Pro-E does (or did) have feature recognition. In WF4 it was a free
download add-on called FRT. It worked ok.
You selected the faces you wanted to replace with a feature (such as a
hole) and then told the software how to recognize the feature. It then
removed the hole faces and re-knitted the solid together, and then
placed a hole feature in the model.
Using this methodology, you then reverse-build the model to get the
features in the tree.
I don't see it in WF5 M040, but it may still be an add-on...
Christopher F. Gosnell
FPD Company
124 Hidden Valley Road
McMurray, PA 15317