Sketcher vs Intent manager

[ptc-1641498]

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

[tcarrington]

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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[JMSCRA]

Don't forget, even in the pre IM days (I have messed with Pro/E since rev 6)
you had to exaggerate the sketch to keep an angled line from snapping H or
V, or a radius of slightly differing values had to be exaggerated. It seems
like there were some other examples I just cannot recall them right now,
getting old you know.



P.S. yes I like the IM the vast majority of the time.




John Scranton




Sr. Designer

Ultra Electronics

UnderSea Sensor Systems, Inc.

[TimMcLellan]

Have you looked at the "Sketcher" Options? You can actually turn off most
if not all of the added intelligence (or lack of that Jeff speaks of) in
that dialogue box. The added advantage is it still allows for Sketcher
setup. I guess the only down side as Jeff mentions is that it still fully
constrains the sketch (weak dims). Which, I guess was his point.



[Sketch, Options.] Look over all of the tabs.



One simple, or not so simple, change for PTC would be to provide another
option in the Sketcher Preference Dialogue box - something to the effect of:

Strong Dims Only (yes/no)





Tim McLellan
Mobius Innovation and Development, Inc.

[DaveEngel]

You guys need to look in to the later builds of Wildfire 3.0. At some
point PTC added a bunch of config options for sketcher. All of the
options end in "_constr" and are used to individually turn on or off
particular intent manager constraints.


Dave

[rrich]

This has been a real fun thread.



However, I sat by quiet long enough. Being on pro/e since 1989 rev 5 I
loved to be in total control of my sketches. And yes I fought like crazy
against the IM. However when I made the switch to WF2 a few years ago I
said I would try it. And now I would suggest you all should use it. It
does help and speeds up sketching. And no, it does not try to second guess
or tell you how to make your sketch. You still can replace and construct
every dimension and fix every constraint, but why, if you use a little
smarts up front your references will help control the sketch the way you
want to. There is no way I would model parts without it anymore. I battle
constantly here with a couple old time users that won't look outside the rut
they have been driving in for so long they fight the IM with a passion like
on this list. I was like them too, but now I know different.



And the comment about NEVER snapping to a midpoint was a joke. I assumed
and read it as the person does it quite a bit. I know.. I use it too. This
feature is very helpful when wanting to create a CSYS at the center of a
face (used a lot in molds and dies.) Sketch some datum curves snapped your
MIDPOINT referenced side edges, then a perpendicular line snapped to the
MIDPOINT of that curve. Now you have geometry that will change with your
part easily and you can place a CSYS relative to the curves you just created
and it moves along easily and updates with your part. No need to measure and
divide and modify dimensions.



SO I VOTE IM. Oh that's right voting was on Tuesday, I'm too late, so this
post is just a hanging chad and should be ignored.



Ron Rich

Staff Mechanical Engineer

Keithley Instruments, Inc.

28775 Aurora Road

Cleveland, OH 44139

440-498-2954 PH

440-498-2890 FX



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[burnsp]

I completely agree with both Rich and Lyle's posts on IM and could not
have stated it much better. In summary, IM works great for me 99% of
the time.

[ArnoldCollett]

A correction/addition to Lyle's post. The "skamps" config options
control whether the constraint symbols are shown or not. To set the
constraints to not be added automatically, set the following options to
no.

sketcher_equal_length_constr

sketcher_equal_radii_constr

sketcher_lineup_hor_constr

sketcher_lineup_ver_constr

sketcher_midpoint_constr

sketcher_parallel_constr

sketcher_perpendicular_constr

sketcher_point_on_entity_constr

sketcher_same_point_constr

sketcher_symmetric_constr

sketcher_tangent_constr





Arnold Collett

[jneilson1]

I was weary of intent manager when it first came out, but I like the
constraint dialog it now has.



John Neilson

CMC of Georgia

Engineering Dept.

2167 Highway 123

Toccoa, Ga. 30577



_____

[ShandRonnie]

With the IM you can always do a right-click for constraints that need to
be turned-off.

What I do is as soon that an unwanted constraint pops-up, right click
and a red symbol shows that it is off.



Regards,



Ronnie Shand

[JonathanHodgson]

I think weak dims are useful - at least you can try changing them to
work out what the unconstrained degree of freedom is.

It just requires discipline from the user, never to leave a sketch with
weak dimensions or constraints.

Jonathan

[TimMcLellan]

I completely agree. I was just trying to get to some of the points that
started this thread.



In fact - I typically configure my clients to have modified dimension lock
in sketcher. This really helps when wanting to flex the degrees of freedoms
of the remaining dims.



Thank you,



Tim McLellan
Mobius Innovation and Development, Inc.

[ChrisReinman]

I'd like to see a config option to automatically strengthen all
dimensions when you exit sketcher.

Chris

[ptc-141274]

When IM first came out, there was rumor that the ability to turn it off
would disappear, so I jumped right in and embraced it. I am use CM all
the time now.

Any more rumors on whether PTC still plans to completely lose the
ability to turn off IM sometime in the future? Of course that might
upset a lot of people.
Doug Pogatetz
Northrop Grumman Corporation

[DamianCastillo]

First, I would like to say that I agree with just about everything Doug Shafer mentioned.

I find this thread to be very useful with allot of great input and ideas from many users. I won't go into my opinion on the matter since Doug has covered everything that I would have said already. Thank Doug.

What I do want to point out is how you guys came together on this thread and shared some really great points.

Kudos to all of you.

"If you are not living life on the Edge, You are taking up too much space"