selected features. Highlight the necessary features, hold down the right click for the menu and select the dimension option. Change the dimensions accordingly and bam, you have changed all three in one go. Now that is just one of the possibilities that are now available with right click menu. Changing the feature itself, dimensions and even the constraints can be all altered with the right click menu. This simply cuts down the unnecessary time required to do it manually and makes using Pro/E that much more easier to use.

Oh have I mentioned that Wildfire 5.0 works even with files from AutoDesk? Another sore spot that most CAD software has is the loss of data in between CAD systems. The boffins from PTC have increased native support for other CAD systems and non-geometric data exchange. So you do not have to deal with the brain numbing experience of redoing all the data for that model or assembly again.

Just goes to prove the myth of PTC Pro/Engineer wildfire 5.0 being to hard to use dead wrong.

Tags: PTC | Pro/E | Pro/Engineer | wildfire 5.0 | right click menus | ease of use | ribbon interface | Autodesk | compatability

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