Day 3: Wednesday, June 24

Notes from the PTC technical managers session Wed. morning:

• if assembly cuts are taking too long, be sure to use a closed section to make the cut, and select the entities to cut manually (note: CAD systems have been offering automatic selection of entities to cut for at least 15 years, and we still have to select the entities manually to get efficient selection, just like 15 years ago, seems room for improvement here)
• Mechanica R21 writes to Intralink WorkSpace, including the Pro/E file and version used
• on R20 Pro/Mfg has been renamed Pro/NC, because PTC has been developing other manufacturing products
• Pro/Intralink has been having problems with family parts, but all in a good cause: with Pro/PDM any changes to family tables changed all instances, but Intralink was designed so that the parts for each instance can be separate and have their own version history. Intralink should be handling family parts ok now.
• R20 includes a new Mechanism pick in the Assembly menu, which lets you use joints of different kinds in constructing an assembly
• it is true that on R16 the repaint order was changed to display datums and tags last, so often obliterating the visible geometry (some people wanted them last, but others still haven't adjusted)
• PTC is still working to develop better tools to identify changes to drawings and to assemblies: two approaches are using the model tree, and comparing mass properties. For identifying changes to parts, two current tools are part differences (feature by feature comparison) and the integrate tool (step by step comparison, including parameters).
• you can use Pro/NC (formerly Pro/Mfg) to machine directly from IGES or DXF input
• problems with Pro/Intralink understanding skeleton models should be fixed in R1.1 (Computervision was another vendor that also released PDM tools without understanding all the variations in their own CAD databases)
• the new Intent Manager sketcher on R20 finally makes regeneration independent of the current zoom state! Wonder how long it'll take people now to stop zooming in and out to see if that fixes a regen problem.
• PTC has two ongoing projects for sharing Pro/E remotely: (1) expanding applications to go beyond a company firewall (2) multiple users looking in to the same model in separate simultaneous sessions (early stage)
• Mechanica will never have a Pre-Production release, because it's used for product safety, and so Pre-Production releases would not be appropriate (query: is Pro/E then never used in product safety?). If you have updated to Mechanica R20, and you don't want to use Pre-Production Pro/E R20 (for product safety reasons?), then you'll have to use the Independent Mode and work with older Pro/E files.
• there are problems modeling flexible geometry like a chain, you have to use separate parts. However you can use one parameter for all the parts to generate one BOM entry.
• Pro/PDM will never have a R4.0, if you heard talk of Pro/PDM R4.0 that was just an early name for Pro/Intralink.
• because it's so difficult to check a drawing for changes (like, change to visible geometry without any affect on dimensions or other information) current Pro/PDM policy is to mark with a plus any drawing you retrieve. On the assumption that if you retrieved it, and then submit it back, you probably made some change to it.
• Pro/Intralink R2 will be more of a Web based tool, with a Web browser. In Pro/E R20 the File > Open command will go directly into Intralink.
• R21 should contain easier ways to work with pattern tables
• Q: why was Pro/Intralink released when PTC was not recommending its use? A: some companies are using it successfully, but larger companies need more administrative controls.
• Mechanica R21 will include non-linear analysis, which will make it possible to analyze many snap fit problems. PTC did some fundamental research, developing the first adaptive non-linear solutions (not requiring knowledge of non-linear theory).

There were 5 presentations dealing with assembly management in the program, more than on any other subject. That probably corresponds accurately with customer concerns about working with large assemblies in Pro/Engineer. And probably also matches PTC concerns with winning over major automotive and aerospace accounts where large assemblies are rountine.

PTC has made a major contribution to assembly modeling, based on user experience, a 115 page document, "Top-Down Design Task Guide". It's a new type of documentation from PTC, very task oriented, focused on the job at hand. A copy should be included with each R20 shipment, but of course in larger companies that copy may be promptly lost. With Pre-Production R20 it's the only hard copy document.

FLEXlm, the new R20 license manager, got a lot of attention at this year's conference, just like last year's conference (when it was scheduled for R19). Basics haven't changed since a year ago, same license manager.

It was about a year ago that Globetrotter Software, the company that develops and sells FLEXlm to software vendors for their products, certified that PTC had a good implementation of FLEXlm. But that was just the generic FLEXlm implementation, such as other software vendors use. Over the last year PTC has made major efforts to add additional capabilities to FLEXlm for Pro/E, to give Pro/E customers the same opportunity to practice real license management as with the old Pro/Server license manager.

Most software vendors implementing FLEXlm just make the client ping the server continuously for a license (for example, every 3 minutes). Day and night, holidays and weekends, as long as the client has a session it holds on to a license. That's the behaviour of Computervision under FLEXlm, for example, you can often find dozens of CV licenses outstanding at 3AM on a Sunday morning, when no one is doing anything.

With Pro/Server customers could flush unused licenses from the license server, and so really manage licenses, because Pro/Server clients would only ping the license server when someone actually did something (made a menu selection). So with regular automatic flushing of unused licenses, you'd see zero licenses outstanding at 3AM on Sunday morning (a test of effective license management).

It's been a long job to make FLEXlm clients behave the same way as Pro/Server clients, and to give PTC customers a chance to manage licenses. Going against the mainstream of software vendors, and also against some of Globetrotter's own conventions. Should be reasonable if PTC toots their horn a bit at the result, and if customers doing benchmarks finally start including license management (why buy 50 seats of Brand X, if you can do the job with only 25 seats of Pro/E, just because Pro/E has better license management).

Here are some points to remember if you're going to convert Pro/PDM data to Pro/Intralink:

• you can only convert entire Pro/PDM databases, you cannot convert part of a Pro/PDM database. You need Pro/PDM R3.4.
• there will be a Pre-Production release of the converter in Aug., and a final version later in the fall (if you don't trust your data to a Pre-Production R20, you probably won't trust it to a Pre-Production converter either)
• here's the sequence of operations in the converter:
  • import Pro/PDM databases and existing Intralink databases
  • integrate all databases, PDM and Intralink
  • evaluate conflicts
  • resolve conflicts
  • re-integrate the databases
  • export results to Intralink (overwriting all existing Intralink data)
• if you convert a library database to Intralink, and then make changes to that library on the PDM side, you will have to manually make the same changes to the library on the Intralink side. Once a database is converted to Intralink, there is no way to pass on further incremental updates to that database from PDM to Intralink.
• in Pro/PDM you could have duplicate names in different databases scattered around a company, but in Intralink you'll need to have unique names, those duplicate names will appear as conflicts
• each time you convert Pro/PDM databases to Intralink, you need to gather all your PDM databases and all of your already converted Intralink data into an intermediate database, and then write out that intermediate database to Intralink (that's how the converter works)
• you can convert your PDM databases one by one, but each time you convert a PDM database you will still need to bring all your previously converted Intralink data into the intermediate database, then convert the PDM data, then write everything back to Intralink
• so, if you have 50GB of PDM data to convert, you need to plan on having at least 50GB of free disk space available for your final conversion (whether you convert the PDM databases incrementally, or whether you convert them all at once, you'll still need to have 50GB of free disk space for the final conversion). A formula:

  free disk space required = total PDM data being converted + total existing Intralink data

• if you convert 50GB of Pro/PDM data all at one time, then you need 50GB of free disk space. If you have already converted 40GB, and have only 10GB left to convert, you still need at least 50GB of disk space, because you'll have to integrate the 10GB to convert with the 40GB you already converted into Intralink, to make one intermediate database. That's apparently the only way to really resolve all conflicts, to combine all the data (both PDM and Intralink, both converted and not yet converted) into one single intermediate database---and then write that back into Intralink
• to reduce disk space requirements, you can choose to have new Intralink data overwrite PDM data being converted. But then, if a power failure strikes in the middle of the conversion process, you will have to restore all your PDM data and all your Intralink data back from tape (ever see how long it takes to restore 50GB from tape?), before starting over again.
• if you have remote PDM sites, you may save some time during the conversion process by moving the databases from those sites to a local server, before starting the conversion. But when you write out the new Intralink data, you will be pushing it out over the network to those remote sites. If you have remote sites across the Atlantic or Pacific, with only a 1.5Mb/sec. company connection at best, be prepared for a long wait before the conversion is all done.

Since most companies are only going to do conversions once, there won't be much chance to learn by experience. Sure seems there might be a new job opening for Pro/PDM Converters. These people would tour the country in custom RVs, equipped with racks in the back holding at least 100GB of disks. They'd drive up to your front door Friday afternoon, and run a long network cable into your computer room. They'd suck up all your PDM databases onto their disks in the RV, and then convert them over the weekend, and push back the new Intralink Oracle database in time for the start of business Mon. morning.

Some of the advantages of being a Pro/PDM Converter would be: work only 2 days a week (even if the weekend), tour all over the country, see all the sites and attractions Mon.-Fri. of each week, and charge huge fees (how much is a 50GB product database worth to the owner? a lot). And you could set your own schedule, work the cooler states in the summer, and the warmer states in the winter. All in a custom RV. Biggest problem might be getting enough cooling in the RV for all those disks, but that's just a detail of implementation.