Still using ProE Wildfire 4?

[jwalker-3]

I work at Allied Machine & Engineering where we use ProE Wildfire 4 for daily activities related to the design of special products and support of standard products.

How many other companies are still using ProE Wildfire 4?

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[kdirth]

Don't know, but would expect not many.  Here we have to follow where the big customers are going.  CAT and JD are using CREO 2.0 so that is what we have to use.  We upgraded a couple of years ago.  Those without big customers that require CAD files can choose to stay in the past.

[StephenW]

I agree probably not many still on WF4. I worked with a hydraulics cylinder company one time that was a ton of releases behind. They chose to do that because they had a lot of custom programmed stuff that would have to be completely overhauled to move the next release. To them it just wasn't worth the expense. They could do everything they needed and still provide files that were compatible to their customers if requested.

Some of the cons would be lack of PTC updates and support for older releases if you still wanted to be on software maintenance...but that that point, why would you pay maintenance?

I know it can be frustrating as a user to not be close to the latest release simply for the reason of your personal marketability but it may make sense to the company to not move forward on software releases...all depends on the situation.

[jwalker-3]

Stephen,

What justified the hydraulics company to write the custom programs?  What eliminated that as a justification to keep the CAD system current?

It's hard for me to see the reasoning to stop maintaining a system that brought value at one time. I think the argument here is to avoid customization and choose configuration and automation tools/techniques native to the software so their functionality is supported as part of the new releases.

[StephenW]

I definitely didn't know all the details but it was a relatively small company. I believe they had customized everything to auto generate models/drawings. They could get everything they needed from the system as it was and found no value in upgrading. If I remember, that was right at the point Pro/e had started adding icons, so about release 18/19.

I'm not really trying to justify that stance. It also made me wonder if the person that had done all the customization was still working there and they were afraid to touch the system. Fear is a valid driver!