This quarter's issue of Profiles

Magazine is absolutely packed

with great information. In a
reprise of his excellent
presentation at the PTC/USER
World Event, Mike Brattoli of
Moen shares his experience and
insights on the use of ISDX in our
cover story. We also have an
interview with Jim Heppelman
discussing the impact of, and
future possibilities created by
PTC's acquisition of Arbortext.
Designing with Style–Turning Sketches into Successes
From PTC/USER, Evan Caille by Michael A. Brattoli, Moen Incorporated
talks about innovation and also
has some interesting comments
on the member portal and
internet services in general.
James Lynch discusses his Being Innovative
experiences at the World Event by Evan Caille, PTC/USER President
from a student's perspective. And
of course, we have four new tips
and tricks to increase your
productivity.
All About Arbortext
Feel free to share your praise or with Jim Heppelmann, Executive Vice President, Software
criticisms about the magazine Solutions, and Chief Technical Officer, PTC
with us. You can write me at
[email protected].

Best Regards,
A Student's Eye View of the PTC/USER World Event
James Lynch, University of Ireland

Reevaluating the PTC/USER Member Portal

Rick Snider by Evan Caille, PTC/USER President
Regional User Group Calendar I Want My MOM Back!
by Pete Pickett, Mercury Marine
Download a PDF of this issue
Creating Gears and Splines
Copyright 2005 PTC/USER, Inc. by Dan Marsalek, Marine Mechanical Corporation
All rights reserved.
Visualizing the Air Space of a Complex PSU
by Ceferino Sanchez, ASTEC Power

Digital Watermarks for Today's Engineer

by John Tucker, Raytheon Vision Systems
Designing with Style—Turning Sketches into
Designing with
Successes Style–Turning
Sketches into
By Michael A. Brattoli, Moen Incorporated
Successes

Turning conceptual designs into finished products is at the core of product design. For Being Innovative
many years, however, the ability to capture the design intent of industrial design models,
sketches, and renderings within the CAD model has been limited at best. Translating the
All About Arbortext
aesthetic sense of a design into the mechanical reality of the product is often more art
than science.
Reevaluating the
PTC/USER
Industrial designers use a variety of tools to produce their conceptual designs, but many Member Portal
still present their concepts as sketches and renderings. Interpreting these hand-
generated ideas and capturing them accurately is the challenge of the mechanical
A Student's Eye
designer and engineer. The Interactive Surfacing Design Extension (ISDX) within Pro/ View of the PTC/
ENGINEER, also known as the “Style module,” provides the tools that make this process USER World Event
as painless as possible.
I Want My MOM
The Style module includes functionality known as “trace sketches,” allowing the designer Back!
or engineer to import images into the model and ensure the end-product conforms to the
aesthetics of the initial concept. The trace sketch images can be placed on any planar Creating Gears and
object within the Pro/ENGINEER model (Wildfire 2.0 lets you use datum planes and/or Splines
flat surfaces) and then can be manipulated for position, scale, and orientation.
Creating a FAR Plot
Trace Sketch Manipulation—Step by Step
Digital Watermarks
The key to capturing aesthetic design involves the information contained within the for Today's
image. Knowing the interface dimensions of key features within the design simplifies the Engineer
manipulation of the trace sketch.

Reference features, or sketched sections, represent the interface dimensions of the part
being modeled. These features can consist of datum planes, points, and/or sketched More information
curves (Fig. 1). In this example, the interface measures horizontally 4.00 inches by about RUGs is
vertically 7.00 inches. available at our
web site...
Figure 1.

1. Importing the Trace Sketch

Select the Style Icon in the Base Features toolbar (Fig. 2), or
choose Insert, Style from the top pulldown Insert menu. NOTE:
THE ISDX MODULE IS OPTIONAL IN PRO/ENGINEER.

Select Style, Trace Sketch from the top pulldown Style menu.

The Trace Sketch dialog box will open. Selections matching the
three default datum planes in the model will be listed, although
images will not be allocated by default.

Select the Front sketch orientation. A dialog box will open. Browse
to the location of the desired file, select it, and pick Open. The image
will appear on the front datum plane (Fig. 3).

Figure 2.
Figure 3.

2. Manipulating the Image

Expand the Properties portion of the

Trace Sketch dialog box. The following
tools will appear (Fig. 4):

● Fit locates the image by fitting it

horizontally and vertically using
dimensional input. The values are
applied based on the position of the
Image Fit Lines.

● Transparency controls the

visibility of the imported image.

● Rotate rotates the image up to 360

degrees about an axis normal to the
screen.

● Move provides horizontal and

vertical movements of the image.

● Scale scales the image. By default,

the horizontal and vertical scale
controls are locked together,
 applying the same changes to both.

● Image Fit Lines assist in locating

and sizing the imported image. These
lines work in conjunction with the
Fit tools.

Figure 4.

In this example, the image must be positioned to match the 4.00 x 7.00-inch dimensional
reference. The baseline position is located at the bottom center of the spout, indicated by
the dimensional references and heavier lines shown in the image.

Select the bottom left intersection or

the vertical left image fit line, and drag
it using the left mouse button to the
desired intersection on the image.

Pick the bottom right intersection, or

the vertical right image fit line, and
drag it using the left mouse button until it
lines up with the desired intersection on
the image—in this case, the discharge end
of the spout indicated by the dimensional
references and the intersection lines (Fig.
5).

Figure 5.

In the upper half of the Trace Sketch dialog box, enter a horizontal fit value of 4.00
inches and pick the Fit button. The image will be resized to match the position of the
image fit lines to the 4-inch horizontal input. The bottom left intersection of the image fit
lines will be moved to the intersection of the default datum planes.

Now repeat this process to control the vertical sizing of the image. In the upper half of the
Trace Sketch dialog box, select the vertical fit option. The image fit lines will change,
allowing you to control the sizing of the image vertically.

Select the top and bottom image fit lines, and drag them as needed to match the
dimensional reference sketch (top and bottom curve lines).

Input a value of 7.00 in the Vertical fit field and select the Fit button. The image will
be resized to match the position of the vertical image fit lines to the 7-inch input.

If additional manipulations are necessary, use the Move, Scale, and Rotate options in
the dialog box. Pick OK to close the dialog box and complete the manipulation of the
image.
3. Inserting Datum Curve Features into the Style Feature

The image has been successfully imported into the Style feature. Note that you can
import additional images in the same manner and place them on other planes or planar
surfaces as needed (side or top images, for example).

The ISDX module lets you interact with the curves and surfaces created within a single
Style feature, dynamically manipulating and updating the model without the need to
modify a single feature, then regenerate the model. It is common practice to include all
Style curves and surfaces within a SINGLE Style feature! This provides maximum
flexibility as you work with an industrial designer to refine your design.

In this example, the base of the spout is 3.00 inches in diameter and the discharge end of
the spout is 1.5 inches in diameter, inclined on a 15-degree angle as indicated in the
imported sketch. It is important that core datum feature references (sketches, points,
axis, etc.) be in place prior to the Style feature, so that you can select them when creating
the required free-form aesthetic curves. This can be easily accomplished using the
previously sketched curve.

Complete the Style feature by selecting the

Blue Checkmark icon in the Style toolbar.
You will be inserting the datum features
prior to the Style feature.

Select the Insert Here arrow in the model

tree and drag it above the Style feature. It
will be suppressed, and any new features
will be placed prior to it in the model.

Construct the required datum features.

Once these features are complete, Resume

the previously suppressed Style feature by
dragging the Insert Here arrow below the
Style feature in the model tree, or by picking
the Style feature, holding down the right
mouse button, and choosing Resume from
the popup menu (Fig 6). Figure 6.

Redefine the Style feature by picking it and

selecting Edit, Edit Definition.

4. Creating the Profile Curves

Select the ActivePlane icon in the Style toolbar (second icon from the top) and choose
the Front datum plane (plane of symmetry) in the model.

Pick the Style Curve icon (Fig. 7). In the curve dashboard, make sure the Planar radio
button is selected. This will place the curve on the active plane previously selected.
Use the Shift key and select the datum point for the inner profile of the
spout with the left mouse button. Pick the actual point, not the text.
(Alternatively, use the Shift key and pick on the base curve with the left
mouse button, near the desired location. The curve point will snap to the
point on the curve that intersects the Front datum plane.)

Three curve points are needed for this curve. The second curve point will be
placed on the active plane, approximately halfway between the initial point
and the desired end point of the inner profile of the spout. For the final
point, again use the Shift key and left mouse button to select the end
point where the curve intersects the active plane.

Pick the Green Checkmark icon in the curve dashboard to complete the
Figure 7.
Style curve feature.

To make the Style curve match the imported image, select the Edit Curve icon in the
Style toolbar (looks like the Style Curve icon with a pencil on it). Pick the curve you just
created, and choose the middle point on the curve.

Using the left mouse button, drag this point

until it lies on the upper half of the inner profile
curve (Fig. 8).

Figure 8.

When you pick the end point of the curve, a tangency

manipulation line will appear (Fig. 9). Place the cursor over
the tangency line and hold down the right mouse button.

Select Normal from the tangency popup menu and pick the
angled datum plane. The tangency control line will become
perpendicular to the angled plane.
Figure 9.
Using the left mouse button, drag the length of the line
until the upper end of the curve matches the image of the
inner profile curve.

Repeat this operation at the bottom end of the curve, this time leaving the tangency
control line Free. Using the left mouse button, drag the control line as needed (angle
and length) until the Style curve matches the inner profile curve on the image.

Select the Green Checkmark in the Edit Curve dashboard to complete the
modifications.

Repeat this process to create the outer profile curve, again creating a three-point Style
curve, making it Normal to the angled datum plane.

5. Creating the Style Surfaces

Creating surfaces within the Style module environment is similar to creating

surfaces with the Boundary Blend command in core Pro/ENGINEER. Style
surfaces require a minimum of three boundary edges, with a maximum of
four that can be selected during initial surface creation. Other “internal”
curves can be added after the surface has been created.

Choose the Style Surface icon (Fig. 10) in the toolbar.

Figure 10.
Using the Ctrl Key, select the four boundary curves on one side of the
symmetry plane. (Surfacing within the Style module always involves half of
the model.) The surface connection icon lines will appear. You can adjust the length of
these lines by changing the value in the Icon Length field of the dashboard.

Complete the surface by selecting the Green Checkmark in the dashboard (Fig. 11).

Figure 11.

Once you have created a Style surface, you can add other internal curves to further define
the desired shape. Temporarily hiding the Style surface greatly simplifies this process.
Pick the surface, hold down the right mouse button, and select Hide from the popup
menu.

Select the Style Curve icon. Place the view in a side orientation.
In the dashboard, pick the Free radio button, which lets you
modify the curve after creation (Fig. 12).

Pick the top outer profile curve using the Shift Key. The
end of the new curve will snap to the curve, displaying as a
circle.

Use the Shift Key to repeat this operation, selecting the Figure 12.
lower profile curve. The circular ends of the curve represent
“soft points,” meaning they can slide along the profile curves,
following their form and curvature.

Pick the Green Checkmark in the dashboard to create the curve.

Modify the newly created curve by making the ends normal to the Front datum plane and
controlling the length of their tangency lines to ensure the form of the curve is identical at
both ends. Pick the Edit Curve icon and select the newly created curve.

Pick one end of the curve to expose the tangency control line. Place the cursor over the
line, hold down the right mouse button, and select Normal from the popup menu.

Choose the plane called Front and drag the line with the left mouse button to the
desired length. Repeat this process with the other end of the curve.

In the dashboard, pick the Tangent option. In the pulldown menu, check the box
marked Length, and enter a value of 1.000.

Figure 13.

Pick the other end of the curve and repeat this process. This will cause both ends of the
curve to have identical tangency influence, regardless of where the curve may be
positioned in the model (Fig. 13).

Choose the Green Checkmark in the dashboard to complete the curve edit process.

Unhide the surface, holding down the right mouse button, and selecting Unhide All
Entities. Pick the surface and choose Edit Definition from the popup menu.
In the dashboard, choose the Internal
Curve arrow button (Fig. 14). Pick the curve
you just created. It will be added to the
surface curve set.
Figure 14.
Select OK in the Menu Manager. The surface
will update to reflect the inclusion of the
internal curve (Fig. 15).

Pick the Blue Checkmark in the

Style toolbar to complete the Style
features.

Using layers, hide the datum

curves and Style curves within the
model, saving the layer status
when complete. Select the Style
feature and mirror it about the
Front plane.

Figure 15.

You can now merge the Style surfaces together and use standard surfacing practices to
create a closed quilt, constructing flat surfaces to close the ends of the spout. Once the
quilt has been closed, it can be converted into a solid protrusion and additional internal
features can be added to the model. The completed model can then be prototyped,
machined, and/or rendered in the same manner as any other Pro/ENGINEER part (Fig.
16).
Figure 16.

Summary

With the capabilities of Pro/ENGINEER’s ISDX module, you can address any surfacing
challenge while also improving the turnaround time from design concept to finished
product. Proper implementation of Style, combined with core modeling techniques,
makes it much easier for designers or engineers to capture a part’s aesthetic appearance
as well as its functional requirements. From a simple sketch to a part with Style — that
means success by any definition of the word!

Mike Brattoli is the engineering systems administrator at Moen

Incorporated in North Olmsted, Ohio, USA. This article is based on his
presentation at the PTC/USER World Event 2005. Mike can be reached by
email at [email protected].
Being Innovative
Designing with
Style–Turning
Sketches into
Successes

Being Innovative

All About Arbortext

by Evan Caille, President of PTC/USER Reevaluating the

PTC/USER
Member Portal
On a recent trip to Nova Scotia, I visited the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck
where he made his summer home on the Bras d’Or Lake. Many think of Bell as the
A Student's Eye
inventor of the telephone, but he was much more than that. I was struck by his drive to
View of the PTC/
constantly find ways to improve existing technologies or try out new ones. Little did I
USER World Event
know that he came up with a better concept of Thomas Edison’s phonograph or that he
had interests in genetics and medical science.
I Want My MOM
Back!
Two of Bell’s passions were flying machines and hydrofoils, and he used the concept of
the tetrahedral structure as the building block to deliver a high strength-to-weight ratio
Creating Gears and
for both his aircraft and his boats. Through constant innovation, he was able to progress
Splines
from prototypes that failed miserably to ones that were moderately successful.
Creating a FAR Plot
Although neither project became commercially viable, a number of his innovations
found their way into the successful designs of others. Bell saw himself as a tinkerer,
Digital Watermarks
admitting that if an idea succeeded, he was more inclined to sell the patent rights rather
for Today's
than be the businessman. Engineer

When I finished the tour of the museum, I began to wonder how the outcomes of Bell’s
tinkering would have been different if he had had access to the engineering software we
have today. In fact, I often reflect on the value of the tools we use in our jobs to meet the
pressures of building new and exciting products in today’s innovation-driven world.
While Bell’s example reminds us that monumental achievements in engineering and
design can be made without computer-based software, it’s clear that CAD/CAM/CAE/
PDM systems can help our companies introduce high-quality products more quickly. In
particular, innovative users can leverage a CAD system or a structural analysis system to
generate more design iterations with a given timeframe and thus arrive at a better
solution. In addition, they can use the software tools to improve the probability of
creating a robust design on the first attempt.

Of course, simply having the tools does not imply mastery. Just because I own
woodworking tools doesn’t make me a master carpenter, just as using a CAD system
doesn’t make someone an engineer. It’s the combination of the skill of the people, the
efficiency of the process, and the power of the tools to continuously bring innovative
products to market.
It’s here that we think PTC/USER provides its value to the community of PTC product
users. By providing opportunities to share knowledge in regional user group meetings,
international conferences, and virtually through the email exploder, users are able to
learn from the experiences of others in applying the CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM technology
in new and effective ways.

Although it’s too early to report on the results of our recent survey, it is evident from the
responses so far that a large percentage of you do find good value in being a PTC/USER
member and particularly in participating on the email exploder. On this subject, I’d like
to point you to an article about the PTC/USER member portal that appears in this issue.
And in the spirit of continuously improving the services we offer to the community, I
should also mention that we are planning to extend our knowledge-sharing programs to
support the users of newly acquired PTC companies such as Arbortext (also featured in
this issue).

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

[email protected].
All About Arbortext
Designing with
Style–Turning
Sketches into
Successes

Being Innovative

All About Arbortext

Reevaluating the
An Interview with Jim Heppelmann, Executive Vice President of PTC/USER
Member Portal
Software Solutions, and Chief Technical Officer, PTC
A Student's Eye
PTC recently completed its acquisition of Arbortext, Inc., a leader in the emerging View of the PTC/
dynamic enterprise publishing market. With this XML-based software, PTC customers USER World Event
will be able to create, manage and dynamically publish critical information
concurrently with the development of related physical products. In this interview, PTC/ I Want My MOM
USER’s Rick Snider talks with Jim Heppelmann, Executive Vice President of Software Back!
Solutions and Chief Technical Officer at PTC, about what these new capabilities can do
for Pro/ENGINEER users.
Creating Gears and
Splines
Rick Snider: Jim, can you give us your thoughts on why PTC’s acquisition of
Arbortext makes sense? Creating a FAR Plot

Jim Heppelmann: Sure, Rick. We believe this acquisition makes total sense for a Digital Watermarks
variety of reasons, the most important being that it helps solve a big problem faced by for Today's
our traditional installed base of discrete manufacturing companies. Our customers have Engineer
long complained that it takes too much time to create technical publications, it is
difficult to reuse CAD data, and that engineering changes to product designs are missed
in the technical publications process. When combined with PTC’s solutions, Arbortext
will enable companies to rapidly create and publish smarter, more customer-friendly,
and more accurate technical documents. Getting better reuse of Pro/ENGINEER CAD
data in downstream technical publications is also a golden opportunity for our
stronghold industries of industrial equipment, high-tech, automotive, and aerospace.

From a technology perspective, Arbortext’s products are beautifully aligned with PTC’s.
What Pro/ENGINEER did for solid models is exactly what Arbortext is doing for text-
based publications. Both are parametric in the sense that they separate hard-wired
parameters from underlying design intent to promote greater reuse. In the case of
documents, Arbortext separates content from formatting to allow the same information
to be reused in multiple documents and delivery media. Both are component-based in
that they build up the final deliverable from reusable component parts. In Arbortext, a
document is made up of chunks of text and graphics, just as a Pro/ENGINEER design is
made of parts and sub-assemblies. And both are associative in that they adapt gracefully
to change, offering automated ways to regenerate all applicable downstream outputs.
Really, both Arbortext and PTC have been telling similar stories all along. It makes good
sense to bring the two pieces together.

RS: So, what does this mean for PTC—a shift in your core target industries?

JH: No, I wouldn’t say it shifts our target industries. This concept is a perfect fit for
PTC and strengthens our Product Development System for our traditional
manufacturing customers. It also give us opportunities to expand into adjacent markets
that need the same forms of Create, Collaborate, Control, and Communicate capabilities
for text documents. These would include pharmaceuticals, publishing, government, and
financial services.

RS: What about the value of these solutions for those of us in engineering?

JH: Have you ever shipped documentation that didn’t match the product because of a
late design change? Have you ever had to update several different types of output (a
printed document, a web page, etc.) because of a product change? Do you waste time
doing a lot of copying and pasting because there is a lot of common content to
incorporate across many documents? Do you convert sophisticated Pro/ENGINEER
data to IGES to get it into technical publications?

These are very common problems, and the solution to them is what we call dynamic
publishing. But dynamic publishing is an integrated solution, not a single piece of
technology. Think about the required elements.

● First, you need to be able to create and structure documents in a smart way, so
that they are managed as a collection of reusable components. Arbortext Editor
does this, and of course Pro/ENGINEER is a fantastic way to create 3D models
and 2D and 3D drawings that are also components of the documentation.

● Second, you need to be able to manage all of the text and graphics components,
including changes and alternative configurations—again, at a very granular,
component level. This need for content management is where Windchill comes
into play. After all, we’ve mastered that thanks to Pro/ENGINEER.

● Then, you need to be able to automatically extract the right components from the
data vault, construct the documents properly, add the right formatting, and
publish the information in different formats such as PDF or HTML. The specific
solution for this is Arbortext Publishing Engine.

● Finally, you would like users to be able view and even interact with that data in a
web page, which is where ProductView fits in.

In combination, this integrated solution helps eliminate the manual, repetitive, error-
prone steps typically entailed in developing technical publications. The result is
documentation that is richer, more interactive, accurate, and generated in a fraction of
the time. It is also easy to localize to multiple languages, reconfigure to reflect product
variants, or adapt to match a customized product.

RS: How about other areas within the enterprise that are outside of engineering?

JH: There is a great application within marketing. When combined with the
photorealistic rendering capabilities of Pro/ENGINEER, Arbortext can be used to create
slick, colorful marketing collateral for products that have never even been prototyped.
But really any organization that produces documents can benefit from this technology.
For example, the financing arm of an automotive or industrial equipment company
produces product-related information. These information products—leasing or rental
contracts, say—are generally printed documents that must accurately reflect details of
specific product lines. Often, though, these groups are among the last to know when
design changes are made. The result is that their work is never updated. By tying into
the same technology, albeit for a much different use, marketing can get the same
advantages we mentioned for engineering.

RS: How are the Arbortext products licensed and packaged?

JH: The two primary Arbortext products are Arbortext Editor and Arbortext Publishing
Engine. Arbortext Editor is sold on a node-locked user basis, with a floating/shared
license option. Arbortext Publishing Engine is sold on an initial server basis, with the
option to add servers.

RS: What about those companies that previously bought Arbortext but do not use
Windchill? How will the acquisition affect them?

JH: Prior to the acquisition, Arbortext did not have a content management offering, so
early customers needed to integrate or customize their own solutions. Those customers
may of course continue to use these solutions. In fact, it is PTC’s strategy to retain
relationships with Arbortext’s existing technology partners. But most customers would
likely prefer to have all of the necessary components—such as CAD, text editing, content
management, content publishing, and visualization—already integrated in a way that
provides the full range of benefits I mentioned.

That’s where our solution really stands out. A tremendous strength of Windchill—in this
case, Windchill PDMLink—is to be the single repository for managing ALL product
information, from MCAD and ECAD to software and documents. All of this needs to be
linked together and linked to common change management processes, something that
standalone content management systems never can do. Plus, Windchill facilitates
product development collaboration both inside and outside the company, in real time or
asynchronously. With all these core capabilities in place, we can take the next step of
extending Windchill’s capabilities to visualize, share, and manage different
configurations of documents.

RS: What is the timeframe for integrating Arbortext with Windchill PDMLink?

JH: Timeframes for future R&D work always need to be prefaced with caveats. We do a
rigorous job validating our software builds, fixing problems, and re-qualifying until our
release criteria have been met. This means schedules don’t always hold firm. That being
said, we are targeting the first phase of integration—which essentially involves having
Windchill be the content management system for these smart documents—to be
available by the M20 maintenance build of Windchill 8.0, expected in spring 2006.

RS: What will this mean for pre-existing partnerships such as Documentum?

JH: It is our plan to maintain these relationships where possible. For any given account
or sales engagement, the partnership plan should be driven by what’s right for the
customer.

RS: Can you talk about future enhancements impacting Pro/ENGINEER?

JH: We envision that Pro/ENGINEER will be able to supply documents with

lightweight, associative graphical content, tweaked and stylized in a way that’s suitable
for technical publications. Also incorporated into that document will be Arbortext
Editor-supplied text. Imagine a service manual that contains maintenance instructions
in the form of 3D product information in addition to textual content. What better
application for 3D drawings? If you were to view that manual on the web or a mobile
device, you could interact not with a static JPEG picture, but rather a content-rich,
dynamic product viewable.

For more information about Arbortext, please visit www.ptc.com/company/

arbortext/.
A Student's Eye View of the PTC/USER
Designing with
World Event Style–Turning
Sketches into
by James Lynch, University of Ireland
Successes

My first experience of a PTC/USER World Event came in June 2004 when it was held in Being Innovative
Nashville, Tennessee. I was lucky enough to be a member of the team that won that
year’s PTC Award in the education, college and university category for our Battleship
All About Arbortext
Bismarck entry. The University of Limerick in Ireland saw this as a fantastic opportunity
to promote the university and to provide some of its students with a possibly career-
Reevaluating the
defining chance to showcase their work on an international stage.
PTC/USER
Member Portal

A Student's Eye
View of the PTC/
USER World Event

I Want My MOM
Back!

Creating Gears and

Splines

Creating a FAR Plot

Digital Watermarks
for Today's
Engineer

RUG Chairs meet in Orlando. (Left to Right: Dan Marsalek, Mike Venegoni, James
Lynch)

To be honest, at the time I was only vaguely aware of PTC/USER—and for that matter,
the true dimensions of the world that is Pro/ENGINEER. While the Bismarck was
chiseled out with brutal determination and a burgeoning use of Pro/ENGINEER’s
features, I had no real idea how to take advantage of this engineering tool and I was ripe
for a master class.

From the moment I stepped into Exhibition Hall on Sunday to the closing ceremony in
the Grand Ballroom on the following Wednesday, my overall impression of the PTC/
USER event was one of reverence and yet of comfort within its welcoming
atmosphere—the same things I experienced again when I had the opportunity to return
in 2005. Here are some of the specific benefits I gained from participating in the PTC/
USER World Events.
Networking. I think the one thing that stands out for me personally (and at first took me
by surprise) was the friendly, informal atmosphere. From what I can recall, this year’s
event in Orlando had over 1,500 attendees. At one point or another, I feel as if I
probably had the opportunity to talk with every one of them. Well, maybe not, but
networking definitely wasn’t a problem! I read a statistic some time back that over 70%
of all job interviews are obtained through personal contacts and networking—something
I’ve found to be true myself. I left both the 2004 and 2005 conferences with over 100
contacts with people working in every area of industry and quite a few job prospects.
You couldn’t possibly ask for better opportunities!

Industry knowledge. As a prospective graduate who would soon take the leap into the
working world, another most important thing I brought away with me was a clear
perception of the MCAD industry and undoubtedly a vastly improved knowledge of Pro/
ENGINEER. At the conference, I took the opportunity to find out what the industry is
looking for and what companies expect from a graduate. I asked about what Pro/E users
find stimulating about their jobs, and of course what the negative aspects are. I heard
many stories of people taking varied career paths to get where they are today. This
forced me to ask myself why I wanted to be an engineer and why I veered to the design
end of things late in my education. I came to understand what it is that I want for my
career and how best I can achieve this.

Job opportunities. Perhaps like any other student attending an event like this, the
thought at the forefront of my mind was that the 400 or so companies represented at the
World Event—ranging from Maserati to Raytheon, Richard Childers Racing to
Rolex—were essentially 400 prospective employers. Where else could you find an
opportunity like that? In addition, after listening to all of the advice and comments that
my peers had to offer, I found it easier to make the switch from academia to the
professional world and with more confidence than I had before attending the
conference.

During a job interview with the company that I am currently working with, it was a real
benefit to talk confidently and knowledgably about the direction industry is taking, the
impacts of the emerging Asian and Indian markets on the MCAD community, and PTC’s
strategic plans for Pro/ENGINEER. I think this knowledge distinguished me from other
candidates and gave my employer the confidence to allow me to find my feet in the
industry.

Technical information. Probably one of the better presentations I attended at this year’s
conference was Matt Loew’s It’s Called Pro/ENGINEER for a Reason!, where he
explained how Stewart and Stephenson converted a 340-page US Army spec into a Pro/
ENGINEER skeletal model using advanced relations and behavioral modeling. It’s these
things that universities simply cannot teach, and this type of information that can set
you apart from every other graduate from the 2,500 or so institutions teaching Pro/
ENGINEER around the world.

PTC presence. Another aspect of the conference that came as a surprise to me was how
closely PTC/USER and PTC work together. The resources that PTC dedicates to the
conference are quite astounding. The availability of the product line managers for each
of the functional areas ranging from Tim Harrison, the product line manager for all of
PTC’s Industrial Design solutions, to John Buchowski, who deals with all of PTC’s
Structural and Thermal simulations, you can pretty much get the answer to any
technical question you have about Pro/E! Add to this any number of PTC’s free hands-
on workshops that ran throughout the conference, the best practice seminars, the expert
user presentations, or this year’s introduction of a PTC University lab.

All in all, it doesn’t matter whether you are a novice like myself or have been using Pro/
ENGINEER since R2, you are going to learn something by attending a PTC/USER
World Event. In my opinion, this conference provides invaluable insights into the world
of Pro/ENGINEER that you won’t find anywhere else.

James Lynch is a design engineer working with Design Partners in

Wicklow, Ireland and also pursuing a master’s degree at the University of
Limerick. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
Reevaluating the PTC/USER Member Portal
Designing with
By Evan Caille, PTC/USER President Style–Turning
Sketches into
Recently a number of users on the pro-user exploder list participated in a discussion Successes
thread that centered on the need for a common repository for documents of interest to
PTC/USER members. This resource could include such information as technical tips Being Innovative
and best practices. Our response to this question is repeated below for the benefit of
those who don’t subscribe to the pro-user list. All About Arbortext

One important point that should be emphasized is that PTC/USER’s member portal Reevaluating the
already provides the structure for sharing files and is in fact is a source for sample PTC/USER
Pro/TOOLKIT applications and NC post-processors. The challenge has been finding Member Portal
volunteers who want to contribute submissions and/or act as librarian. Jeff Zemsky,
one of the recent additions to the PTC/USER Board of Directors, has now agreed to A Student's Eye
champion our web portal evaluation project. I am sure he would welcome the input, View of the PTC/
and even more, the assistance, of other PTC/USER members in this effort. If you are USER World Event
interested in participating in this project, please contact Jeff at [email protected],
I Want My MOM
Back!
A Brief Look Back
Creating Gears and
There have been some very good questions raised recently on the exploder about Splines
enhanced collaboration tools for the PTC/USER community, and I wanted to take this
opportunity to share some information with you.
Creating a FAR Plot

First, some history would be helpful:

Digital Watermarks
for Today's
● In 1991 PTC/USER provided the email exploder (http://www.ptcuser.org/ Engineer
exploder) to the user community.
● In 1994 PTC/USER launched its website (http://www.ptcuser.org) to share user
group information with its members.
● In 2002 PTC/USER Technical Committee members began using ProjectLink to
share documents and communicate using online forums.
● In 2004 PTC/USER added a community portal (http://members.ptcuser.org) to
its website for the benefit of all PTC/USER members. It is used extensively to
schedule meetings and track registration, share files, maintain membership lists,
access the email exploder, create and respond to surveys, and more. There is also
a repository where members could store files for general member access, although
there haven’t been any requests to do this until now.

Where We Are Now

In 2005 we undertook a review of our current web-based applications to see if there

were any alternatives that provided a better user experience and also meet PTC/USER’s
functional and budget requirements. What we found was that there are dozens of
commercial packages for association management, community development, or both.
The challenge is that each package has different strengths and weaknesses. They also
span the cost spectrum from affordable to budget-busting. We narrowed the field down
to a shortlist and actually performed a preliminary pilot test of a couple of solutions. We
have since explored some other potential approaches, including partnering, and are
considering these as possible solutions. PTC/USER wants to be sure that any solution it
rolls out is an improvement over the current environment in the eyes of as many
members as possible.

As pointed out in one of the exploder postings, PTC/USER and PTC recently issued a
survey to the member community to truly understand the community’s needs and
desires on a wide range of topics, including web presence. The survey just closed and we
are in the process of analyzing all the responses. Interestingly enough, the email
exploder question evoked some strong responses from “don’t change what we have” to
“how come there isn’t an online forum.” This echoes the sentiment of members in other
professional organizations who are often equally split between email-based postings and
online postings. We have seen some of the same challenges with the online forums used
by our Technical Committees.

PTC/USER recognizes that there are many alternatives to its community. There are
communities sponsored by publication firms, VARs, individuals, suppliers, and even
PTC. We feel anyone has the right to form a community and every user of PTC products
can make the choice of joining one or more communities. Each community has a
different underlying mission, whether it is to be a revenue generator by a for-profit
enterprise or a member-funded activity of a nonprofit organization. We should all keep
in mind that it costs money to have a web presence and the funds need to come from ad
revenues, member fees, or donations. Notice that lately even Wikipedia has been
swamped by its success and is in urgent need of donations in order to upgrade its
servers.

All communities have something to offer and PTC/USER is no exception. Based on the
feedback of our members, we are rated very highly in terms of the service we provide.
However, the credit for success has to go to the active participation of PTC/USER
members, PTC employees, and partner companies that contribute to the exploder, the
conference, and the various other PTC/USER-sponsored activities.

It is true that we are a volunteer organization funded by its members and industry
partners. Part of the funding goes to PTC/USER part-time and full-time staff to provide
a range of business services, including support of our web portal. I should also mention
that any frequent user of the PTC/USER email exploder is familiar with Rick Snider
who, among other duties, oversaw the development and operation of our web
infrastructure. Rick has done an outstanding job supporting this effort for a number of
years. Since he has recently decided to focus his energies on the conference, we are in
the process of evaluating a number of options for maintaining our web operation.

In closing, I would like to express PTC/USER’s commitment to serving its membership.

We believe we have a functional web portal in place that is available for its members to
use. At the same time, we will continue to seek improvements that enhance the
functionality of the portal.

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

[email protected].
I Want MOM Back!
Designing with
By Pete Pickett, Mercury MerCruiser Style–Turning
Sketches into
In this day and age, I’m all about trying to speed things up in Pro/ENGINEER. I recently Successes
discovered that some functions in older versions of Pro/E are faster than in Wildfire,
Wildfire 2 and Wildfire 3. So, I want My Old Menus back! Being Innovative

When Wildfire was introduced, PTC bragged about reducing mouse clicks to do your All About Arbortext
job. Well, here are a few overlooked places in Pro/DETAIL where MOM can help.
Tip 1: Moving Items in a Drawing Reevaluating the
PTC/USER
Member Portal
Cleaning up a drawing, for example, requires two picks on the object and one more to
place it. If you add the old move function used way back in Pro/ENGINEER release 19,
you get faster results. A Student's Eye
View of the PTC/
USER World Event
Create a mapkey:
I Want My MOM
mapkey v @MAPKEY_LABEL*move (detail move);#detail;#move Back!

Now moving a dimension text or balloon is just two clicks away. This means that if you Creating Gears and
have 300 balloons or dimensions to set up in a drawing, you have 600 clicks rather than Splines
900! This was tested and worked in pre-production Wildfire 3.
Creating a FAR Plot
Tip 2: Adding Text to a Table
Digital Watermarks
Is the TABLE pull-down menu driving you nuts? Can’t select the table just right to get for Today's
these functions to highlight? Engineer
If you want to add text to a single cell in a table without the massive PROPERTIES box,
just add this mapkey:

mapkey EC @MAPKEY_LABEL*ADD TEXT TO TABLE;#TABLE;#ENTER TEXT

Not only does this restore the old function of quickly adding text to a cell, but it also
brings back the old table menu (from Pro/ENGINEER 2001), which lets you edit the
table faster than a pull-down.
Note: The COPY/COPY TABLE function works differently than EDIT/COPY in
Wildfire. Let’s say you are using an automated BOM table with an assembly. You add a
different assembly to the same drawing and you want to copy that same table but
reference the new assembly. This is what COPY/COPY TABLE does. EDIT/COPY
references the original assembly.

Tip 3: Editing a Single Line of Text

Sometimes that PROPERTIES box drives me nuts when I want to quickly edit a line of
text in a large note. You have to resize it, drag the scroll bar to where you want it, or
simply need to break up the text for different size fonts for each line.

Here’s a mapkey to deal with this nuisance:

mapkey ed @MAPKEY_LABEL*EDIT TEXT LINE;#modify;#text;#text line

If you have more legacy mapkeys or menus you access, please email me and I will add
them into another article, I Want MOM Back Too!

Peter A. Pickett II is a design engineer at Mercury MerCruiser in

Stillwater, Oklahoma. A Pro/ENGINEER user since release 10, Pete
currently serves as chair of the PTC/USER Routed Systems Technical
Committee and co-chair of the Oklahoma Pro/ENGINEER Users Group. He
can be reached by email at [email protected].
Creating Gears and Splines in Wildfire 2.0
Designing with
By Dan Marsalek, Marine Mechanical Corporation Style–Turning
Sketches into
Although many published methods exist for developing profiles of gear and spline teeth, Successes
the techniques are sometimes confusing and often inaccurate because they use only an
approximation of the involute curve profile. The methods in this article clarify, expound, Being Innovative
and improve on the current involute curve formulae commonly used. The methodology
is based on Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0, but can also be easily adapted for use with All About Arbortext
WF1.0 and Pro/ENGINEER 2001. The equations for creating the involute datum curve
are the same, although the extrusion and patterning of the final geometry are slightly Reevaluating the
different. PTC/USER
Member Portal
The Pro/ENGINEER user wishing to design a gear or spline tooth should start with the
basics: the involute curve. An involute is described as the path of a point on a straight A Student's Eye
line, called the generatrix, as it rolls along a convex base curve (the evolute). The View of the PTC/
involute curve is most often used as the basis for the profile of a spline or gear tooth. USER World Event

Here’s how to visualize the involute curve: I Want My MOM

Back!

Creating Gears and

Splines

Creating a FAR Plot

Digital Watermarks
for Today's
Engineer

● Imagine a cylinder and a piece of string.

● Wrap the string tightly around the cylinder.
● Pull the string tight while unwinding it from the cylinder.
● Trace the end of the string as it is unwrapped. The result is an involute curve.

You should also acquaint yourselves with the standard features and terminology of gears
and splines. The ANSI standards for gears (B6.1, B6.7) and splines (B92.1) are a good
place to start, as is Machinery’s Handbook (1992, pp. 1787–2065). The AGMA standards
are another source of good information for terms, symbols, equations, and definitions.

The following figure (taken from ANSI B92.1) illustrates a spline with standard
dimensions and definitions.

Why should an involute profile be used in the design of a gear or spline tooth? Why not a
straight edge? Some of the more important reasons:

● Conjugate action is independent of changes in center distance. Basically, if a

driver gear with an involute tooth profile rotates at a uniform rate while acting on
another gear with an involute tooth profile, the angular motion of the driven gear
will be uniform. This is true even if the center-to-center distance is varied.

● The form of the basic rack tooth is straight-sided and therefore relatively simple.
Thus, it can be accurately made. As a cutting tool, the rack tooth imparts high
accuracy to the cut gear or spline tooth.

● One cutter can generate all gear or spline tooth numbers of the same pitch.

● The relative rate of motion between driven and driving gears having involute
tooth curves is established by the diameters of their base circles.

● Contact between intermeshing involute teeth on a driving and driven gear is along
a straight line that is tangent to the two base circles of these gears. This is called
the “line of action.”

While several techniques can be used to create the involute tooth profile in Pro/
ENGINEER, this article focuses on using datum curves by equation. The benefits of this
method are that the involute curve profile is based on the exact geometric equations, it is
highly flexible in terms of the types of gears and curves that can be created, and it
requires no additional Pro/ENGINEER modules (like ASX, AAX, BMX, etc.). In
addition, the datum curve by equation technique allows you to use either Cartesian or
cylindrical coordinate systems to create the involute curve profile. Finally, the curves
generated by the methodology presented herein are automatically truncated at the
major diameter, without the need for any additional operations (to trim the curve to
size).

Why are there so many equations in this article? It’s great to know the final answer to a
problem, but if you don’t know how you got to the solution, then you won’t be able to
properly apply it. Additionally, the derivations of the equations validate the formulae
that will be used in the relations editor to create the involute profile.

General Procedures for Involute Curve Creation

1. Set up parameters for key variables:

a. Base diameter
b. Pitch diameter
c. Number of teeth
d. Major (outer) tooth diameter
e. Start angle (i.e., the angle from the horizontal axis in sketcher where the
involute starts)
f. Circular tooth thickness or circular space width.
2. Create basic geometry in support of the spline or gear tooth.
3. Define the involute tooth profile with the datum curve by equation.
4. Create the tooth solid feature with a cut or protrusion.
a. Design vs. Manufacturing intent
b. May need additional helical datum curves to sweep a helical gear teeth
5. Pattern the tooth around the centerline axis.

The trick is to know when to use Cartesian or cylindrical coordinates in creating the
datum curve by equation.

● Use the cylindrical coordinate method if you want the easiest and most versatile
method of involute creation, or if you have to use polar coordinates.
● Use Cartesian coordinates if you have to have the equations in terms of X, Y, and
Z only.

Simply put, using the cylindrical coordinate system will be easier and quicker in most
cases.

Deriving the Involute Datum Curve Equations — Cartesian Coordinates

The first step is to define terms and set up a sketch with the variables. The figure below
presents a basic idea of what is involved in determining the equations for the involute
datum curve.
Ri = Base dia./2

Ro = Major dia./2

Sα = arc length

SR = tangent line length at any point X,Y on the involute

SRo = tangent line length at major diameter on involute

β = angle from start of involute to tangent point on base circle

Xc,Yc = tangent point on base circle corresponding to tangent line SR

Start_angle = angle from the horizontal axis to the start of the involute curve

For simplicity, we will assume a start angle of 0° and remove it from the formulae.

From basic trigonometry:

From the geometry, the equation for XR and YR can be derived:

From the Pythagorean Theorem:

Substitute and simplify the equations to get XR and YR in terms of Ri and β. Start by
substituting for Xc and SR in the original equation for XR:

Substitute for Yc and SR in the original equation for YR:

Take the equations for XR and YR, above, and plug them into the equation for RO:
Expand the squared terms:

Consolidate terms that have Ri2, and Ri2 * β:

Remember a basic trigonometric identity formula:

Substitute for the identity, and combine like terms (which add to 0). The equation for Ro
becomes:
Combining terms that have Ri2:

Squaring Ro gives us:

Squaring the square root term:

Rearranging the equation to isolate β:

We need to define a term, α, in terms of Ri and Ro, so that we can solve the parametric
equation for the creation of the datum curve. We also need to evaluate β over its full
range (from Ri to Ro) to derive the involute curve, so we multiply by “t” in the equation
(t varies linearly from 0 to 1):

Substituting for β:

But since we want radians, we multiply by 2* π /360:

We need the parametric equations for X and Y (and Z) in terms of Ri and α. We will use
XR and YR as the basis, substituting α for β (and multiplying the α terms by 360/2*π
because we need degrees here):

Deriving the parametric equation for X:

Deriving the parametric equation for Y:

Finally, Z = 0 (since we wish to create a 2-D planar curve)

So, the relation equations used in creating the involute profile datum curve will be:

solve

for α

Z=0

Remember that all variables (α, Ro, Ri) must be predefined. Since we don’t know α yet,
just preset it to a value of 1 using parameters, or set it to 1 before the involute curve
equations in the relation equation editor.

If we include a start angle of some value other than 0°, the equations become:

solve

for α
Z=0

Deriving the Involute Datum Curve Equations — Cylindrical Coordinates

Ri = Base dia./2

Ro = Major dia./2

R = Radius to any point on the involute curve

Sα = arc length from start of the involute to the tangent point

SR = tangent line length at any point X,Y on the involute

SRo = tangent line length at major diameter on involute

β = angle from start of involute to tangent point on base circle

θ = angle from start of involute to any point on the involute between Ro and Ri

α = angle from a point on the involute to the tangent point on base circle

Start_angle = angle from the horizontal axis to the beginning of the involute curve

The geometry associated with the involute curve in a cylindrical coordinate system is
shown below.
Again, we are setting the start angle to 0° for simplicity.

The following equations are based on the geometry of the involute setup:

The relationship between SR and SRo varies linearly, so if we denote a variable t that
goes from 0 to 1 as R goes from 0 to Ro, then:
It is important to note that SR = SRo when R = Ro (because t=1).

By the Pythagorean Theorem:

By observation and the Pythagorean Theorem:

Substituting (SRo * t) for SR into the equation defining R:

We need to find β in terms of Ri and Ro. Start with the equation for SR found previously:

Isolate the β term and substitute (SRo * t) for SR:

Solving the equations to get α:

Substitute (SRo * t) for SR:

Substituting for β and α in the equation for θ:

As in the case for the equations for Cartesian involute curves, we still want the curve to
be 2-D and planar, so:

Z=0

We need to make the equations parametric based on Ro and Ri and t (which varies
linearly from 0 to 1), so we create a variable γ, similar to the α term in the Cartesian
Coordinate equations, but based on SR instead of β:
Substituting for SRo:

Substituting γ for SRo into the equations for R gives us:

A similar substitution for SRo in the equation for θ:

So, the relation equations used in the creation of the involute profile datum curve will be:
Solve

for γ

Z=0

Note: to account for a start angle ≠ 0, use:

As with the Cartesian coordinate method, remember to predefine γ, Ro, and Ri before
solving the relations.

Using the Cylindrical Coordinate System to Create an Involute Curve

1. Create the part parameters (major_dia, pitch_dia, minor_dia, base_dia, tooth_thick

(or space_width), no_of_teeth, start_angle, gamma).
(Click to enlarge)

2. Create the base cylinder geometry. Use the major_dia parameter as the OD of the
cylinder.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)

3. Make sure you have a coordinate system already established. It should be located on
the centerline axis at one end of the cylinder you have created. (It helps if the coordinate
system has the Z direction along the centerline axis.) Create the involute datum curve by
using Datum Curve, By Equation. Choose a cylindrical coordinate system.
(Click to enlarge)
4. Create a datum curve (by sketch) that represents the entire cut for the tooth profile.
Create a centerline, and then mirror the involute curve to make the two sides of the cut.
Set the two curves apart by using a construction arc at the pitch diameter to represent
the circular space width. Dimension the arc as a perimeter by selecting the angular
dimension and choosing Convert, To Perimeter from the Edit dropdown menu.
Make the top and bottom sides of the cut using an arc and selecting the end points to be
symmetric about the centerline.

(Click to enlarge)

5. OK the section. Then extrude a cut axially along the cylinder based on the profile of
the datum curve in Step 4.
(Click to enlarge)

6. Pattern the cut axially around the cylinder. Voila! Your gear/spline is now ready for
use!
(Click to enlarge)

For Further Reference

1. The Society of Automotive Engineers, ANSI Standard B92.1-1996, 1996.

2. www.cadquest.com/books/pdf/gears.pdf, Involute Gear Design Tutorial.

3. PTC Knowledgebase, Suggested Techniques for:

● Creation of an Involute Gear Cutting (3 Methods)

● Creating a Cylindrical Gear with Helical Teeth
● Creating an Involute Curve

4. Machinery’s Handbook, 24th ed., 1992, pp. 1787-2065.

5. Shigley and Mishke, Mechanical Engineering Design, 5th ed., 1989, pp. 527-584

6. Roy Beardmore, www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/Drive/Gears.html, 2004.

Dan Marsalek is a design engineer with Marine Mechanical Corp. in

Cleveland, Ohio, specializing in 3-D modeling and nonlinear FEA of
complex mechanisms for naval vessels. Dan is currently vice president of
the Ohio Pro/E User Group (NOPUG). This article is based in part on his
presentation at the 2005 PTC/USER World Event.
Visualizing the Air Space of a Complex PSU
Designing with
By Ceferino Sanchez of ASTEC Power, a Division of Emerson Style–Turning
Network Power Sketches into
Successes
Both thermal engineers and the mechanical design team can benefit being able to
visualize how densely populated the power supply unit (PSU) is. Creating a free area Being Innovative
ratio (FAR) plot along the length of the PSU is one way to address this need. The basic
idea is to create the air part by cutting out a merged solid representation of the PSU and All About Arbortext
plotting its cross-sectional area along the length of the unit by performing a user-defined
analysis (UDA). Reevaluating the
PTC/USER
This technique requires the Advanced Assembly Extension (AAX) and the Behavioral Member Portal
Modeling Extension (BMX). Also necessary is a workstation with sufficient RAM. It may
be necessary to have the /3GB switch on Windows XP Professional. If not, use the 64-bit A Student's Eye
version of Pro/ENGINEER. View of the PTC/
USER World Event

Creating a Merged Solid Shrinkwrap of the PSU

I Want My MOM
Back!
The first functionality to be used is available in AAX. The following steps were adapted
from <PROE_LOADPOINT>html\usascii\proe\aax\
Creating Gears and
to_create_a_merged_solid_exported_shrinkwrap_model.htm. Splines

1. Retrieve the PSU assembly as the source model. Visualizing the Air
Space of a Complex
2. Click File, Save a Copy. The Save a Copy dialog box opens. PSU

3. In the Type dropdown list box, click Shrinkwrap (Fig. 1). Digital Watermarks
for Today's
4. In the Creation Method area of the dialog box, select Merged Solid. Engineer

5. In the Quality area of the dialog box, specify the quality level for the system to use
when identifying components that will contribute to the shrinkwrap model. Enter an
integer in the range of 1 to 10 (default = 1). Since the accuracy of the FAR plot is
important, I advise using the highest quality possible (10).

6. In the Special Handling area of the dialog box, select or clear the following
options:

● Auto Hole Filling (selected by default). Unselect this since the FAR plot accuracy
will be affected with filled holes done by the system.
● Ignore Skeletons (selected by default). The system does not include skeleton
model geometry when creating the shrinkwrap model.
● Ignore Quilts (selected by default). The system does not include external quilts in
the shrinkwrap model.
 ● Assign Mass Properties. The system assigns the mass properties of the original
model to the shrinkwrap model.

7. In the Output File Name area of the dialog box, specify the export output. The
system assigns the shrinkwrap model a default file name based on that of the source
model. Accept the default file name in the format model_name_sw0001 or enter a new
name for the shrinkwrap model.

8. Click Preview to obtain graphical and textual feedback about the subset of
information that will be captured in the shrinkwrap model (Fig. 2). The message window
provides information about how many components are included and excluded from the
representation, in the format "X of Y components have been selected." You can zoom in
and select unselected components to include, or you can undo selections using the
Select Components button.

9. Click Create. The system copies a subset of information from the source model to
create a shrinkwrap model, saves the new part to disk, and displays it in its own window
(Fig. 3). The subset consists of solid geometry consisting of all collected components
from the source model.

10. Click Close. The Create Shrinkwrap dialog box closes.

Figure 1. Shrinkwrap Dialog Box

Figure 2. PSU Assembly

Figure 3. Merged Solid Shrinkwrap Part of PSU Assembly

Note: It’s advisable to enable the configuration option enable_absolute_accuracy and
set it to yes. You can set the part accuracy to 0.001 mm absolute to avoid problems in
the cutout later on.

Making the Cutout

At this point you need to create an assembly, which you can arbitrarily name
PSU_model_FAR.asm. These are the intermediate steps prior to using the cutout
functionality.

1. Assemble the merged solid shrinkwrap part.

2. Create and assemble the air.prt, which consists of a protrusion feature flush to the
width, height and length of the PSU.

3. With the air.prt activated, click on Insert, Shared Data, Cutout and then pick
the merged solid shrinkwrap part of the PSU.

If there are problems with the cutout, other than enabling absolute accuracy, you can
match the accuracy of the air.prt with the merged solid shrinkwrap of the PSU.

Performing the User Defined Analysis

By calculating the cross-sectional area of the air.prt, the FAR can be derived by dividing
this by the total area of the PSU cross-section normal to the airflow direction. The
following steps were adapted from <PROE_LOADPOINT>\html\usascii\proe\bemod\
example__analyzing_the_cross_section_of_a_pipe.htm and <PROE_LOADPOINT>
\html\usascii\proe\bemod\
to_create_a_user_defined_analysis.htm

1. Open the air.prt or activate it if in session.

2. Create a field point on the trajectory curve by clicking Insert, Model Datum,
Point, Field (Fig. 4).
Figure 4. Field Point

3. Create a datum plane through the field point normal to the airflow direction (Fig. 5).

Figure 5. Datum Plane Through Field Point Normal to Airflow Direction

4. To create an analysis feature to measure the cross-section of the pipe, click Insert,
Model, Datum, Analysis.

5. In the ANALYSIS dialog box, enter the name of the analysis, air_area, and select
Model Analysis as the type of the analysis (Fig. 6).
Figure 6. First Page of Analysis Dialog Box

6. Click Next to go to the second page and select a parameter that you want to create
(Fig. 7).
Figure 7. Second Page of Analysis Dialog Box

7. Select X-Section Mass Properties as the type of measure.

8. Place a checkmark in front of Use Plane, and choose the name of the datum plane to
create the cross-section.

9. Click Compute to the mass.

10. Click Close.

11. Under Result params, choose the parameter XSEC_AREA and select Yes to create
this parameter (Fig. 8).

Figure 8. Third Page of Analysis Dialog Box

12. Click OK.

13. Create a UDA construction group by grouping all required features and parameters.
Click Edit, Feature Operations, Group, Local Group. Specify a name for the
group (Fig. 9).
Figure 9. Local Group

14. From the model tree, select the field point, the datum plane through the field point,
and the analysis feature (the last item).

15. Create a user-defined analysis using the construction group you have just defined.
Click Analysis, User-Defined Analysis.

16. Under Type, select a Construction group.

17. Under References, accept the default references used by the feature.

18. Under Parameters, select the analysis feature parameter you want to compute (in
this case, XSEC_AREA).

19. Specify where to perform calculations by accepting the default (Entire Field) from
the domain list. The calculation will be performed on the entire domain where the field
point is located (in this case, the entire trajectory curve that is the edge along the airflow
direction).

20. Under Computation Settings (Fig. 10), define the resolution by clicking the
appropriate icon.

Define the resolution by setting the distance (0.5mm is acceptable in the case
of PSUs) between two adjacent points in the model units. Depending on the
length of the PSU and your processor, this will take some time.

21. Under Computation Settings, also set any of these options:

● Max/Min Refinement. Obtains more accurate results for the minimum and
maximum values without increasing the density or accuracy. This option is
available only for the Entire Field domain.
● Create Graph. Shows results in a graph window. If you have MS Excel, set the
configuration option bm_graph_tool to excel_linked, which opens a standalone
Excel window when the graph is created.
● Dynamic Update. Pro/ENGINEER updates the results automatically. You need
not choose Compute to update.
Figure 10. UDA Dialog Box

22. Under Results, click:

● Settings. Sets the scale and density of the display and specify calculation options
(Fig. 11). For UDAs with the field point on an edge or curve, you can set the scale
and density. If the field point references a surface or a quilt, you can set increment
(linear, logarithmic, or two-color), spectrum (upper and lower limits, and
sensitivity), and accuracy (low, medium, high, or very high).
● Compute. Generates the results of the analysis (Fig. 12). The results appear in the
box under Results, and can be a porcupine display accompanied by a graph (if the
field is a curve or an edge) or a shaded display (if the domain is a surface or a
quilt).
 ● Clear. Erases the display of the results.
● Choose OK to close the dialog box.

Figure 11. UDA Settings

Figure 12. UDA Display

23. Click the Saved Analyses bar to expand the dialog box for the functions related to
saving analyses.

24. To save this analysis in an analysis feature, click Add Feature and enter the name
for the feature. A new analysis feature appears in the model tree.

25. Click Close.

In an Excel spreadsheet, you can add field names such as width, height and length of the
PSU. You can also easily compute derived fields such as area, X-distance on the PSU
and FAR (Fig. 13).

Figure 13. FAR Plot on the Spreadsheet

Ceferino Sanchez is a lead engineer, thermal engineer and Pro/E

administrator at ASTEC Power, a division of Emerson Network Power in
Quezon City, Philippines. He can be reached by email at
[email protected].
Digital Watermarks for Today's Engineer
Designing with
by John Tucker, Raytheon Vision Systems Style–Turning
Sketches into
The Why Successes
Clearly identifying engineering documentation as PRELIMINARY or DRAFT can
prevent costly downstream misunderstandings. From program management to supply Being Innovative
chain, each function in the enterprise must clearly understand whether or not
engineering information is released for production. All About Arbortext

Now, if you have a printer compatible with PostScript® or a PDF distiller, you too can Reevaluating the
identify your documents with a fully automated, digital, customizable PTC/USER
“watermark”—bringing the outdated “red stamp” into the modern age. Member Portal

The What A Student's Eye

A watermark is here defined as a semi-transparent marking that unmistakably identifies View of the PTC/
the release state of Pro/ENGINEER output without obstructing the readability of USER World Event
information underneath or behind it. A good watermark looks like a light fog
superimposed over the engineering print or PDF (Fig. 1). It does not obscure the I Want My MOM
documentation and is difficult to ignore. Back!

Creating Gears and

Splines

Creating a FAR Plot

Digital Watermarks
for Today's
Engineer

Figure 1.

The How
You can set up a watermarking system for your users that employs simple menu
selections to print a file or create a PDF in Adobe® Reader® format. Ideally, the
watermarking process should be transparent to the user. That is, the watermark should
be automatically applied based on the release state of your databases.

If you are using Pro/INTRALINK, Windchill, or another PDM system to manage your
Pro/ENGINEER files, you need only query your system to determine whether or not to
add a watermark. If you are still using your operating system’s innate filing system to
manage your files, you won’t be able to automate the process unless you use drawing
parameters to track your release state and are extremely disciplined about keeping them
up to date. Nonetheless, you can still choose to apply a watermark based on, for
example, an alternate menu selection or a mapkey.

The Watermark Recipe

There are three steps for applying a watermark to your output:

1. Create a PostScript file.

Create a PostScript file, sending the output to a file, or record a Pro/ENGINEER mapkey
to do the job. If you are tracking your lifecycle state with Pro/INTRALINK, your mapkey
should include a file dump of your model or drawing parameters, so that you can inspect
the resulting file and obtain the release level. Knowing the release state of your data will
allow you to further customize the watermark or simply forgo it.

2. Insert the watermark.

The watermark itself is composed of 18 lines of PostScript code embedded into the
PostScript file created by Pro/ENGINEER. The PostScript code is available (click here to
download). (Note: in Adobe lingo, the watermark is actually a “background,” so if you
plan to use shaded views in Wildfire 3.0, your shaded views will clip your text.)

3. Obtain paper or PDF output.

a. Use the ‘lp’ command or Windows print command to send your PostScript file to a
printer. If you cannot use the print command in your Windows environment (as may be
the case because of your network architecture), you can use the excellent freeware
PrintFile (go to http://www.lerup.com/printfile/ for instructions and download) to send
your PostScript files to your system printer.

b. PDF output may be obtained via your Adobe distiller or a product such as
GhostScript.

Insertion Tips
You cannot insert the 18 lines of PostScript code just anywhere into the Pro/ENGINEER
PostScript output file. Currently—this applies to Pro/ENGINEER 20 through Pro/
ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 Preproduction—it must be inserted after either line 14 or 15 of
the output. To insert the code quickly and easily into the correct location without writing
a custom routine, make use of the SED program that comes with your operating system.
If you use Windows, download a freeware version of SED from the internet. (I’m using
super-sed version 3.59 available at http://sed.sourceforge.net/grabbag/ssed/sed-3.59.
zip. I’ve renamed the executable to SED.exe and placed it into our operating system
path.)

Copy the text in Figure 2 exactly and name it watermark.sed. Place it in a folder of your
choosing.
 p

/%%EndPageSetup/ a\

/theWatermark {[(DRAFT/REVIEW) (YOUR CUSTOMIZED)

(WATERMARK HERE)]} def\

/globalScaleFactor {4} def\

/grayScale {0.95} def\

/interLinearSpacing {0.5} def\

/getmidpage {currentpagedevice /PageSize get dup 0 get exch 1 get exch 2 div exch 2
div} bind def\

/corner2corner {currentpagedevice /PageSize get dup 0 get exch 1 get exch atan}
bind def\

/getsheetscal {currentpagedevice /PageSize get 0 get 72 div globalScaleFactor mul}

bind def\

/sizefont {/Helvetica-Bold findfont exch scalefont setfont} bind def\

/showcenterjust {dup stringwidth pop 2 div neg 0 rmoveto show} bind def\

/numwatermarklines {theWatermark length} bind def\

/watermark {gsave newpath getmidpage moveto corner2corner rotate 0

getsheetscal 2 div neg rmoveto\

0 numwatermarklines 1 sub getsheetscal mul interLinearSpacing mul rmoveto

getsheetscal sizefont\

grayScale setgray theWatermark {gsave showcenterjust grestore 0 2 getsheetscal

mul interLinearSpacing mul\

neg rmoveto} forall\

grestore} bind def\

<<\

/BeginPage {watermark} bind\

>> setpagedevice\

Figure 2.

Let’s assume that you’ve just printed your PostScript output to a file. Let’s further
assume that the file is called my_drawing.ps. Use the following command line to
transform your Pro/ENGINEER PostScript file into a watermarked PostScript file:

sed -n -f watermark.sed my_drawing.ps >watermarked.ps

The file named watermarked.ps now contains a watermark, which will become visible
when you send it to a PostScript-compatible printer or a distiller. You may delete the
input file named my_drawing.ps at your leisure.
Customizing Your Mark
Take note of the following in the SED script shown in Figure 2.

● Text. The text of the watermark (in red) is customizable. Your watermarks may
contain a single line of text, such as the word DRAFT, or they may contain several
lines of text. It’s possible to use a different watermark for different purposes:
quotation, review, release, draft, etc. In any case, all watermark text must be set
between the two square brackets. Each line of text in the watermark must be set
between parentheses. If you need to use parentheses in your watermark, prefix
them with the back-slash character \.
● Font size. The overall size of the watermark lettering (in blue) is adjustable.
Experiment with the size of the lettering by varying this setting. This is a positive
real number. Start with the given value 4, adjusting downward if your watermark
spills off of the page, and adjusting upward if it looks too small. Remember to test
it for each of your standard page sizes. Save to watermark.sed when satisfied.
● Line spacing. The interlinear spacing of the watermark (in pink) is adjustable.
This is also a positive real number. The current spacing of 0.5 indicates that there
is one half-height of character spacing between lines of text in the watermark.
Adjust it up or down to achieve a pleasing effect. Remember to save this to
watermark.sed when you’re happy with it.
● Intensity. The intensity of the watermark (in green) is adjustable. This is a real
number ranging from 0.0 to 1.0. A value of 0.0 will set your watermark to full
black; you will not be able to view any other output behind it. A value of 1.0
indicates full white; your watermark will be invisible! I have noticed that a
different value for intensity may be required depending on whether you output to
a printer or to a PDF file. In addition, if you obtain obviously stippled (dotted)
output from your printer, make sure that you are using a PostScript driver
supplied with your operating system or by your printer manufacturer. If
necessary, change the driver through your operating system control panel to
achieve a smoother effect.

Printing Made Easy

There isn’t room to go into every possible system configuration in this article. However,
for Windows users, I have created a Pro/ENGINEER printer configuration file (PCF file)
and a batch file as a sample. Instructions for use follow.

1. Download a Windows-compatible version of SED. (You can get it here.) Unzip it

and rename it to SED.exe.
2. Download and install Ghostscript (http://www.ghostscript.com/).
3. Place the provided PCF file watermark.pcf into the folder designated by
pro_plot_config_dir in your config.pro. If there is no special setting for this
folder, place the PCF file into the folder <loadpoint>\text\plot_config along with
the other PCF files. Edit lines 10 and 14 of the file according to the instructions on
lines 9 and 13. Save the edited file as plain text.
4. Edit the batch file watermark.bat with your favorite text editor. You’ll need to
make edits to the first 10 SET commands to customize them to your setup (editing
instructions are provided within the file). Save the edited file as plain text—with
the original name—and place it in the folder you designated when editing
watermark.pcf in Step 3.
5. Record a mapkey that selects the printer WATERMARK, or manually print using
the WATERMARK printer (Fig 3). Be sure to leave both boxes To File and To
Printer checked (Fig. 4). Make any other selections you want, and press OK. The
batch file should run, prompting you to fix any clerical errors you may have made
during editing. If there are no errors, you’ll be asked whether you’d like to print
 your file or create a PDF. Either way, you’ll get output with a watermark.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Conclusion
The advent of email has changed the way we do business, cutting costs and reducing
time-to-market. Along with these benefits comes the possibility of confusion and
misinterpretation of information. But using the watermarking system described here,
you can mail a PDF to customers for review, or to suppliers for quote, without any
possibility of misunderstanding. Meanwhile, as paper documentation travels between
offices in your own facility for design reviews and manufacturing planning, no one can
possibly fail to recognize the design phase of your product.

John Tucker is a mechanical engineer at Raytheon Vision Systems. He can

be reached by email at [email protected].

Trademark acknowledgments: Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft

Corporation in the United States and other countries. Adobe, PostScript and Reader are
either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the
United States and/or other countries.
Tips & Tricks Archive
Profiles Magazine Tips & Tricks are written by experts from the user community. We
invite you to submit your favorite tip for publication. If we accept it, you'll receive
recognition as well as some cold hard cash!

Click here for information on submitting an article for Tips & Tricks.

For more tips on Pro/ENGINEER and other design tools, check out the Design
Knowledge Base (www.designkb.com).

The following Tips & Tricks are all available online:

Issue Date Tip Title Author Description

Summer Creating a Cylindrical Dana Coombs, Although Mechanical
2005 Cam Using SYNTHES CMF Design Extension (MDX)
Mechanism Design does not include built-in
Extension functionality for
cylindrical cams, you can
use this technique to do
so with MDX.

Summer Pro/ENGINEER John Driscoll Can you determine the

2005 Professionals: Test relative costs of design
Your Expertise build options? This
simple test will help you
evaluate your expertise.

Summer Quickly Replacing Elkin Jhirad, HP When working with large

2005 Components that Indigo Division assemblies, this technique
Assemble Many Times will help simplify the task
of replacing standard
parts in multiple locations.

Summer Reflections on Pro/ Marc Mettes Helpful tips for Pro/

2005 INTRALINK Scripting INTRALINK script
developers.
Summer Dimension Weligton Use the tools in Pro/
2005 Justification Made Nascimento, ENGINEER 2001 to
Easy Caterpillar Brazil improve the appearance
Ltda. of complex drawings.
Summer Using Axis Pattern in Florin Neamtu, Explore the enhanced
2005 Wildfire 2.0 Belcan Corporation patterning capabilities of
Wildfire 2.0.
Spring 2005 Using a Family Table Wesley Ingram, How to duplicate a family
Instance to Create a Robert Bosch table object into a single
Single Part Drawing Corporation part while maintaining a
in Pro/INTRALINK relationship to the
drawing, while using Pro/
INTRALINK.

Spring 2005 Pro/ENGINEER John Randazzo, Expand your graphics

Image Output versus Blue Ridge Numerics output options by using
Copy/Paste an external image editor.

Spring 2005 Using the Thermal Johannes Tredoux, Using the similarities
Module of Pro/ ABB Trasmissione & between the governing
MECHANICA to Distribuzione equations for heat
Optimize a 3D conduction and
electrostatics, you can use
Electrostatic Problem
the Pro/MECHANICA
thermal module to solve
3D electrostatic problems.
Spring 2005 Inserting 2D Angus Milne, How to insert geometry
Geometry into Pro/ Weatherford UK from another CAD
ENGINEER systems (SDRC®,
AutoCAD®, others) into
Pro/ENGINEER.

Winter 2005 Changing the Order of Greg Kemner A config.pro option

"Save a Copy" File makes it easier to select
Types your most commonly
used file types.
Winter 2005 Another Take on Jason Baggett An alternative approach
Decals to utilizing the hidden
capability to create labels
within Pro/ENGINEER.
Winter 2005 How to Update the Ceferino Sanchez A method to automate
Drawing System partially the update of the
Parameter current date on a drawing
&todays_date Before prior to printing.
Printing

Winter 2005 Easy Axis Justification Steve Register Easily adjust all four
leaders for a centerline
simultaneously.
Fall 2004 Automating Pro/ Matt Meadows Improve your
INTRALINK with UI productivity and quality
Scripts through UI scripting.

Fall 2004 Opening Multiple John Scranton This simple tip lets you
Models open more than one
Simultaneously model at a time from a
workspace.
Fall 2004 Working with Decals John Randazzo Add realism to your
photorendered models by
applying decals in Pro/
ENGINEER.
Fall 2004 Creating a Straight Dan Moran This sophisticated tip
Instance of a Bent shows you how to create a
Tube straightened instance of a
bent tube model.
Summer Updating a Simplified Edwin Muirhead How to convert an "old-
2004 Drawing in Wildfire style" simplified drawing
(with suppressed
features) into a Wildfire-
compatible drawing
utilizing family tables.
Summer Driving a Table- Dwaraka Nadha Using table-driven
2004 Driven Pattern Reddy patterns gives you
Through Relations enormous flexibility to
create, duplicate and
place features.
Summer View a Drawing R. Swamynathan This tip saves you time
2004 Without Having a when you need to open,
Model in Session view and/or print a
drawing.
Summer Using Pro/ Asim Rashid Learn how to use Pro/
2004 ENGINEER's Analysis ENGINEER's analysis
Feature Effectively feature to help you
automate your design
process.
Spring 2004 Creating a Parametric Kenneth S. Johnson Use parameters residing
Note Block in your part file to
generate drawing notes.
Spring 2004 Using Relations to Dwaraka Nadha Pro/ENGINEER allows
Assign Different Reddy you to attach any number
Materials and Mass of materials to the part
Properties for Family database, but you can
only assign one material
Table Instances
to the part at any given
time. This technique lets
you access parameters
from one of the many
material files defined in
the generic model to drive
family table instances.
Winter 2003 Linking Model Notes Jim Wehner How to combine model
and Parameters to parameters and
Display Family Table dimensions into a single
Instance Information note that can be displayed
in parts as well as
drawing tables.
Winter 2003 Managing Natarajan K. Murali Transfering a Pro/
Workspaces in Pro/ INTRALINK® workspace
INTRALINK 3.0/3.1 created in one system to
another.
Winter 2003 Solving 2D Johannes Tredoux As the governing
Electrostatic equations for heat
Problems Using the conduction and
Thermal Module of electrostatics are the
same, see how you can
Pro/MECHANICA
use the Thermal module
of Pro/MECHANICA® to
solve basic electrostatic di-
electric problems.
Winter 2003 Relation-Driven Kenneth S. Johnson Drive an unlimited
Family Tables number of dimensions
with a set of relations and
a few parameters fields.
Fall 2003 Need to Get a Head in John Driscoll How to construct a model
a Hurry? of a human head with
surfacing.
Fall 2003 Spinning and Fixing a Keith Ebling Take advantage of Pro/E
Component's 2001's spin/pan and Fix
Placement During Component Position
Assembly functionality to make
assembly easier.
Fall 2003 Reducing the Edwin Muirhead Tips and techniques to
Workload of Pro/E ease administration of
Administration multiple Pro/E and Pro/
INTRALINK sites.
Fall 2003 Shedding a Little Jason Taylor Master the use of light for
Light on the Matter proper visualization of
your shaded models.
Summer Using Wildcards in Keith Ebling Search for Pro/E objects
2003 Pro/INTRALINK in Pro/INTRALINK that
Object Operations have specific numbers of
characters in their names
using wildcards.
Summer Four Tips on John Randazzo Shrinkwrap can used to
2003 Shrinkwrap create solids, models for
external flow analysis and
many other applications.
Summer Using Netstat to Duane Roach Get quick and easy
2003 Monitor Your statistics on your
Windows Network Windows network
Performance performance without the
overhead of a GUI.
Spring 2003 Getting Rid of Those Karen Dougherty How to resolve conflicts
Pesky Ghost Objects created by missing objects
from your workspace.
Spring 2003 How to Import Keith Ebling Import Pro/E data
Multiple Versions of managed outside of your
Pro/E Data into PDM system and retain
Intralink While the version information.
Maintaining Version
History
Spring 2003 Creating a Constant John McDougall A helpful tip for creating a
Cross-Section Twist 90&Mac251; twist
between rectangular
cross-sections. This is
important for creating
waveguides for electrical
and RF signals.
Spring 2003 Using Netstat to Duane Roach Troubleshoot network
Monitor Your Unix problems that may be
Network Performance affecting performance of
your Pro/INTRALINK
installation.
Spring 2003 How to Cut a Part at a Erik Sherwood Cut a part at a datum
Plane plane without creating a
sketch.
Winter 2002 Color That's Only Skin Marc DeBower Use color-coding to
Deep highlight specific features
of your Pro/E model.
Winter 2002 Drive Your Pro/ Edwin Muirhead Excel spreadsheets can be
ENGINEER Model used to create a more
with a Spreadsheet user-friendly interface to
drive parametric values.
Winter 2002 Increasing Sketcher Jason Mastry Use construction lines to
Productivity Using streamline your sketches
Construction Lines and eliminate
unnecessary dimensions
and patterns.
Winter 2002 Creating 3D Notes in Jason Taylor Use the power of 3D notes
Pro/ENGINEER to easily manage large
assemblies with moving
parts.
Winter 2002 Two Tips That Will Henry Sommer Two tips on computer
Make Your Day mice, and previewing
edited text.
Fall 2002 Draft Command David Low How to solve draft
Workarounds command failures using
alternative methods.
Fall 2002 Is It A Doughnut or Is Jill Marshall Use the power of family
It a Gear? tables to easily create
multiple instances of gear
geometry required for
product catalogs,
manufacturing and other
applications.
Fall 2002 Custom Text Height Rakesh Thukral A simple tip on modifying
in a 3D Environment text height for notes and
dimensions.
Fall 2002 Creating Mirrored Mike Nelson How to create an
Parts in Pro/ associative mirrored part
DESKTOP in Pro/DESKTOP.
Summer Creating Hole Davor Baros Use relation-driven
2002 Patterns Around the patterns to simplify hole
Edge of a Plate-The placement. Then, learn to
Smart Way apply BMX technology to
generate smart patterns.
Summer Placing Drawing Florin Neamtu Learn a technique to
2002 Views of a Part place drawing views of a
Simplified Rep part simplified rep to save
regeneration time.
Summer Check Out The New Erik Sherwood Two config.pro settings in
2002 Parameter/Relation Pro/ENGINEER 2001
Editor of Pro/E 2001 that give you access to
new user interfaces for
the Relations and
Parameters menus.
Summer Using Saved Views Ron Grabau Learn a fast method to
2002 save views and assign
mapkeys to speed the
process.
Spring 2002 Updating Relations Michael Gallagher How to ensure that
When the Units Are relations reflect changes
Changed in unit systems.

Spring 2002 Generating Non- Bruce W. Bodnyk Use Pro/

Circular Helixes SHEETMETAL™ to
generate linear non-
circular helixes.
Spring 2002 Creating Exploded Bobbe Singer Use configurations to
Views in Pro/ easily create exploded
DESKTOP® views for assembly
drawings.
Spring 2002 Jazz Up Your John Randazzo Use pre-supplied
Presentations the templates from Microsoft
Easy Way PowerPoint® to create
snazzy backgrounds for
Pro/ENGINEER
presentations.
Spring 2002 Design Using Thomas Braxton This enhancement to the
Inheritance Features merge geometry is a new
feature of Release 2001
Winter 2001 Customized Cascading Scott Blackman Save screen real-estate by
Drop-Down Menus in implementing customized
2000i2 cascading drop-down
menus
Winter 2001 What to Do When the Claes Albertson Use skeleton models to
First Feature is the allow creation, reordering
First Component and replacement of
components in assemblies
without initial features
such as default datum
planes.
Winter 2001 Modifying Many Aron J. Oler This Release 2001
Dimensions at Once workaround lets you use a
in Pro/ENGINEER bounding box to select
2001 and modify many
dimensions at the same
time.
Winter 2001 Adding to Your Color Steven Frey How to "borrow" existing
Palette color definitions from
other parts or assemblies.
Winter 2001 What is Pro/ Karen Dougherty Branching is a useful
INTRALINK® design tool that allows
Branching several team members to
work on the same object
at once.
Winter 2001 Using Datum Targets Normand Roy What to do with views
in a View When that don't show any
Datum is Inaccessible datums.

Winter 2001 Viewing Assemblies in Marty Holman Save time modifying

Multiple Positions dimensions and
regenerating assemblies
that have movable parts.
Winter 2001 How to Create Sanjay Kinger Create triangular patterns
Triangular Patterns that can be dynamically
modified using a
parameter.
Fall 2001 Make PTC .BAT Files Blaine Prout Tweak PTC's .bat files to
Usable in Windows improve their usability to
diagnose problems or
provide runtime
information.
Fall 2001 Open Objects by Drag Rakesh Thukral In Pro/ENGINEER 2000i
and Drop in Pro/ and 2000i2, open objects
ENGINEER by drag-and-drop

Fall 2001 Quickly Modify Dennis Sledge A shortcut to modify most

Drawing Entities dimensional entities
quickly.
Fall 2001 Speeding Up Large Bruce Bodnyk Massively reduce
Patterns regeneration times for
large patterns (thousands
of instances).
Summer Reverse Engineering Grant Cameron "How to develop a Pro/
2001 Action Man into Pro/ ENGINEER model using
ENGINEER scanned/digitzed data."

Summer Creating Reusable Anthony Stewart "User-defined Features

2001 Pipelines with UDFs (UDFs) provide an
efficient means for
creation of pipeline
assemblies in Pro/
PIPING"
Summer Recovering from Copy Thomas Braxton "Recovery techniques to
2001 Geometry Failures resolve regeneration
failures when using Copy
Geometry features."
Summer Add Bounding Mark Zaveson "Use bounding boxes to
2001 Surfaces to Your flex, shrink or grow your
Bounding Boxes model to make quick
modifications to size."
Spring 2001 Make Parameters Lorraine Dennis A simple technique to
More Accessible gain access to parameter
values when working in
2000i2.
Spring 2001 Using Spinal Bends John F. Gill How to use Pro/
for Living Hinge ENGINEER's spinal bend
Design feature to create living
hinges
Past Issues of Profiles Magazine - Available Newsletter
Archive
Online
We also have
Profiles Magazine is available in electronic format for all issues published from issue 15 access to past
to the present. issues of our
monthly newsletter.
To view each issue's table of contents, click on the links below.
2005

Issue 31 Issue 32 Issue 33 Issue 34

January
Spring 2005 Summer 2005 Fall 2005 Winter 2006
February
March
April
May
June
July

"Configuring and "PTC/USER 2005: Coming Soon! Coming Soon!

Using Better than Ever" 2004
ModelCHECK in
Wildfire 2.0" March
April
May
June
July
Issue 27 Issue 28 Issue 29 Issue 30 August
Spring 2004 Summer 2004 Fall 2004 Winter 2005 September
October
November
December

"Reverse "Tools for "More Top-Down "Creating Pro/

Engineering Pro/ Controlling Model Design" ENGINEER
ENGINEER Quality" Geometry with
Models" User-Defined
Features"
 Issue 23 Issue 24 Issue 25 Issue 26
Spring 2003 Summer 2003 Fall 2003 Winter 2003-04

"Put An End to "Jell-o® Molds "The Do's and "Work Smarter,

Endless Iterations and Cookie Don'ts of Family Not Harder"
with Behavioral Cutters: Tables and Pro/
Modeling" Shrinkwrap is Not INTRALINK®"
Just for Leftovers"

Issue 19 Issue 20 Issue 21 Issue 22

Spring 2002 Summer 2002 Fall 2002 Winter 2002

"Pro/ANATOMY: "Wildfire: WOW!" "A Vision with "Pro/

Modeling Body World in Mind" INTRALINK® and
Parts in Pro/ Family Tables"
ENGINEER®"

Issue 15 Issue 16 Issue 17 Issue 18

Spring 2001 Summer 2001 Fall 2001 Winter 2001

"Trucking Turns "L3: The Ultimate "Options: What to "Managing High-

Pro" Engineering Do With More Profile Industrial
School Odyssey" Than Two" Design with Pro/
ENGINEER"

Issues 1-14 are not available electronically; however, some printed copies are still
available for order as a back issue. Please contact Rhona Hill (rhona@profilesmagazine.
com) for information. Cost of each back issue is $10 including postage and handling.

Issue 11 Issue 12 Issue 13 Issue 14

Spring 2000 Summer 2000 Fall 2000 Winter 2000-01
"Capturing Design "Mapping Your "John Deere Reaps "Optimizing Run
Intent with Good Intentions" Top Award" Times in Pro/
Layouts" MECHANICA"

Issue 7 Issue 8 Issue 9 Issue 10

Spring 1999 Summer 1999 Fall 1999 Winter 1999-2000

"Every Bit of the "Putting Pro/ "The Road to "Assembly Maze or

Way: Automating CONVERT to the Successful Top Amazing
Design through Test" Down Assembly Assemblies?"
Manufacturing Design"
with Pro/E"

Issue 3 Issue 4 Issue 5 Issue 6

Spring 1998 Summer 1998 Fall 1998 Winter 1998-99

"Pro/ "Using Pro/ "Caterpillar Scoops "The Sky's the

ECAD: Building ENGINEER as an Top Pro/AWARD" Limit: Pro/
Bridges in Instrument for E Contributes to
Electronic Product Learning" the Mapping of the
Design" Universe"

Issue 1 Issue 2
Fall 1997 Winter 1997-98
 "Speaking the "Morphing Your
Same Language: Models: How to
Linking MCAD Make the Most of a
and ECAD with Model's Flexibility"
Pro/ENGINEER"
 Profiles Magazine Staff Additional
Information
Editor-In-Chief
Marcia Fernald For more
information or
assistance, please
contact
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Rick Snider.
Rhona Hill

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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