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proficiency with Pro/E

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fletchtim

New member
This forum seems to be filled with many experts. How many members do we have here that are not experts, but rather users that have had either the typical short course, or the long course. (long course is, "Here's a computer with Pro/E, now make some drawings, short course is "Go find a computer with Pro/E and get some drawings made) I have been using Pro/e for about 3 years, and have learned as i needed. All together i've have maybe 18 hours of seminars and with each seminar my reaction is, "Wow, I didn't know you could do that".


This posting isn't really a question or anything, more of a comentary from the usersin the small 2 to 10 person departments that do what it takes to get some drawings out at the end of the day thats its OK when you don't have a clue to some of the topics on here. I'd like to know this better, but am busy with day to day projects to explore this in more depth.


This, like any forum, is usually made up of all levels of users, but only the experts have any imput. I just want to tell all the ones that have learned enough to get by on thier own, that there are many in here that are making a living by modeling and assembling in here without using the most efficent methods. so... just "hang in there, its more important to get your job done, than to get the Pro/E done, but let your job slide"
 
not to chastise anyone- but it is very important to make good solid, robust models. sooner or later- when you have to modify a model or an assembly and you get caught in the sloppy model trap, you will realize why itis vry important to model in design intent, use proper constraints, and assemble wisely. just a thought. Jrobi
 
"If you screw up, you're fired. By the way, you'll make the drawings on this new thingie called pro/E instead of AutoCAD so go figure it out"


That was my pro/E training program.


As you may guess, my knowledge of pro/E is all on-the-job hands-on crash-course (not to mention cost-free).
 
We have (4) Pro/E users in our group. (2) of us have been on Pro/E for amany years and the other (2) only for only 1-2 years. We all suffer from a lack of training mostly because our company along with others I imagine have a very tight budget. Let me tell that this lack of training is costing more than it is savings. We have junk models and drawings, and spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how to do what we know Pro/E can do. Not to mention keeping up with Pro/E upgrades. Time is money, training saves time. Convincing your boss this is another story.


OK, now that I'm off that. I have been looking into the e-learning, PTC has just sent me a trial version of PTC University. My initial look at this looks promising and the cost is very reasonable. You may want to contact your local rep. and see if you can get a trial version.
 
I have been using Pro/E for 9 years now and still to this day have
never had any formal training. I went from using AutoCAD and just
droped into Pro with the aditude of "figure it out" That is why I
think that this forum so so valuble.
 
I have the same problem - lack of knowledge. Usually want to make my models better and suffer problems when need to change it greatly. Always searching for new ways of doing that or this and finding it with the help of this forum.


Thank, guys!


But, still have to learn a lot...
 
Now, I'm completing the long course of ProE "Here's a PC with ProE, make some drawings" so I rally appreciate your help. In my opinion, disscusion forums and tutorials are the best ways of self-learning anything.
 
I also had the long course. The one thing that I have learned over the last 6 years is if you are using a lot of steps to do something, then there are a fast and usually a better way. I try to be aware when working with ProE of how may steps something takes, if it was more than 4 I will look for the faster way...<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:eek:ffice" />


Jeff
 
Just a little hint for those who are "getting by" without having had a training session.


Many colleges have drafting classes that use pro/e. They start at the insanely stupid... like "here's how to make a box". You guys all know how to do this stuff or you would not have jobs. The cool part is that along with all of this, they talk about the important stuff, like design intent... the stuff you really need to know and can't learn by osmosis really well.


If your boss won't drop 1800 schemolions and lose you for three days, maybe you can get him to shell out for a 3 credit college night course. It's less money and does not pull you away from production. You get to learn modelling philosophy and get some college credits under your belt.


Caveat: talk to the prof ask ask how much is menu picking and how much is discussion on design intent, assembly methods, etc.
 
I agree with you TrailBarge. I guess what I was trying to convey was that if you are spending all you time menu picking then you spend less time on design intent. If you have poor modeling techniques then your spend more time fixing then moving forward.


One thing that I also do is to add a lot of notes either on the model, family table or even in the model tree.


Jeff
 
I've been on Pro/E for a while, the guy i replaced at my present job have 5 years of experience on Pro/E. He never had any proper training.


After he left I had to revise some of his Mold Design models and found it took me on average 4-6 hrs to just get 80% of the Mold Designs to even regenerate.


Whenever he would get a revision to do he would just place the new revision over the old one, then do all his work
smiley11.gif



Needless to say I now export every revision out to a neutral file and delete all the crap no needed, works wonders.
 
When I read this I ask myself how good is my work? What will
say somebody who will maybe work after me on some project!
 
I was hired and just waiting for paperwork to be filled out to begin my new autocad job. Thankfully it took a long time, so I sat there and tried to figure out how to log in to a unix box on my desk. I couldn't understand the what the Indian guy who sat next to me wassaying. It took two days to log in. I discovered some proemanuals in a nearby desk. In afew more days I was modeling stuff.About friday of the first week a different office manager walked by and I cought him and asked him if he had any other books. I caught his interest and he gave me free reign over all the books, etc....


about 2 years later I was a PTC Certifierd Engineering Provider,training coordinator, and sys admin.


Open mind, Insert Knowledge! what a ride....
 
Speling;


I did exactly that. After 9/11, I was laid off from my job... running Pro/E, designing capital level machinery and training others in the company to do the same.


I spent 2 years essentially unemployed, picking up an odd contract job or another.


The only engineering job I could find in the area in that time, I took. Now I am consecrated to the damnation of runnning AutoCAD.


Now that you know where I am coming from, you may understand that I hardly feel sympathetic to your plight. =:)


As far as rebuilding your project... the only way to get solidworks native models out of pro/e native models is to remodel everything. Translators are out there, but quality of output is spotty. I'd run an estimate of the time it would take to remodel the project, remind the boss of the hidden costs of the project falling off schedule, and ask him if the cost-benefit balance really says solidworks is cheaper. Given the new pricing competition between the two, I'm surprised that they entertained the idea at all.


Good luck
 
Hi everybody,

everyone which have at least about 1 year working in ProE know that is very difficult to know all option in ProE.
I agree is very hard to work with ProE without any training. I think this site is qoiute good I have find many helpful ideas here. I don't thin is a meatter about experts and beginners.
For instance here I foud few links to other sites with help and tutorial files and that was really greate.
It is difficult to find a solution when you have a problem looking on the forum titles because everyone has his own idea about where to add his request and it takes time to explore everything but is finaly a helpful site.
I have to tell you I was lucky and attended a very good ProE training at the begining thatmeans allbasics about ProE were explained and tested but everyday when I look on forum I can find something new .I work everyday with ProE since 4 years and I can tell you I know only about 20% from all option in ProE.

So takes time and need to spend more hours on sites like this one .

regards to everyone
 
My experience is similar, Istarted on my own w/ v 13. I never really found a good couse beyond basics. Even PTC consults we hired were marginal.


The software is so powerful and used across so many industries it is the community that can provide the best insight on oveercoming issues.


We all seen posts for: we do it this way..........


Training at our place is done using CadTRAIN CD-ROM. It's OK. Then go to OJT and menotring. I encourge all my folks to use this formum. It's great.


Thanks to all of you who make it what it is.
 
I'm curious ...

I learned Pro/E without training; read thru or did the tutorials (FroTime samples were the "ice breakers" and several I found at sites such as this one ), reading and asking on forums, etc.

But, I think that some of the most valuable information for basics and beyond, resolution of immediate "how do I do this" issues, etc., came from PTC's Knowledge Base Suggested Technique articles which are accessible with a maintenance contract. Just wondering if most people have access to them or have used them.

Books: I've never delved into what's available and have seen no mention of them in this discussion (with one exception). Do people use third party books to any great extent? I was just thinking back thru my own learning experiences -- Acad and MDT I purchased books as I knew nothing about CAD in general. Rhino, Inventor, Pro/E did not purchase third party books and haven't felt much of a need to (Rhino and Pro/E are well documented, Inventor doesn't count for my applications tho' learning it did expose me to new principles). Guess I'm just wondering if I'm missing any particularly good ones for Pro/E.
 
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