Has anyone used Pro/COMPOSITE?

[dhermosillo]

I'm trying to figure out how to use Pro/COMPOSITE, but the instructions on the support site <http://www.ptc.com/cs/cs_18/howto/com332/com332.htm>, and in the Pro/Help helpcenter (other modules>composite) seem to be out of date with Wildfire.

Has anyone successfully used Pro/COMPOSITE?

Thanks

-Domingo

[dhermosillo]

In case anyone else is looking, I got the attached files from our local training provider.

I have yet to find anyone who has actually used Pro/Composite though, and none of the training centers have any experts in it.

[DavidButz]

I don't know who specifically, but I was told many years ago that this module was developed for a helicopter manufacturer who was a PTC customer. Don't know if that's really true or not.

[dhermosillo]

From one of our composite engineers:

Short Summary: either the tool doesn’t have the capabilities we need for complex geometry or we need training on how to make the ProE Composite tool work for more complex geometry than simple flat plates.

After spending another couple of hours with this today, I’m convinced that either this ProE Composite tool is not robust for geometry that is reasonably more complex than a flat plate (like a ¼ sphere) or its more complicated than a guy like me with some surfacing experience can figure out. In any case, it doesn’t seem to have the same rules as typical surfacing operations in ProEngineer. I’ve learned how to generate, merge, trim, join, thicken surfaces and generally make them behave like I want them to, but the composite features don’t seem to behave in the same way with the same quirks. If the ProE Composite module can handle the complex geometries, then it has a whole new set of quirks to learn in order to get those complex composite parts modeled.

[dhermosillo]

PTC Support is working on trying to get one of our parts to work in Pro/Composite.

In the meantime, I've learned that Vistagy, maker of FiberSIM, was the original creator of this module, and have not been asked to update it since its inception. FiberSIM is completely integrated into Pro/E, Catia, etc., so there's really no motivation for Vistagy to update Pro/Composite on their own. We're now talking with Vistagy to get a seat of FiberSIM so we can do some serious composite design and analysis.

If you need a similar soulution, I've listed our Vistagy contact below:

David Watson

Account Manager

(206) 525-3946 Office

[dhermosillo]

We met with Vistagy, and their software is great for doing composites, albeit quite expensive. However, it doesn't solve any of the pro/e issues we were having that Pro/Composite seemed to deal with, with are multiple densities in one part, and converting a ply based model to a usable solid model.

For now we're constrained to using assemblies with assembly cuts, which is extremely undesirable.

I still have an open ticket with PTC tech support, but am getting very poor response from them.

I'll update if they ever find a solution for us.

[dhermosillo]

Update! I got a reply back from my tech support ticket:

"I am currently talking with development on this issue and hope to have some more information very soon. I will get back to you once I do have any more information."

Hopefully there will be good news forthcoming.

[dhermosillo]

I got a response from PTC, finally, saying that they do not intend to support Pro/Composite for the Creo product line. 😞

[dhermosillo]

Here's a link to the product idea I created: http://communities.ptc.com/ideas/1554#comment-7283

[dhermosillo]

Update! PTC responds to my question, "What is PTC's solution for the growing composites market?"

http://communities.ptc.com/message/185519#185519