Hello - Can anyone tell me what the compatibility between Pro/E Wildfire and PRO/DESKTOP is? Isn't ProDesktop what is left of ComputerVision? So can I build an assembly in Pro/E and view it in PD? There seems to be a free download of PD can you do much with that? It would seem like it would have to be pretty limited.
Thanks, Dan
Pro Desktop is actually quite a good program. The files can be read directly by Pro/E. It started as Design Wave and changed to Pro Desktop and became compatible with Pro/E. The free download is almost a full program with things like rendering left out.
It is definitely not a leftover from Computervision. I was a Personal Designer user from revision 1 and moved to PTC when Computervision was bought out as a beta tester for Design Wave
Personal Designer was dropped by PTC (which I always thought was a mistake since it was better than AutoCAD) and they tried a new product called Design Post which was a disaster and lasted for about 6 months.
Doug
Thanks! good to know the history! So what happened to ComputerVision? PTC did buy that right? There must have been something PTC wanted there.
So the free download is 3D? can you go the other way, draw in PD and then transfer to Pro/E? ... now that I'm thinking about it ... Isn't there a free viewer for Pro/E?
-Dan
Doug wrote:
PD can open Pro/e files, IGES, STEP, DXF and several other file formats. You can make parts and assemblies and drawings in PD, basic stuff with object/action functionality that's similar to SW. In PD assemblies, you can freely mix PD and Pro/e parts. It just added the ability to import surface models or models with surfaces in them ~ Pro/e, IGES, STEP, etc. File handling is good, all Windows GUI operation, and graphics are spectacular. They have a translucent view (like Pro/e hidden lines) that you need to see to believe. Plus, Pro/e just adopted PD's key combo for spin/pan/zoom. Now they work the same. It's the kind of software you wish would be bundled on every Dell computer sold and give everyone, kids included, an experience with solid modelling.
It also has features that are unavailable or undeveloped in Pro/e, like a pretty nice album feature that would be good for engineering notebooks, product catalogues or assembly instruction booklets.
The free download of the Express version comes with tutorials to get you started. It's worth trying out. And with completely painless installation, don't see what's to lose.
: Isn't ProDesktop what is left of ComputerVision?
No, CADDS5 is what is left of CV. Pro/DESKTOP was bought out by PTC in the middle
90s. It used to be called something else, don't remember the name, but not connected to CV.David Janes
Thanks, Doug, for clarifying the PD history. Couldn't remember Design Wave's name.
David Janes
I believe that PTC bought Computervision for the OPTEGRA PDM technology. They probably hoped that they could migrate all those existing users to some flavor of PTC's PDM and CAD.
Interesting to see that both CADDS and OPTEGRA are still available, I wonder how much it costs to manage so many different CAD systems, PDM systems, etc...
I believe that CV Designwave was about 3-5 years ahead of its time, and had may 'modern' GUI CAD features. Isn't one of the CV developers of Designwave also one of the people who started Solidworks?
I agree that CV Personal Designer was much better that ACAD in it day with 3D surfacing from the start.
Pers> Thanks! good to know the history! So what happened to ComputerVision?
Design Wave was a product created by a French company (I think). PTC bought that company, and re-badged (which is the reason difference in interfaces) it to Pro/Desktop to compete at the Solidworks level. Since then its kernel has been updated to 'Granite' which brings the Pro/E compatibility and Pro/E has gained some of it's intelligent selection capabilities.
As for computervision. My understanding is that CADDS5 / Optegra are still in existance because there are some major customers ('000's of licences) using the software who are not yet prepared to transfer to another system. It was supposed to die at approx rev 8 or 9 I think.
What is really interesting is that the people who set up PTC did so when they left Computervision. A number of programmers etc had an idea of what CADDS should become but were prevented from doing so when at Computervision, and hence went their own way.
I beta tested it. I didn't think so. Neither it seems did anyone else. What it did have was a good start and great potential.
That it did have.
jon
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