Meet Bob, the Digital Manikin in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0

In release 5.0, PTC‘s flagship MCAD package Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire takes on some of the characteristics of its direct-modeling cousin CoCreate (PTC acquired the company and the software in December 2007). The new release marks the debut of Dynamic Edit, or what many of us now refer to as push-pull modeling. But at its core, Wildfire 5.0 remains a parametric program.

The other noteworthy addition is a digital manikin, which I nicknamed Bob for easy reference. If you routinely work with heavy machinery, you may use Bob to verify clearance, ergonomics, and accessibility (for example, making sure Bob doesn’t need to be in an uncomfortable pose to operate a certain lever or control panel). To use Bob as a fully functional feature, you need a Pro/E manikin license.

The two-part video review below provides more details on Bob and other new features in Wildfire 5.0. For more, wait for the print review of the software, set to appear in an issue of Desktop Engineering soon.