1-Visitor

Question

Sketcher vs Intent manager

Forum|Forum|18 years ago
November 6, 2007
43 replies
10726 views

Hello Everyone,

I have been away from pro-e for a while 2000i2 and now back using fulltime,
what would you recommend sketcher or intent manager.

Are both of these still being developed, or is development only on intent
manager.

Best regards

Stephen

Show previous replies

D

DaveEngel

1-Visitor

This is part of what they apparently callthe sketcher diagnostic tools in WF4. (See the new buttons). One to show closed sections, one to show intersecting entities, one to show unattached ends and one to run the diagnostics box. Reminds me of a spell checker.

Anyway, I've always been a fan of Intent manager.

N

Netesh

1-Visitor

Tim,

Have you downloaded Wildfire 4.0 Pre-production and tested the sketcher
diagnostic tools we've added? I would be very interested in hearing your
feedback (or anyone else's) on what other diagnostics are required.

FYI, we added the following diagnostics in sketcher:

Shading Closed Loops
Highlighting Open Ends
Highlighting overlapping and intersecting entities
Feature Requirements (this dialog posted earlier)

Thank You,

Netesh Gohil
Director of Product Management
Pro/ENGINEER
PTC
973-631-6197

<">http://www.ptc.com/company/tl/index.htm>

P

ptc-294120

1-Visitor

Also, there is every once in a while that you can't get into sketcher to
redefine because the sketch is invalid... maybe a line has reversed or gone
to a 0 length or something, but it won't let you in to fix it.

But over-all, I can't see not using intent manager. It makes it way easier
to control your references.

Dave

P

ptc-1641498

Author

1-Visitor

Thanks to everyone for the feedback, almost all of you seem to be using
intent manager.

Best regards

Stephen

D

dgallup

1-Visitor

The first couple of iterations of intent manager were pretty terrible & I always left it off. As someone who started with R2 in 1989 I didn't need any d@m# software making decisions for me. With WF2 however, it mostly works pretty well & I leave it on by default. Every once in a while I fight with it and end up turning it off for a sketch. It is usually when I have to redefine someone else's overly complex sketch. I am a big fan of several simple sketches/features rather than one complex section.

J

jeffsampson

1-Visitor

I'll put my 2¢ in on the topic, if nothing else, to balance the scales a
bit. 😉

I HATE Intent Manager, especially in WF3. Granted it does have some
useful features, but overall I find myself fighting it more than plain
sketcher. Now I've been on Pro since rev 9, so I did have plenty of
time to get used to life without IM. I also despise PTC for continually
making certain features only available in IM and not in sketcher.

- Why would I want some programmer guessing at my intent? I KNOW my
intent and that's what I sketch.
- Why should I have to purposely poorly sketch (exaggerate your
sketch) to "fool" IM? I sketch what I want it to be not what I don't.
- I do a lot of surfacing and odd shaped sketches with very few
dimensions (lots of tangencies) and find IM more cumbersome.

What I wish PTC had done is made constraint manager available in plain
sketcher. Then I could apply the constraints I want any time I want.

My latest big peeve is one I posted a month or so ago for WF3, which is
that for existing features, the sketch setup menu is only available when
you have intent manager on. Now if a sketch is unregenerateable (due to
lost references - sound familiar Rui?), you cannot get into it because
regeneration is required to enter IM, and IM is required to enter
sketcher setup! Any user interface person with half a brain can figure
out that they need a button on the dashboard right next to the one for
"SKETCH" that says "SKETCH SETUP".

For Kenneth: You can disable constraints actively in plain sketcher
without having to regenerate. If you pick "constraints" in the menu,
the current set of constraints will show and you can click and disable
the ones you don't want. You do have to click it again to see what new
constraints were created by your disabling others.

Yes IM has some powerful helps, and can be very handy. But I do quite
well without it.

Jeff

--
Jeff Sampson Engineering
-

>Subject: Sketcher vs Intent manager
>
>Just RMB when a new constraint highlights, and pro will put a line through
>it and disable it. Very, very handy, and it greatly lessens the grief
>factor. Doesn't work without intent manager.
>
>Ken Sauter
>Sauter Industrial Design
>3352 Broadway Blvd #414
>Garland, TX 75043
>972-226-1300
>214-292-8732 fax
>214-724-9100 cell
>www.sauterindustrialdesign.com

D

dgschaefer

21-Topaz II

"What I wish PTC had done is made constraint manager available in plain
sketcher. Then I could apply the constraints I want any time I want."

Jeff - You hit the nail on the head. I prefer IM (never turn it off,
actually) but if I could sketch without assumptions (like non-IM
sketcher) and then add both dimensions AND constraints, most of the
benefit of IM would be gone.

Either way, you have to learn how to sketch for Pro|E./ Without IM, you
need to master the skill of creating a sketch where Pro|E will assume
and add the constraints you want (H, V, Tan, equal, etc). With IM you
have to master the skill of sketching in an exaggerated manner to
prevent Pro|E from making assumption that you don't want and that will
be hard to get rid off. Either way you have to master the technique.

Doug Schaefer

E

ehill

1-Visitor

I felt this way for some time as well, when IM was first introduced.
The biggest thing it brought to the table was the ability to assign a
constraint of your choosing. Previously, you had to *know* how Pro/E
was going to respond to get the results you wanted. That used to
practically be the focus of the sketching section of the Foundation
class, because it was very difficult for new users to get a handle on.
Can you say SADR? That's still true to a lesser extent, but now you are
shown what is happening immmediately, and can directly add/delete
entities to get what you want instead of having to start over with a
different "sketching philosophy."

Now 6 years later, I have run across only a handful of sketches where I
had to turn off IM to get what I wanted. Every time I do, it hits me
what a clunky interface we had to use all those years ago, and how much
quicker and easier it is to sketch using IM. Underdimensioned sketch?
Unresolved section? Unregenerate? Yikes.

Best Regards,

L

lylebeidler

1-Visitor

I had mentioned this to someone in a private reply, but maybe I should share
it with the whole group.

One of the common complaints I've heard in this discussion is that Sketcher
assumes constraints you don't want. There are a couple really usefull tips:

1) you can turn off which constraints IM will assume (ie one user said that
he NEVER wants to snap to a midpoint) by going (in Sketcher) Sketch >
Options > Constraint tab - uncheck the constraints you DON'T want IM to
assume.

2) I believe #1 only works for the current session. To save it for
subsequent sessions, it's several config options:

SKETCHER_COLLINEAR_SKAMPS

SKETCHER_EQUAL_LENGTH_SKAMPS
SKETCHER_EQUAL_RADII_SKAMPS

SKETCHER_LINEUP_HOR_SKAMPS
SKETCHER_LINEUP_VER_SKAMPS

SKETCHER_MIDPOINT_SKAMPS
SKETCHER_PARALLEL_SKAMPS

SKETCHER_PERPENDICULAR_SKAMPS

SKETCHER_POINT_ON_ENTITY_SKAMPS

SKETCHER_SAME_POINT_SKAMPS

SKETCHER_SYMMETRIC_SKAMPS

SKETCHER_TANGENT_SKAMPS

Pick whichever you want, set it to "no"

(thanks to Olaf Corten's proesite.com for this list)

3) Don't forget that setting the selection filter to "Constraints" makes it
a HECK of a lot easier to get rid of the ones you don't want.

Personally, I love the control that IM gives me - I tell it what to assume,
and it does the mouse work for me.

--

Lyle Beidler
MGS Inc
178 Muddy Creek Church Rd
Denver PA 17517
717-336-7528
Fax 717-336-0514
-

T

tcarrington

1-Visitor

I've been lurking and watching this thread with interest. I use intent
manager first and most. But there are always times when I have to use
my mapkey IM to toggle between old sketcher and "Discontent Manager".
They are both good tools with some drawbacks. I will comment on both.

Intent Manager:
-I like the auto dimensions. Why can't the sketcher in a revolve
feature dimension "diameters" instead of all "rads"?
-Too many constraints (Midpoint). When I add the dimensions I want
(Dia's) the constraints or dim's I want to delete seem to never come up
on the list. So I have to back up and delete the offending constraints,
then put in the dimensions I want.
-Sometimes arcs will not trim after a use edge
-"Replace" is hidden out of the way in the edit menu

Old Sketcher:
-I use old sketcher a lot to help me remove gray dim's and constraints
-No annoying pre-selections
-I use old sketcher for sketches that are open or have entities on top
of one another.
-I can use "delete" click click click... until I find the problem,
then "undelete last" "undelete last"....
-I don't like the regenerate based on zoom
-I still have to exaggerate angled lines near 0 deg and 90 deg.
-Geom Tools are nice and simple and they work and it includes
"Replace"
-Old sketcher gives more clues (red highlight) when something isn't
working.

I like the analogy of automatic versus manual transmission. Sometimes I
just like to control when I shift. I hate it when an automatic tries to
hunt for the right gear going up a hill.

--Tom Carrington--
Rexair LLC
Cadillac, MI

Pro/E Wildfire 3.0 M100, 64-bit
No Intralink
WinXP, SP 2, 64-bit
Dell Precision 390
2.93 GHz Core2 Extreme, 4 Gig RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3500

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