Summer 2005

As we roll into summer, we've got another great issue for you to enjoy. We lead off with a wrap-up of the World Event 2005, and also include a special interview with Brian Shepherd on the Pro/ INTRALINK 8.0 release. We had originally planned to bring you a story on the development of the Predator unmanned aircraft but unforseen problems have delayed this story to October. Still, we have six useful features in our Tips and Tricks section for your reading pleasure. In the meantime, feel free to share your praise or criticisms about the magazine with us. You can write me at [email protected].

PTC/USER 2005 - Better than Ever by Rick Snider, Executive Director

Keeping the Connection by Evan Caille, PTC/USER President

Best Regards,

Rick Snider

Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0 with Brian Shepherd, Senior Vice President of Technical Marketing, PTC

Regional User Group Calendar

Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension by Dana Coombs, SYNTHES CMF

Download a PDF of this issue Copyright 2005 PTC/USER, Inc. All rights reserved.

Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise by John Driscoll Quickly Replacing Components that Assemble Many Times by Elkin Jhirad, HP Indigo Division

Reflections on Pro/INTRALINK Scripting by Marc Mettes Dimension Justification Made Easy by Weligton Nascimento, Caterpillar Brazil Ltda. Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0 by Florin Neamtu, Belcan Corporation

Profiles Magazine Staff Editor-In-Chief Marcia Fernald

Customer Service Rhona Hill

Art Department & Webmaster Rick Snider

Article Submission Click here for information

Profiles began life in 1991 as a newsletter for PTC/USER members. It evolved into its current magazine format in 1997, and has been published quarterly since then.

Beginning in the summer of 2002, Profiles has been published exclusively on the web, and is no longer available as a printed magazine. The new electronic edition will allow Profiles to provide new services to readers, such as downloadable files to accompany articles, international edition for non-English speaking readers, and much more

Additional Information For more information or assistance, please contact Rick Snider.

PTC/USER® Copyright Notice ©Copyright 2002-2005 PTC/USER, 51 Harborview Road, Hull, MA 02045 U.S.A. All rights reserved. Copyright in the materials on this site are owned by PTC/USER. Any person is hereby authorized to view, copy, print, and distribute materials on this site subject to the following conditions: 1. The materials may be used for informational purposes only. 2. The materials may only be used for non-commercial purposes. 3. Any copy of the materials or portion thereof must include this copyright notice. Note that any software, product, process or technology described on ProfilesMagazine. com may be the subject of other Intellectual Property rights reserved by PTC/USER and its suppliers and are not licensed hereunder. THE MATERIAL ON ProfilesMagazine.com IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. PRO/USER, INC. ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION AND STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN. THE MATERIAL ON ProfilesMagazine.com (INCLUDING THIS NOTICE) COULD INCLUDE TECHNICAL INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN AND THESE CHANGES WILL BE INCORPORATED INTO ProfilesMagazine.com. PTC/USER MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THE PRODUCT(S) AND/OR THE PROGRAM(S) DESCRIBED ON ProfilesMagazine.com AT ANY TIME. Registered Trademarks PTC/USER is a registered service mark of PTC/USER, Inc. Unregistered Trademarks The Independent Voice of PTC Customers Required Reading for the PTC Professional Profiles Magazine(TM) Other Trademarks The following are registered trademarks of Parametric Technology Corporation: Advanced Surface Design®, CADDS®, CADDS® 5i, CADDShade®, Computervision®, Computervision Services®, CV (stylized letters), dVISE®, Electronic Product Definition®, EPD®, HARNESSDESIGN®, Info*Engine®, InPart®, Optegra®, PTC®, Parametric Technology Corporation®, Pro/ENGINEER®, Pro/ENGINEER® 2000i, Pro/HELP®,

Additional Information For more information or assistance, please contact Rick Snider at [email protected].

Pro/INTRALINK®, Pro/MECHANICA®, Pro/MECHANICA® 2000i, Pro/ TOOLKIT®, PT/Products®, Windchill® All other company names, brand names, and product names used in this document are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders.

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever by Rick Snider, Executive Director, PTC/USER Photos by Mark Rodda

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever Keeping the Connection Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0 Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise Quickly Replacing Components that Assembly Many Times Reflections on Pro/ INTRALINK Scripting

Regional User Group chairs attend a working session on improving their organizations. By any measure, the PTC/USER® World Event 2005 in Orlando, Florida was a tremendous success. The introduction of new educational features as well as enhancements to the traditional Pro/ENGINEER® and Windchill® programming pushed attendance to 1504, the largest number since the record-setting conference in 2000. Conference-goers were treated to several major PTC announcements, including the new Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 software.

Product Changes Make News After the welcome on Monday morning from PTC/USER President Evan Caille of HP, PTC CEO and President Dick Harrison discussed the state of the company with the audience. The business outlook for PTC is strong and very much improved over the recent past, which should reassure anyone concerned about the longevity of their investments in PTC technology. Details on Dick’s presentation are available for

Dimension Justification Made Easy Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0

More information about RUGs is available at our web site...

download at the PTC/USER member website, members.ptcuser.org.

Jim Heppelman speaks before a standing-room-only crowd on Conference Monday. Jim Heppelmann, PTC’s Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President of Software Solutions, made perhaps the biggest splash with his announcement of the release of Pro/INTRALINK 8.0. The next generation software provides improved usability, enhanced performance, expanded PDM capabilities and web integration, allowing non-engineers to access product data through a standard web browser. The software offers a subset of the capabilities built into Windchill 8.0 and eliminates the need for the Workgroup Manager product. It also supports seamless upgradeability to Windchill PDMLink and the full Product Development System. For more details on the Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 release, please see the interview with Brian Shepherd, also in the current issue of Profiles Magazine. In response to customer concerns surrounding product quality, Jim also announced changes to PTC’s plans for Wildfire 3.0. The original release plan called for the First Customer Shipment (FCS) to occur in September, 2005. PTC is now planning for a second pre-production release instead in September, with the full production release pushed back to March-April of 2006. This will allow PTC time to implement dramatically more stringent FCS release criteria as well as eradicate many annoying “medium” bugs. The end result will be an improved product for customers so they can implement Wildfire 3.0 with confidence. Jim also announced two acquisitions made by PTC: Polyplan, a innovative company offering advanced manufacturing planning technology; and Aptavis, which offers FlexPLM, based on Windchill. PTC/USER members can also download Jim’s presentation at the member portal.

Keynotes and Speakers Star power was also evident in this year’s keynote speakers, representing world-class organizations that utilize PTC technology. Thierry Penet, Manager of Industrial Applications for Rolex S.A., shared his experiences on how the world’s foremost maker of watches applies PTC software in its product development processes. On conference Wednesday, Dr. Luca Pignacca, Chief Designer of Dallara Automobili, and Dr. Giorgio Ascanelli, Technical Director of Maserati Racing, gave a detailed presentation on the roles played by Pro/ENGINEER and Windchill PDMLink in the creation of Maserati’s legendary high-performance race and street vehicles. Members honored several presenters for their efforts this year: In the Create Track, attendees favored “An Open and Shut Case for Flexible Components” by Michael Mongilio of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “U.S. Army Future Combat Systems - Advanced Collaborative Environment” by Col. Steve Bristow, United States Army, and Richard Crispo of Boeing won the Collaborate & Control Track. “Armed and Dangerous” by Tom McGuire, Magellan Engineering Services, and Steve Curtis, Pinnacle Consulting Group was selected as the Best Overall presentation.

The John Deere 328 Skid Steer Loader.

PTC Awards 2005

For the third time, John Deere took home top honors in the annual PTC Awards competition. The 328 Skid Steer Loader won the Heavy Equipment category and was chosen the overall winner by PTC/USER members from a very competitive field of entrants. You can see the winners in all categories as well as download a cool screensaver by visiting the ptc.com website (www.ptc.com/appserver/mkt/ptcawards/ winners.jsp).

(Left) One of our many raffle winners. (Right) Attendees enjoyed one of the largest exhibits of technology in PTC/USER history.

Largest Exhibit Hall in Event History The 100 exhibits in this year’s Exhibit Hall represented the biggest showing of technology ever featured at a PTC/USER World Event. Some of the brightest stars in the technology universe such as HP, Intel, Sun Microsystems, IBM, AMD, Adobe Systems, Dell and NIKA demonstrate their leading-edge products and services at the World Event. We had twenty-three new partners join us in the Exhibit Hall offering the latest innovations for PTC software users, including: ●

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aPriori – Helps discrete manufacturers significantly reduce costs and improve margins by accurately measuring, controlling and reducing their cost of goods sold throughout the entire product development process. Industrial Origami – Offers a patented new method for designing and manufacturing with sheet materials. Riverbed Technology – Accelerates applications like Pro/ENGINEER that run over wide area networks (WANs), improving performance up to 100 times over current levels. Quadrispace – An easy-to-use software solution that lets you share, document and publish your 3D designs quicker and more effectively than ever before.

For the complete list with web links to each exhibitor’s web site, visit www.ptcuser. org/2005/exhibits.html.

Who Attends PTC/USER? The 1504 attendees represented a diversity of geographies and industries. Members traveled from twenty-seven nations to be in Orlando. They hailed from aerospace and

defense contractors, biomedical firms, government laboratories, educational institutions, consumer products companies, automobile manufacturers and just about every other sector imaginable. Attendees came from the entire enterprise: designers, engineers, system administrators, technology implementers, managers and executives. About 60% of attendees came from very large organizations (over $250 million in annual revenues) but about 10% represented small companies with revenues of less than $1 million per year. Despite the many differences, they all shared a common set of interests: learning about the latest developments in PTC software, discovering the best techniques to maximize their productivity and networking with their peers to exchange knowledge. Our annual survey of attendees helps PTC/USER identify the key concerns among our members. Educational opportunities are the most sought-after sessions. New features such as the Solutions Laboratories, offering direct interaction between participants and PTC staff, were popular among attendees. PTC’s eLearning Laboratory, a room of dedicated workstations to access any online PTC University course desired, debuted to rave reviews.

Members "network" after a long day of technical sessions. Attendees also rated the agenda very highly this year, with a score of 3.9 out of 5, one of the highest numbers ever recorded. The agenda was quite comprehensive, with over eighty sessions in two tracks covering the product development paradigm of “Create, Collaborate, Control.” Ted Bradshaw of Lucent Technologies, Director of Conferences and Education for PTC/USER, has spent long hours over the past several years to refine the entire process of soliciting, developing and presenting papers. His efforts have borne fruit in the form of greatly improved quality among the expert user presentations.

People seemed to be quite taken with the depth and quality of the PTC/USER World Event. One conference attendee remarked that “the impression of all the users that I spoke with, people that I work with daily from the Army, Boeing, United Defense, Swales and elsewhere was that this was an amazing event and one of the best they have been to. They were delighted and felt very much that it was a very good investment on behalf of their organizations.” There were many similar sentiments expressed by other members. More than three of four attendees indicated they would be back to the World Event in 2006. Of those not planning to return, 49% of them said the reason was that someone else from their company would be attending the conference. Thus, nearly 9 of 10 attendees plan to attend or have someone from their company attend. We really appreciate the confidence placed in us by the members to deliver the education they want.

Mark Your Calendar Now Please be sure to mark your calendar for the PTC/USER World Event 2006, to be held June 4-7 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center on picturesque Lake Grapevine. Just six minutes from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, this expansive venue will be the perfect backdrop for the World Event. Attendees will enjoy state-of-the-art facilities for meetings, with extensive options for shopping, dining and entertainment all located on-site. We hope to see you there!

The Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, home of the PTC/USER World Event 2006.

Rick Snider is Executive Director of PTC/USER. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Keeping the Connection

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever Keeping the Connection Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0

by Evan Caille, President of PTC/USER Back at work after the 2005 PTC/USER World Event in Orlando (in between catching up on all my emails), I began to reflect on what I learned at the conference and the new connections formed with fellow users. Suffice it to say that I came away with a wealth of information and tips on Pro/ENGINEER and Windchill that will help the users at my company both today and tomorrow. In my conversations with other attendees, I learned that they too came away with new key knowledge. And that’s really what the conference is all about—an opportunity to become more informed and to apply that knowledge to maximize the benefit we get from the tools we employ. But connecting with the community of PTC product users can happen not just during the three days of conference, but throughout the year. Through the power of information-rich web portals and the collaboration made possible by web conferences, we are now able to share information worldwide. We are no longer limited by time and travel constraints. While there is still no substitute for face-to-face interaction, this ongoing connectedness through virtual interaction is tremendously valuable. Communities of all types have benefited from the Internet. A recent USA Today article (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-06-01-technology-communities_x.htm? csp=34) describes how new communities are forming online and supplanting many of the traditional gatherings. Individuals are in fact becoming more connected, albeit virtually. Traditional organizations are also benefiting from the ability to communicate electronically rather than by the often tedious (and ineffective) method of trying to reach every individual by telephone. Just think about how we seamlessly use the Internet to schedule the many activities of PTC/USER.

Evan Caille works at HP in Houston, TX. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise Quickly Replacing Components that Assembly Many Times Reflections on Pro/ INTRALINK Scripting Dimension Justification Made Easy Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0

Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever Keeping the Connection Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0

An Interview with Brian Shepherd, Senior Vice President of Technical Marketing, PTC Kicking off the PTC/USER World Event, PTC’s Jim Heppelmann announced the launch of its next-generation data management solution, Pro/INTRALINK 8.0. Later in the week, PTC/USER Executive Director Rick Snider sat down with Brian Shepherd, Senior Vice President of Technical Marketing, to talk over some of the strategic implications of this breakthrough release.

RICK: Brian, thanks for taking the time to talk us. What are your thoughts on how Pro/ INTRALINK 8.0 fits into PTC’s vision for workgroup and enterprise data management? BRIAN: Our vision for engineering workgroup and enterprise data management is to enable customers to utilize their digital product content easily, securely, and with high performance in a way that’s most suitable to them. Historically for PTC, as with other vendors in the market, this meant employing two different solutions—a workgroup solution that was robust in its ability to manage the complexity and associativity of the CAD models, and an enterprise solution that elevated engineering content, enabling broader access across multiple departments. We have found that our customers have begun to outgrow this type of deployment, which is frankly less than optimal since it entails two disparate databases, and an integration between them that must be constantly maintained. Our vision is to enable one solution to deliver superior workgroup and enterprise capabilities to meet the growing needs of our customers. Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 is at the very heart of this vision. RICK: How do Pro/INTRALINK, the Workgroup Manager for Pro/ENGINEER, and Windchill PDMLink fit together within this vision? BRIAN: We released Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 and a new Windchill version (Windchill 8.0)

Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise Quickly Replacing Components that Assembly Many Times Reflections on Pro/ INTRALINK Scripting Dimension Justification Made Easy Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0

at the same time. Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 is now a subset of the capabilities (i.e., those focused on Pro/ENGINEER data management) of Windchill PDMLink. Basically, we merged the strengths of Windchill and the strengths Pro/INTRALINK 3.x. Now, since Windchill PDMLink 8.0 (via Pro/INTRALINK 8.0) inherits the rich Pro/ENGINEER data management capabilities of Pro/INTRALINK 3.x, there is no need for the Pro/ ENGINEER Workgroup Manager. The Pro/ENGINEER Workgroup Manager, however, is still a perfectly viable and supported solution for customers currently using Windchill 7.0 or earlier versions. RICK: What are the functional improvements and performance advantages of Pro/ INTRALINK 8.0 over previous releases? BRIAN: Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 provides many improvements over previous releases, including greatly streamlined interaction with Pro/ENGINEER, improved WAN performance (2.3 times faster than Pro/INTRALINK 3.x), advanced security, improved access to non-engineering users via a standard web browser, better document/lifecycle management capabilities, and improved scalability. RICK: Can you further discuss the interaction with Pro/ENGINEER? BRIAN: The level of Pro/ENGINEER integration is much stronger in Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 than in Pro/INTRALINK 3.x. For example, users can now access all of their Pro/ ENGINEER data management tasks from within the embedded Pro/ENGINEER browser, even to the extent of “dragging and dropping” files from the browser into the Pro/ENGINEER graphics window. There is no longer a separate thick client, which requires going back and forth between the two applications. In fact, due to this highly immersive environment, common tasks now require 40% fewer mouse clicks on average than in past versions. RICK: Do software licenses for Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 float the same way as in Pro/ INTRALINK 3.x? BRIAN: Yes. Pro/INTRALINK 8.0, just like Pro/INTRALINK 3.x, is based on concurrent user licensing. RICK: What tools will PTC make available to support data migration? What additional license, training, support, and consulting costs will be required to make the transition? BRIAN: PTC has developed a comprehensive set of tools, services, and training packages to help customers in the migration process. For customers who choose to perform the migration themselves, we have pre-configured offerings consisting of a productionproven data migration tool, training, and other valuable intellectual property developed by our experts in global services. Other customers may decide to utilize the experience of PTC’s global services or our certified migration partners to perform the migration. RICK: Is there any method to assess the return on investment for this migration? BRIAN: As with any technology implementation, predetermined assessments of ROI are highly dependant on numerous factors. With respect to this release, here are some thought-provoking questions that customers may want to consider: ● ● ●

How important is distributed product development to our company? How much do we care about WAN performance and security? How much benefit would we gain by consolidating multiple Pro/INTRALINK 3.x

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instances? How much more will our engineers be able to focus on design or engineering if the PDM system is a more natural part of Pro/ENGINEER and the design process? How important is it to provide product information access to non-engineering groups like marketing and purchasing?

It is in these areas where the new, Windchill-based Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 offers outstanding potential returns. RICK: Can users decide to switch from Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 to Windchill PDMLink in the future if the business need warrants it? Will this require another data migration? BRIAN: That’s part of the beauty of this approach. Just like Pro/ENGINEER is seamlessly scalable from a 2-seat to a 1,000-seat implementation, so too is PTC’s data management capability. This means that once a customer has migrated to Pro/ INTRALINK 8.0, there is no additional data migration necessary to take advantage of Windchill capabilities found in Windchill PDMLink. Naturally, though, the amount of effort to then deploy Windchill PDMLink depends on the degree to which customers seek to optimize their product development processes (for example, change management, which is available in Windchill PDMLink, but not in Pro/INTRALINK), and/or to describe product structures more fully. RICK: Why might a customer choose to move directly to Windchill PDMLink? BRIAN: Customers with requirements beyond Pro/ENGINEER data management may decide that the right course of action is to migrate from Pro/INTRALINK 3.x directly to Windchill PDMLink. Windchill PDMLink extends the data management capabilities beyond those available in Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 by including powerful enterprise data management, including the ability to manage heterogeneous MCAD, ECAD, and software data, as well and engineering process management capabilities (e.g., change and configuration management). RICK: Brian, can you say what the future holds for Pro/INTRALINK? BRIAN: Because Pro/INTRALINK and Windchill now share a common code base, Pro/ INTRALINK is now on the PTC mainstream development path benefiting from a much more efficient, quality-driven process. Without providing specific guarantees, we’re making headway along the lines of better support for distributed product development, and further enhancing specific Pro/ENGINEER data management capabilities. Stay tuned! RICK: Will customers be required to move from Pro/INTRALINK 3.x? What is the timeframe before PTC stops supporting 3.x? BRIAN: We have received excellent feedback from our customers regarding Pro/ INTRALINK 8.0. They see it as an opportunity to improve the performance of the technology they already own, and provide a clear path for their use of the Product Development System throughout the enterprise. We are giving customers plenty of time to make the move, because we recognize that with the benefits of this release comes the need for a data migration. PTC is therefore doubling the amount of time for support of a maintenance development stream to enable customers to make a carefully considered, measured transition. PTC will continue to support the Pro/INTRALINK 3.x stream (with technical support and maintenance builds) until June 2008. RICK: How might Pro/INTRALINK 8.0 impact customers using third-party data

management tools? BRIAN: Because Pro/INTRALINK now shares the same underlying technology as Windchill PDMLink, customers should take the opportunity to consider their mid- to long-term needs. In this scenario, for example, the best option might be to bypass Pro/ INTRALINK 8.0, choosing instead to move to Windchill PDMLink. In this way, customers may be able to completely eliminate their reliance on a third-party PDM/ PLM tool, preferring the single database approach that only PTC makes possible. [Editor's Note: As of press time, PTC has updated the migration options for those customers interested in leading the migration themselves. This is based on the feedback that you, the users, gave PTC through the Pro/INTRALINK Advisor site and the PTC/USER exploder. For all the details, check out Jim Heppelmann’s blog on http://www.ptc.com/community/prointralink8/index.htm] RICK: Clearly, this release will have a major impact on customers. Brian, thanks again for sharing your insights on Pro/INTRALINK with us.

Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension by Dana Coombs, SYNTHES CMF While Mechanism Design Extension (MDX) in Pro/ENGINEER allows users to create planar cams, there is no built-in functionality for cylindrical cams. This technique shows you how to create a cylindrical cam with a follower. This cam will move the follower between two dwells. The general approach is to have a cylindrical representation of the cam geometry and a planar representation of the cam geometry. When the mechanism is defined, the planar cam moves in translation and has a cam connection to the follower. The geometry is hidden from the assembly. The cylindrical cam moves in rotation to represent the motion, but will not drive the follower. The key is to drive the geometry of the cylindrical and planar cam with one reference, using a family table of one cam part. In the following example, graph features are used to drive the geometry of both the cylindrical and planar cam. Note that graph features can be applied to predefine geometry of any variable sections sweep, which has proven useful for aerospace applications. 1. Define the Cam Profile The easiest way to define a cam profile is in a 2D representation. This can be done with a graph feature in the cam part, which can then be used to define a variable section sweep to create the profile around a cylinder. The graph feature is defined according to Figure 1.

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever Keeping the Connection Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0 Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise Quickly Replacing Components that Assembly Many Times Reflections on Pro/ INTRALINK Scripting Dimension Justification Made Easy Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0

Figure 1

2. Define the Cam Geometry

A cylinder is created and the groove is cut around the cylinder using a variable section sweep. The trajectory is a curve around the perimeter of the cylinder and the orientation is defined as normal to the trajectory. A variable section sweep is used because it can be controlled by the graph feature using a sketcher relation and the “trajpar” parameter. The section is defined in Figures 2 and 3. (For more information on using “trajpar” to define cam geometry, see the PTC customer support document “Creating a Cam With Surfaces Using a Variable Section Sweep and Trajpar.”)

Figure 2

Figure 3

The resulting cam geometry is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4

3. Define Planar Cam Geometry To create a mechanism, the cam groove will be represented in a planar fashion. The same model will be used to create the planar geometry so that the same graph feature can drive the geometry. A surface is made as a variable section sweep using the “trajpar” parameter in a section relation to drive the surface. The variable section sweep trajectory is a datum curve whose length is driven by the perimeter of the cylinder. The perimeter is measured using an analysis feature. Figure 5a–b shows the relation to drive the curve length.

Figure 5a

Figure 5b

Figure 6 shows the section to define the surface, and Figure 7 shows the sketcher relation.

Figure 6

Figure 7

This method provides a robust way to represent the planar cam geometry. The shapes of the cylindrical and planar cams are defined by the same graph feature. This one feature can be adjusted to drive both geometries. The length of the planar cam is driven by the perimeter, which allows the diameter of the cylindrical cam to be modified and automatically drive the planar geometry.

4. Create a Family Table to Separate the Planar and Cylindrical Geometry The planar cam will become an instance of a family table by adding the solid geometry features (the cylindrical protrusion and the variable section sweep cut) to the table and suppressing them in the table. Figure 8 shows the family table.

Figure 8

The generic, named Cylindrical_cam, and the instance, named Planar_cam, can both be assembled in a mechanism assembly.

5. Assembling the Mechanism It is a good idea to use a part as ground for a mechanism instead of the assembly. In this case, the ground part will be a skeleton model that will provide the needed references for the moving parts. Figure 9 shows the skeleton model. Notice the planes and axis that provide references for pin and slider joints.

Figure 9 The first moving part to be assembled is the cylindrical cam, named Cylindrical_cam. This is assembled using one pin joint. Figure 10a–b shows the joint connection.

Figure 10a

Figure 10b

The second moving part is the instance of the family table, named Planar_cam. This part is placed using a slider joint. This part will slide and represent the “unraveled” cylindrical cam. Figure 11a–b shows the slider connection.

Figure 11a

Figure 11b

The third moving part is the follower. The follower will be driven by the cam motion. Figure 12a–b shows the slider connection.

Figure 12a

Figure 12b

The last remaining joint is a cam-follower joint. To create this joint, the mechanism functionality must be accessed from the applications menu. The cam-follower joint is created by selecting the surfaces of the cylinder on the follower and the cam surface on the Planar_cam. Figure 13a–b shows the cam-follower connection.

Figure 13a

Figure 13b

6. Defining the Mechanism Now that the components are assembled using mechanism connections, the mechanism must be defined with motors and joint zero positions. The first motor is defined on the pin joint of the Cylindrical_cam part and ground, defining how the cylindrical cam rotates. The other motor is defined on the slider joint of the Planar_Cam, defining how the planar cam slides. Notice that the functions are tied together. The planer cam will translate the distance equivalent to the perimeter of the cylindrical cam. Figure 14a–d show the setup of the motors.

Figure 14a

Figure 14b

Figure 14c

Figure 14d

Next, zero positions are defined for the connections. The zero position for the planar cam is defined by aligning the end of the cam to the assembly datum plane (located at the center of the cylinder) for the slider joint. The zero position of the cylindrical cam is defined by aligning the front datum planes of the cylindrical cam and the skeleton part

on the pin joint as shown in Figure 15a–d.

Figure 15a

Figure 15b

Figure 15c

Figure 15d

7. Analyze the Mechanism The mechanism is fully defined and now it is time to analyze the motion. An analysis is created as a kinematic analysis with a start time of 0 and a run time of 1 second. This corresponds to the drivers so that the cylindrical cam will rotate 1 revolution. The frame count is set to 100. Figure 17 shows the analysis setup.

Figure 16 The resulting animation shows the cam follower moving in relation to the cylindrical cam. Select the image below to see the animation.

Conclusion This technique provides a method to animate a cylindrical cam and gather measured information from the model. Since the cylindrical and planar cams are tied to one generic part, the mechanism model can be taken further. The profile of the cam, which is driven by the graph feature, can be changed and optimized based on kinematic or dynamic measures. Dana Coombs is a product development engineer at SYNTHES CMF in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA. He can be reached by email at Coombs. [email protected].

Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise by John Driscoll You’ve bought all the high-priced Introduction to Pro/ENGINEER books you could find. You’ve surfed the Internet for Pro/E websites until you thought your arm would fall off. You’ve taken every Pro/E course you could afford. Finally, you feel you’ve mastered Pro/ ENGINEER (or are at least pretty good at it) because you can create a complex variable section sweep surface in any direction with TRAJPAR. To see how expert at design you really are, try this little test. By selecting the correct bracket, you should be able to save your company quite a bit of money….and maybe offset the cost of some of that expensive Pro/ENGINEER training.

Challenge #1: Order the following six brackets from the lowest to the highest cost. Assume that all options are made from the same common steel, have adequate structural strength, and have similar dimensions based on a 50mm (2-inch) square opening and .090 thick material. While you can ignore any costs of finishing or painting, note that some versions do require welding. The initial quantity is 50,000 pieces per year.

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever Keeping the Connection Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0 Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise Quickly Replacing Components that Assembly Many Times Reflections on Pro/ INTRALINK Scripting Dimension Justification Made Easy Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0

Design Specification

Option A is made up of two pieces—a “hat” section and a flat base. The parts are staked, glued or tack-welded together to keep them from separating before they are assembled to the next assembly.

Option A

Option B is a single-formed part made from a 80mm-wide strip, with two legs bent in opposite directions.

Option B

Option C is made from 2-inch square tubing sliced at 45 degrees. The holes can be drilled before the pieces are cut, and a single cut separates 2 pieces.

Option C

Option D is a formed part, welded at the joint for structural integrity.

Option D

Option E is similar to Option D except the holes are to the side rather than at the ends. This part is also welded at the seam.

Option E

Option F is similar to Option E except both ends are folded over. There is no weld requirement here.

Option F

Challenge #2. Estimate the ratio between the lowest- and highest-cost brackets and provide the design reasoning behind it. This is the pro level. A good score here puts you in the elite category. Designers frequently argue about the “correctness” of each solution, and results often depend on how each designer interprets the design requirements. In addition, prices from individual vendors depend upon their available manufacturing equipment, the business climate, and their willingness to do business with you. For instance, are we talking about the best source economically? Are delivery times of the parts sensitive? Would it be better to deal with a local vendor to avoid shipping and communications

problems? The changing cost of steel in your market and countless other factors can be important to your decisions.

Answers to the Quiz Here is the correct order for the bracket options, along with the current cost ratios for a quantity of 50,000/year. 1. Option A uses the most material, but because it is the simplest, most flexible design, it is the cheapest to manufacture. Cost ratio = 1.0 2. Option F is a simple roll if the vendor has the equipment. Cost ratio = 1.1 3. Option E, while similar to Option F, entails an added cost for the seam weld. Cost ratio = 1.2 4. Option D involves slightly more metal cutting and trimming on ends than Option E, as well as the separate weld operation. Cost ratio = 1.3 5. Option C is made from structural tubing, which is more expensive than sheet and usually harder to procure. The higher raw material cost is somewhat offset by the fact that this part is the simplest to machine. Cost ratio = 1.6 6. Option B is the most expensive to fabricate and inspect because of the complexity of the bends. Cost ratio = 2.0

John Driscoll is a contract engineer. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or (617) 922-6423.

Quickly Replacing Components that Assemble Many Times by Jhirad Elkin, HP Indigo Division

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever Keeping the Connection

Large assemblies have long model trees and include many standard parts such as screws, washers, studs, and so on. When you have to replace one of these parts in several locations, making your selections in the model tree is very complicated.

Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0

To simplify the task, you can use the search function and filter the component in the model tree, so that you highlight only the component to be replaced. You then use the Replace option. In our company we have a library of standard parts based on family tables, so replacement of a component is much faster.

Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension

The model shown below illustrates a typical scenario. The task is to replace 32 screws (marked in red) in an assembly with about 400 components. The bolts are assembled in many locations, and the model tree is very long.

Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise Quickly Replacing Components that Assembly Many Times Reflections on Pro/ INTRALINK Scripting Dimension Justification Made Easy Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0

Here’s what to do.

1. Click on

or under EDIT menu.

2. When the Search Tool dialog box opens, select Component. 3. Make the check box blank.

4. Enter the screw name and click on Find Now.

5. The results will be appear on the left side of the template and in the model tree. Select all the screws.

6. Move all the screws to the selected items row.

7. Select all the screws and click Options. 8. Select the options indicated below. 9. Select Close.

10. All screws in the model and model tree are now highlighted. Use the right mouse button or click on EDIT, REPLACE to use the Replace option. Note that you can unselect some of the screws only from the model tree (using the CTRL key).

11. In the Replace Comp dialog box, select Family Table. 12. Click on the selected model and select the new screw. 13. Click OK.

14. Check the model tree to make sure all the screws have been replaced.

These steps are based on using Wildfire 2.0. If anyone would like to use this technique in Pro/ENGINEER 2001, please contact me for the instructions.

Elkan Jhirad is a product engineer at HP Indigo Division in Rehovot, Israel. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

Reflections on Pro/INTRALINK Scripting By Marc Mettes Have you used Pro/INTRALINK scripting? Perhaps you've looked at the resulting Java source code and wondered what other commands are available? Disappointed at the lack of detailed documentation? Don't wait for PTC to tell you what's there—have Java do it for you. Using the Reflection package, Java can tell you a lot about the classes and methods available at runtime. This standard package is often used in web services applications and other situations where code is called dynamically, such as creating a scripting API to a Java program. To use the Reflection package, the starting point is an empty Pro/INTRALINK script.

Recording an Empty Script 1. To get to the Scripting Options dialog from within the Pro/INTRALINK client, hit Ctrl+S. This is available without having to login. 2. Enter a file name on the Recording tab (“empty.java” in this example).

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever Keeping the Connection Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0 Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise Quickly Replacing Components that Assembly Many Times Reflections on Pro/ INTRALINK Scripting Dimension Justification Made Easy Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0

3. To create a minimal script, hit the Start button and then the Stop button. You should get a message dialog stating that the compilation was successful.

4. The resulting empty.java file (found in the .proi/.data/user.data/source folder) contains more or less the following code:

import com.ptc.intralink.client.script.*; import com.ptc.intralink.script.*;

public class empty extends ILIntralinkScript { ILIntralinkScriptInterface IL = (ILIntralinkScriptInterface)getScriptInterface();

private void run0 () throws Exception { } // End of run0

public void run () throws Exception { run0 (); // recorded } // End of function

} // End Macro Recording

Editing the Script 1. To have Java report some information using the Reflection package, we'll use a text editor to add some import statements and code to the empty run0 method. Note: From my understanding, PTC does not support manually changing the Java code of a script or the resulting program, so keep this in mind before contacting the PTC Technical Support hotline. 2. After the edits, the resulting code will look like this (added code shown in bold).

import com.ptc.intralink.client.script.*; import com.ptc.intralink.script.*;

import java.lang.reflect.*; import java.io.*;

public class empty extends ILIntralinkScript { ILIntralinkScriptInterface IL = (ILIntralinkScriptInterface)getScriptInterface();

private void run0 () throws Exception {

Class c = IL.getClass(); Method m[] = c.getDeclaredMethods();

FileWriter fw = new FileWriter("IL_script_methods.txt"); String newline = System.getProperty("line. separator");

for (int i = 0; i < m.length; i++) { fw.write(m[i].toString() + newline); } fw.close();

} // End of run0

public void run () throws Exception { run0 (); // recorded } // End of function } // End Macro Recording

The first additional import statement (import java.lang.reflect.*;) makes the Reflection functionality available, and the second (import java.io.*;) allows you to use the FileWriter class to output the data to a file. 3. In the body of the run0 method, extract the class of the IL object, from which we get the available methods, which are put in the “m” array. Class c = IL.getClass(); Method m[] = c.getDeclaredMethods(); 4. Next, we set up the output file, which will be written in the Pro/INTRALINK session’s current working directory, and then figure out the line terminator for text files (which is different for Windows than for Unix). FileWriter fw = new FileWriter("IL_script_methods.txt"); String newline = System.getProperty("line.separator"); 5. Looping through the array members of “m,” the information for each method is written to the output file: for (int i = 0; i < m.length; i++) { fw.write(m[i].toString() + newline); } 6. Finally, we close the output file handle so we don't run out of file descriptors. fw.close();

Recompiling the Script 1. Once the edits to empty.java are complete, we’ll recompile the script. From the Recompile tab in the Scripting Options dialog, hit the Recompile button.

2. If you typed everything right, you should get another compilation success dialog.

Running the Script After a successful recompile, Pro/INTRALINK will shift the Scripting Options dialog to the Playback tab. When you hit the Playback button, the script will run without displaying any visual output.

Interpreting the Output When you look at the output in the "IL_script_methods.txt" file, you see many of the methods that get used when you record a sequence of actions. Notice that some take arguments (String, int, etc.), while others take no arguments. The “void” keyword indicates that nothing is returned, which seems typical for these methods. Sample of output file: public void closeWindow() public void setActiveWindow ( String, String, String ) public void select ( String, int ) public void select ( String, String ) public void printContent ( String, int ) public void ok()

Some methods, such as select(), are listed multiple times with different arguments. This is called overloading, where different methods can have the same name but take different arguments. Java knows which method should be used. For both select() methods, the first argument is the type (i.e., “WSPI” for Workspace objects, "PIV" for Commonspace objects). The second argument is either the integer row number (starting with zero) from the active table display or the object name. The object name syntax is "ws1/abc.prt" for Workspace objects and "abc.prt/main/B/2" for Commonspace objects. The String argument version is used when the Use Key Recording? option is checked during the record phase. The int argument version is used when it is not checked. Using the row number can make things easier, i.e., in a Locate results display if you know there will only be one result. Otherwise, you need to know the name, branch, revision, and version to select a Commonspace object, and the Workspace name (as well as the object name) to select a Workspace object.

Interesting Methods for Selections and Attribute Values While most are self-explanatory, some methods are a little different than the others. It's probably not possible to record the following methods directly, but they can be added manually to the Java code. public String[] getSelectedObjects ( String ) ●

Returns a String array of the objects that are selected. You can loop through the elements of the array to do something with each object individually (e.g., Where Used report, Check out, Check in, etc.). Examples for the String argument are "WSPI" for Workspace selections and "PIV" for Commonspace selections.

public Object getTableCellValue ( String, int, int ) ●

●

●

Returns a value for a given cell in the active table display. This method seems to be available starting in Pro/INTRALINK 3.3. As with getSelectedObjects(), the String argument is either "WSPI" for Workspace table displays or "PIV" for Commonspace table displays. The first int argument is the row number in the table display, and the second argument is the column number. Note that the column and row numbers are zero-based. The value for row #1 is 0 (zero), for row #2 is 1 (one), for row #3 is 2, etc. The same applies to the column numbers. Since the Object returned by getTableCellValue() is essentially a String object, you can apply String methods to it, such as toString(), toUpperCase(), toLowerCase(), startsWith(), endsWith(), etc.

There's no easy way to figure out the total number of columns in the current display, or which attribute value is displayed in a particular column, unless you know this information ahead of time. This is limiting, but the method is still very useful in controlled situations where you use (or create) a specific table display configuration.

Example for Selections and Attribute Values As an example, the following code will select all objects in the active Workspace window, loop through all of the selected objects, and print the object name and the attribute value in column #3 to "ws_output.txt" (in the Pro/INTRALINK client’s current working directory).

IL.selectAll( "WSPI" ); String objects[] = IL.getSelectedObjects( "WSPI" ); FileWriter fw = new FileWriter("ws_output.txt"); String newline = System.getProperty("line. separator"); for (int i = 0; i < objects.length; i++) { Object tcv = IL.getTableCellValue("WSPI", i, 2); String str = tcv.toString(); fw.write(objects[i] + "\t" + str + newline); } fw.close();

If you only have two columns displayed, the script will generate an error message. Keep in mind that if you repeatedly perform getSelectedObjects() on a large table display, you will eventually consume a lot of your system’s RAM.

Interesting Methods for Printing The next group of methods applies to printing. PTC Tech Support provided some details on these when asked how to print to a folder outside of the .proi structure. public void setReportAdapterDefaultPath ( String ) ●

Controls the folder to which the print output will go.

public void setReportAdapterDefaultName ( String ) ●

Controls the default file name used in the print dialog.

public void setReportAdapterDefaultState ( int ) ●

Controls the options that would be selected in the print dialog box (e.g., HTML, Append, etc.).

Once you have executed any of these methods, the settings become the default for future printing in that Pro/INTRALINK session. Only the DefaultPath method is really useful, since the printContent() method already allows you to specify the output filename, the type of data, and whether it creates a new file or appends to an existing one. Use the DefaultPath method to direct your output to a folder outside of the .proi folder structure.

Conclusions Gaining a better understanding all of the available methods is critical in building more complex and efficient applications. The undocumented methods allow applications to adapt dynamically to the Pro/INTRALINK metadata and change their behavior in an intelligent manner. Although PTC will provide little, if any, support for customized Pro/ INTRALINK scripts, the advantages to those who require automation far outweigh any uncertainty about their unsupported nature.

Marc Mettes can be reached by email at [email protected].

Dimension Justification Made Easy by Weligton Nascimento, Caterpillar Brazil Ltda. When you have a view with a lot of dimensions like the one below, Pro/ENGINEER 2001 provides a simple way to improve the appearance and interpretation of the drawing. With this technique, you can align ordinate and linear dimensions without creating snap lines.

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever Keeping the Connection Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0 Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise Quickly Replacing Components that Assembly Many Times Reflections on Pro/ INTRALINK Scripting Dimension Justification Made Easy Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0

More information about RUGs is available at our web site... 1. Press shift and click on all dimensions you would like to align.

2. With all selected dimensions highlighted, click on just one dimension and move it to the desired position.

3. Do the same for linear dimensions.

Weligton Nascimento is a product engineer at Caterpillar Brazil Ltda. in Brazil. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0 By Florin Neamtu, Belcan Corporation With the release of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 come some great enhancements, including Direction and Axis patterns. In combination with Fill patterns introduced in Wildfire 1.0, this new capability provides the freedom to pattern features regardless of the dimensions used to create the feature. All you have to do is select the feature, select the direction reference, and GO! This means ● ●

No more datums on the fly to create rotational patterns. No more redefining features in order to obtain a pattern-driving dimension.

For example, if a hole was created without a datum plane during the feature creation, there was previously no easy way to generate a rotational pattern. Wildfire 2.0 now makes this easy to accomplish. 1.

Select the hole, RMB, Pattern.

PTC/USER 2005: Better than Ever Keeping the Connection Pro/INTRALINK Meets Windchill in Release 8.0 Creating a Cylindrical Cam Using Mechanism Design Extension Pro/ENGINEER Professionals: Test Your Expertise Quickly Replacing Components that Assembly Many Times Reflections on Pro/ INTRALINK Scripting Dimension Justification Made Easy Using Axis Pattern in Wildfire 2.0

2.

Select the Axis option to create a rotational pattern.

3. Display axes and select the axis in the center of the part. Enter the desired number of instances and degrees for the angle.

4. Creating the rotational pattern is as easy as that. No more having to worry about creating Make Datums or Datums on the fly to have an angular dimension to drive the pattern.

5. You can also exclude individual pattern instances by selecting the black dots. When you do so, the dot turns white—indicating that it will be excluded from the pattern. (This means no need for pattern tables!)

Florin Neamtu is a design engineer/PTC specialist and trainer with Belcan Corporation in Raleigh, NC. Florin can be reached by email at [email protected].