All,
I found CADKEY very intuitive. And I liked the history buttons. Also, the
settings for a particular action were available the next time you used that
same action, so repeats were very easy. PTC could learn a lot from the
lesser programs (CADKEY, Alibre, AutoCad. SW) to make things easier and more
accessible. I have spent time on each of these programs, and each of them
has features that they do extremely well.
To get back to the topic, I have spent 8 years on 2001, and I always had the
feeling I was just scratching the surface of the functionality available. I
think it was mostly due to the complexity of some of it.
Nevertheless, I modeled motorcycle frames, triple trees, differentials,
helical tapered impellers, motorcycle reverse gearboxes, and many more
things that I know I would have had a much harder time with in these lesser
programs.
Only recently did I move to WF2, and more recently, to WF3. I wish I had
done it earlier, but with all the problems people had with it I did not see
myself productive in WF2. Now I have taken the step, I am pleased with much
of the new functionality (sheet metal walls, patterns, dashboard, previews,
combining of protrusions, cuts, thin protrusions, thin cuts, extruded
surface all into one feature, extrude), and more pleased that the dashboard
approach has been expanded to more features in WF3.
Overall, I am pleased with Pro/E, but am somewhat disappointed in some of
the things you could do in 2001.
I hope the maintenance will come down, that almost killed me.
I am sure that PTC is listening to their clients, and that is likely the
cause of their success. I hope that the program will become easier to use,
and that will undoubtedly translate in more people being truly interested.
My 2c worth.
Sip Hofstede
WildCAD Drafting & Design, Inc.
Westlock, AB
T7P 2P4
Canada
