It's been a long while coming, but PTC has finally lifted the lid off Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4.0. Al Dean takes a look at what's new and improved in the core functionality.

The Wildfire releases of Pro/Engineer have seen major overhauls in many areas of the system. While many have concentrated on the user interface, there has also been a great deal of work done on making the system more powerful. Functionality has been swapped around and made more accessible, new modelling tools have been introduced and process coverage and support has been built upon. But, as ever, the first thing an existing user will notice is the updates to how they interact with the system as a whole - so let's begin our look at Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4 right there.

Figure 1a: Unrelated Model Replace - a cast component needs to be replaced by a welded assembly that is totally unrelated. The user selects the cast component and browses to the assembly which will replace it.

Right from the word go, you'll notice a difference at a very core level starting with the Open Dialog box. Unlike other releases, where search and find tools were spread across several areas, everything is now available in a single, clearly laid out dialog, which allows the user to do everything they need to do (rather than using the browser window). Dynamic searching within folders is available, allowing you to quickly locate the data you need to work on.

Also within the Open Dialog is a new tool - Open Representation. This allows you to work with the types of huge datasets that are now common and allow you to do so, efficiently, loading the data you need. This tool allows you to either open a predefined representation that perhaps reflects a zone of work (incidentally, zoning is updated with the ability to use a bounding box, rather than work planes), a sub-system with additional information etc. It also allows you to open a very lightweight version automatically if you allow Pro/E to make decisions about what it�s going to load up. For example, as default, it will load a pure graphics-based representation thought to be around 75% lighter in terms of memory usage.

This technology also extends into working with the system, and as you work with sub-assemblies and parts these are swapped in and out of memory as required. The active sub-assemblies are fully loaded but the remainder of the model is greyed out and transparent - making complex sub-assembly much less ambiguous as you can see where it is in the grand scheme of things. What's important to note is that when you're done with your modelling task the system unloads the data and reverts back to the graphics only representation.

Figure 1b: Unrelated Model Replace - the user can then edit the reference table which maps both parent and child relationships from the cast part to the welded assembly. Common planes and axes can be automatically mapped.

Other assembly modelling updates include the reworking of the fastener positioning tools, where the system will use a location mate to roughly position the part, then load the full data needed to fulfil the mate. When you position a bolt, for instance, you add the part, then drag and drop the mates to link them and the part snaps into place - very cleverly done and more efficient.

Reference Viewer

The new Reference Viewer is interesting as it consolidates a number of existing tools into a single chunk of functionality for inspecting product structure and the inherently complex parent and child references that exist in a modelling system like Pro/Engineer.

It allows you to explore inter-part and inter-assembly relationships to a very granular level (we're talking feature to feature level). This serves a couple of purposes. If you have a complex product model, a seemingly small change can wreak havoc with your model, so with this tool you can graphically see how changing a feature can propagate through your model where problems could potentially arise. In many cases, a bit of forethought can save you the sheer pain of having to redo that work if you can see the effects and make an informed decision. Also, accepting that sometimes you do need to break though relationships, the Reference Viewer allows you to do that in a controlled environment.

Unrelated Model Replace

Another feature which will prove useful for those working with ever-changing assembly models (and who's not these days?) is the Unrelated Model Replace function. While most of us should be familiar with working intelligently with families of parts and assemblies to create product variants and configurations, many also have to build products from seemingly unrelated sub-systems and sub-assemblies - something that's not particularly applicable to automation when it's on a case by case basis. What the Unrelated Model Replace function does is support this by providing you with the tools you need to dynamically swap parts or sub-assemblies out of an existing design. It allows you to break the initial mating and positioning references, then gives you a mechanism to reassign them to the new data; whether it's native Pro/E data or imported third-party geometry. It works on both upstream and downstream (parent or child) relationships and when combined with the Reference Viewer, makes light work of something that could traditionally be a royal pain in the behind. If it's a common process then you can take a workflow and set of references and set-up the processes an interchange assembly to make it much more automated - the system will take the work you've done already and standardise it, so it can be reused and distributed amongst your design team.

Sketch-based Feature workflow

While we have begun with a look at assembly modelling, let's step back and look at some of the other core updates -

Figure 1c: Unrelated Model Replace - once the references have been mapped, the welded assembly replaces the cast component and all downstream references are fulfilled.

Moving on from sketching, work done to give you more feedback and information about your modelling tasks and to make them more intelligent has been followed through into other areas. Firstly, you can now use design intent to reference an edge loop, rather than a specific set of entities - other systems have been doing this for a while and it makes perfect sense and will save a lot of headaches for those involved in very quick and drastic iterations of a design. This has also made the User Defined Feature tools more intelligence and tolerant to change.