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gvora10-Marble
10-Marble
July 20, 2010
Question

Project Light.

  • July 20, 2010
  • 2 replies
  • 4649 views

Does anybody know any more details about Project Light?

    2 replies

    B
    BettinaGiemsa5-Regular Member
    5-Regular Member
    July 21, 2010

    Hi Gautam,

    All information about Project Lightning is available on this page: http://www.ptc.com/project-lightning/

    Mark your calendar for the virtual launch event on October 28!

    Bettina

    G
    gvora10-MarbleAuthor
    10-Marble
    July 21, 2010

    Hello Bettina,

    I thank you so much for your reply. I have read everything in that weblink for Project Light.

    I want to know more about it, such as is it going to be a part of Pro/E or and an additional

    tool in Pro/E or brand new product, which the users will have to buy?

    If the users have to buy the new product, that is not a great idea, in my opinion.

    Thanks.

    Gautam Vora.

    C
    colmacpro1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    July 22, 2010

    I think I am having Déjà vu.

    I believe Project Lighting is primarily intended to generate new revenue in a segment of PTC products that have nearly flat lined on new growth and revenue.

    Remember Intralink 3.4. It finally got to where it was easy to use, implement, administrate and no real issues with performance. PTC declared “Mission Accomplished” at the 2004 or 2005 PTC/User conference. The following year Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 was announced as the fully capable replacement for the Intralink 3.4 series and it would cost active maintenance customers a minimum of $20K to migrate. I would contend that Intralink 10.0 is the fully functional replacement for the Intralink 3.4 series. "Usability Matters" and 9.1 is not totally there yet.

    In the mean time PTC developed Windchill Product Point and initially said it would not replace Intralink. Some of the marketing material that I have recieved even just yesturday from PTC tends to say otherwise. We are on the home stretch to migrating from Ilink3.4 to Winlink9.1 M050. I am now wondering how long Windchill Intralink will be a supported product.

    windchillProductPoint.jpg

    I have also recieved PTC marketing for CoCreate and how it can fully replace history based modelers. Pro/E was never referred to in the list of replacement targets, but it was implied.

    Project Lightning will most likely be a completely new suite of products (Airplane, Car and Moped) based on the Granite Kernel. The new products will most likely have full access to all of the legacy product file types. (Pro/E, CoCreate, etc) This new suite of products will mostly likely consume the primary focus of PTC R&D continuing into the future for the CAD side of things. The legacy products probably will be supported initially for an undetermined amount of time. After that, extended support will be offered for an additional cost. There will probably be some sort of special upgrade path from the legacy products which means new revenue beyond standard maintenance.

    I'm hoping this is not the case.

    The next release beyond Wildfire 5.0 not yet to be named, looks to be the best release of Pro/E I have seen in a decade. Mostly contributed to the cleanup and standardization of the UI. The addition of CoCreate functionality embedded in Pro/E is definitly welcome enhancements. WF6 paired up with Windchill Intralink 10.0 will be a great overall package. just in time for a new Era to begin.

    I have marked my calendar for October 28.

    Joe

    “When you're finished changing, you're finished.” - Benjamin Franklin

    P
    pwyndham1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    July 22, 2010

    Hello Gautam,

    I am sure everyone here has the same hopes for Project Lightening:

    • Completely update Pro/E to the modern world of CAD tools
    • Integrate Pro/E and CoCreate into the same CAD tool to eliminate conflicts
    • Make Pro/E competitive with SW
    • Update the User interface to be consistent in every function
    • The list could go on and on.

    There are also many people that are frustrated by the lack of response from PTC on enhancement requests and many other forms of upgrade request. In the past PTC has always shown the side that the customer is not right unless PTC thought of it first.

    Resently things appear to be changing at PTC. With new products like ProductPoint and the integration of some CoCreate functionality into Pro/E.

    We need to try to keep a positive outlook and hope for the best. Hopefully PTC will not follow IBMs footsteps and go from being the market leader to almost non-existent. It looks like that is the path they chose for many years, but not they are giving some signs of turning around.

    I choose to continue to use Pro/E and see what PTC does for us.

    In regards to the question about if Lightening will replace Pro/E as a maintenance upgrade - I do not know. I can only hope that PTC realizes that there is the possibility to loose an extreme amount of their customers if everyone has to repurchase their seats. If I have to repurchase all of my licenses I will definitely be taking a new look at all other CAD tools to make sure I get what is best and will not just jump on the Lightening wagon.

    Lets try to stay positive and hope for the best responses from PTC on Oct 28th. I wish they would say some sooner, but I guess we have to wait.

    G
    gvora10-MarbleAuthor
    10-Marble
    July 22, 2010

    I hope this Project LIghtening is not failure like "FEATURE RECONGINATION", "AUTBUILDZ" AND "IMPORT DATA DOCTOR".

    Ptc always shows only two or three examples, where new products works, but if you take complicated part/assembly, it

    does not work. For example ATB software for Unigraphics, it never works the way it is supposed to work.

    I have created so many calls and finally gave up buying the software after using it as evalution.

    This is the situation in PTC. I hope it improves.

    Thanks.

    Gautam Vora.

    J
    JonathanHodgson13-Aquamarine
    13-Aquamarine
    July 23, 2010

    I may be a Luddite, but for my part I wish PTC would stop trying to "improve" Pro/E by making dramatic changes and introducing headline new "features" which actually aren't very useful.

    We find Pro/E very good for what we use it for; it just has a few niggles which need fixing (classic enhancement request stuff - my most recent one is to make witness line jogs more flexible). The improvements we've really liked have been small things like improved copy/paste capabilities, or drafting open quilts; meanwhile, some useful stuff has been deleted (View/Rep/Simplify; the ability to size both witness lines of a dimensions together - does anyone remember those?).

    Stop fixing the stuff that isn't broken, and sort out the small stuff that makes a big difference!

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