There are a LOT of variables that drive when a company upgrades.
In my experience, smaller companies usually upgrade quicker since they typically don't have as much customization and integration. Larger companies tend to take longer due primarily to the customization and integration.
Other obvious reasons are Pro/PDM (not really, I don't think anyone is still using it, maybe, yikes), Intralink compatibility, and PDMLink compatibility. Testing is another good reason, to verifiy that the stuff you do is not adversely affected by the upgrade. Can you imagine a large company upgrading a 1000 users and THEN discovering something doesn't work...what a nightmare.

Time...a lot of companies don't have dedicated CAD Admins. They use an engineer or designer who has other responsibilities.

Customer...If you do stuff or someone else, you can't move until they tell you to. And then if you have multiple customers, you typically have multiple releases running at any given time.

Bugs...Like Andrew said, no one wants to be the guinea pig

We are still on WF 2. They are planning on going to WF 4 some time, but they are also planning on moving away from Intralink to TeamCenter so upgrading is really out of the question until they figure out the compatibility issues. Once at WF 4, we will NOT move again until TeamCenter is compatible with whatever release. It works for use because we are the end user. We have no customers (other than internal) using our CAD data. No one is driving us to upgrade except corporate pushing for us to use TeamCenter.

Tons of reasons for not upgrading.

D

DamianCastillo

1-Visitor

Testing is important for any company, but I do agree that the larger companies take longer and for good reason.

I usually test for about 1 month and jump on. I figured that someone has to actually use it or it will never get the first build upgraded. 🙂

As long as I can prove that no MAJOR issues exist, I jump to the new version very quickly. The other factor is any new changes to the GUI that require training. This will delay the install because I must first teach my users what has changed. In WF5 the Drawing GUI is completely different and will require some level of training on my part.

Not sure how long it will take me to move over to WF5, but I will keep you guys posted.

M

mlocascio

1-Visitor

The last company that I worked for is probably still on Wildfire II. They
were dragging their feet just a little too much. It will probably be eons
before their users get anywhere up-to-date on Pro/E Wildfire.

Michael P. Locascio

P

ptc-1932745

1-Visitor

What's amusing is going to user group events and having the PTC rep ask
for a show of hands for which version the audience was using.

About 6 months to a year ago(?), out of 100 or so users represented from
maybe 20-30 companies, most were WF2, and only a handful (one or two
companies were on WF4).

Hopefully, in WF 5, pro-Man will be fully up-to-date.

(I'm still trying to get the machinability database working)

As I remember, one main issue was I-Link 3.3-3.4 update and various WF
updates not playing well together that caused the delay.

Christopher Gosnell

TRIGON INC.
FPD Company
124 Hidden Valley Road
McMurray, PA 15317
PH: 724.941.5540
FX: 724.941.8322
www.fpdinc.com

P

pgress

1-Visitor

Chris Gosnell wrote:
>
> What’s amusing is going to user group events and having the PTC rep
> ask for a show of hands for which version the audience was using.
>
> About 6 months to a year ago(?), out of 100 or so users represented
> from maybe 20-30 companies, most were WF2, and only a handful (one or
> two companies were on WF4).
>

In my opinion, this is because of PTC's refusal to save to a standard
format, where WF2 can open a WF4 or WF5 file. Thats what always delays
me upgrading, if I save in WF4 and my customer has WF2, I'm in trouble.
It's not to hard to allow a redefine if there's a problem opening a WF4
file in WF2.

So this is my gripe/rant (sorry, I know it's not Friday). It is also my
belief, that when designing software, you have the Frontend (GUI) and
the Backend (engine). The frontend changes for productivity, but the
backend saves the data. PTC can't keep changing the backend extensively.
The backend only saves what the unit looks like, not how you got there.
Yes I know it's parametric, so there are some changes when saving
individual features, this is what redefine is about if something got lost.

Back way in the past, before PTC went to Wildfire, the files were text
files, not a compressed file with a password key (this is how they stop
older versions opening up a file or a competitor), I would just change
the header in the file to the version of Pro-E I needed to open and it
would just work. You cant do that any more.

Paul

J

JonathanHodgson

13-Aquamarine

In fairness to PTC, some of this is due to new features.

Multi-set rounds, to take a trivial example, are a nice feature to be
able to use in WF3 - but Pro/E 2001 wouldn't understand them. These,
and also more major stuff like the WF interchangable
cut/protrusion/surface features, are cases where the back-end has been
significantly changed to enable front-end improvements.

Regards,
Jonathan

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