Wildfire 3.0 student edition

You're better at finding stuff on that lame site than I am. All I could find was reference to WF3 "Schools Edition", the other non-commercial version of the software. But not the same as the Student Edition. If and when it comes out, you'll see reference to it here:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks PTC's site is almost as bad as their GUIs!

My difficulty is, that my University ran out of stock on Wildfire 2 student edition, and now won't be restocking until September, but I'd rather have a copy now. However, that means buying something that is already obsolete.

PTC has the most awful website I've ever seen, especially for doing searches. The worst thing about the GUI is that there isn't one, there's about 6 and for an "integrated suite", its GUI is highly fragmented. 90 percent of the program hasn't gone to Dashboard functionality though it's the most different, highly touted thing about Wildfire. Many apps, such as detailing, haven't even been touched. In other words, forget about it ever being a real fullscreen program, or being able to view and work on two drawing sheets at once or something as fundemental, in the GUI functionality, as drag and drop which is about 20 years olds. So, even the best GUI features, at best, leave behind the Menu Manager approach of windows on top of windows but are still, in modern GUI terms, 20 years behind. And this is compromised further by leaving lots of pieces of older GUIs sprinkled generously throughout so there is no consistent look or feel to the program. Anyway, PTC would much rather spend its money on buying other companies, like Arbortext.

AFAIK this:

Sincerely,

Andr=E9 Luiz

Because my University is transitioning to WF 3 over the summer (when they upgrade and test all the software for the new year). I myself am on placement for the next year, and hope to get some practice in in my spare time as I won't have access to free labs like I do at University.

So, for over the summer, get WF2. By the fall, you'll have the latest and greatest at school. But, for home use, you can continue to use WF2 which is 99% the same as WF3, small interface changes differentiating them which you will easily acquaint yourself with in the fall. I see no argument against this except the idea that you'll be buying the Student Edition twice ~ the "obsolete" version and the latest, WF3. But, in my opinion, buying WF3 is unnecessary. By buying WF2 and using it over the summer to learn Pro/e, you'll already be getting your feet wet in good, valid, widely used Pro/e software and you'll be ahead of your class. You'll have mastered some fundementals and have very little to unlearn when fall rolls around. Also, maybe you noticed that the £75 price from JourneyEd.com is reduced from the usual academic rate of about £100 which is what WF3 SE will be when it comes out.

Back when I was in school..( before Wildfire).. I had an older version of ProE SE and the school had just upgraded to the newer version of ProE educational. If I started a part in my SE version and took it to school, the educational version would open the part just fine.... But..... If I started a part in the newer version and tried to open that part file in the older SE version it couldn't read it.

In Wildfire, can you save a part file in an older version format?

Jack

NO!!!

In Wildfire 3, you can save it in a version that can be read by WF2. It does show the features, but you cannot edit them. You can add new features that add/subtract from the existing ones.

In that case, the OP of this thread may want to wait for WF3, if he wants to be able to work on their classwork at school, and at home.

Jack

BTW, anyone know if and when the WF3 SE is being released? The OP's concern was wasting the summer. When I've been in similar circumstances and didn't have the advantage of the new feature that Ben just mentioned, I've simply recreated the part at home. The geometry is generally simple enough that this isn't a stretch and besides, the repetition is helpful, letting you experiment with different methods/styles of feature creation. With Pro/e, the main thing is tube time and when you're practicing, there's no such thing as wasting time.

Good points :)