Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 Focuses on Productivity, Design Efficiency

By DE Editors

In September 2009, PTC launched version 5.0 of its flagship CAD/CAM/CAE product, Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire. Among the key enhancements is real-time, dynamic editing and what the company calls “disruption-free design”  that will help users overcome the traditional barriers to flexible and easy design modification. In all, PTC says that release 5.0 accelerates the time to productivity up to ten times compared to earlier versions of its widely deployed mechanical design, analysis, and manufacturing software environment.

The new real-time dynamic editing in version 5.0 allows you to interact with a parametric model’s geometry directly by pushing or pulling on faces and features. Enhanced direct surface editing is also said to be up to 70% faster than traditional modeling methods.

PTC says that more than 330 development projects have led to the new capabilities and enhancements in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 and that many improvements were user inspired. Enhancements and new capabilities can be found in all areas of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0. For example, a new Rib tool feature that lets you generate curvature-continuous rounds, use sketch points for patterns, see real-time geometry previews, and employ dynamic pattern modification has been added to Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire’s plastics design capabilities. PTC estimates that the new Rib tool alone will increase plastic-part design productivity up to 80%. A new product called the Spark Analysis Extension will be of interest to electromechanical engineers. This new extension automatically identifies where electrical sparks might cross gaps and travel along surfaces. The user interface now includes context-sensitive menus.

Drafting and detailing version 5.0 has been improved with accurate print previews, says PTC. This is said to allow you to verify the look of your drawing before printing and plotting. The preview function has also been extended to File/Open dialog box, where you can preview file thumbnails before opening a given file, and to drawing sheet sets, where you can preview different sheets as thumbnails.

Increased performance speed is a big part of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0. Systems designers, for example, should reap a 40 percent improvement in wire and pipe routing performance. Weldments can now be analyzed up to 10 times faster than with previous versions, and you can now create facing toolpaths five times faster, according to the company. Additionally, the company says that you can create simplified subassemblies, place forms, and create molded parts up to 80 percent faster than before.

For machine design, Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 lets you drive slot motor components along curves, quickly create belts to account for kinematics and dynamic coupling, analyze gears, and model object contacts. The version 5.0 release also offers better data exchange and interoperability capabilities, including support for Autodesk Inventor and SolidWorks. A new 3D import wizard and Import DataDoctor help preserve the integrity of imported 3D files.

The Pro/ENGINEER Advanced Rendering Extension now includes high-performance rendering technology from mental images. This new integration incorporates ease of use, employing material presets and real-world illumination models. Also new in Wildfire 5.0 is the Pro/ENGINEER Spark Analysis Extension, which helps analyze and optimize electromechanical clearance and creepage properties of designs.

To explore the growing importance of social media, PTC addresses social product development with Windchill ProductPoint. Based on SharePoint, Microsoft’s collaboration infrastructure technology, the new social computing platform allows you to take advantage of the design community’s collective knowledge by helping users better communicate with the people and resources they need for a particular job.

For detailed explanation of the new features in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0, visit PTC on the web.

Need to convince the boss to go for Wildfire 5? Download 10 good reasons here.

Sign-up for a video demo on the use of tolerance analysis in Pro/ENGINEER.

The Pro/ENGINEER Advanced Rendering Extension now leverages the mental images rendering engine.

Learn about social product development in Windchill ProductPoint.

Register for a free 30-day free trial version of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire.

See an on-demand webinar: “Concurrent Engineering - How to Excel at Top-Down Design.”

See why DE’s Editors selected Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 as their Pick of the Week.