November, 2002
Another Large Turnout for SMUG
by Jim Hole
On Nov 6, 116 of west Michigan’s most savvy Pro/ENGINEER users headed to the world headquarters of Alticor in Ada, MI. As they arrived at this beautiful facility, SMUG participants were greeted with free t-shirts (courtesy of PTC) and a free lunch consisting of bagel sandwiches, cookies, and pop (courtesy of NASCO and Alticor).
Training Update
After opening comments and some quick SMUG business, Eric Boersma of NASCO gave a brief update on the west Michigan PTC training situation. PTC will no longer be providing local training and has selected NASCO to provide this service to area users. To better serve their customers with the “latest and greatest”, NASCO has partnered with WMU and will soon have their training center at a newly constructed facility on the WMU campus.
Pro/MECHANICA Tips
First up in the presentation portion of the meeting was Eric Bartkus of Access Business Group. Eric presented "Pro/MECHANICA Tips and Techniques" and demonstrated that you can quickly cut through the bulk of your model and the bulk of the menu picks to get quick and usable results with Pro/MECHANICA. Eric then went into more detail on the different loads that are possible, global sensitivity studies, and optimizations. In addition to showing how to get the results, Eric discussed how to capture them. He demonstrated the quick ways of saving images files and also how to create .avi files using a third party software called SnagIt. Pro/MECHANICA is one of the modules in Pro/E that I personally have not fooled around with - partly due to lack of education and partly due to the fear of a complicated and time consuming setup. After watching Eric’s demo and his comfort with the software, I believe my fear of the interface is all but gone. Unfortunately, my ignorance of the results still remains. :)
IPA Demo
Following Eric was Dan Dunne of RAND who demonstrated Immersive Design's IPA (Interactive Product Animator). This product was last demonstrated at the October ’99 SMUG meeting. It impressed me back then and it still impresses me now. I love the very finished results you can achieve, with what seems to be just a few steps. Though quite tempted, I have never used this software. I actually avoided the trial version that was offered at one time for fear that I would severely miss it after the trial period was up! Take a look at some of the cool things this software can do at their website.
Break Time
After Dan’s demo, SMUG participants took a break and explored the vendor booths. There was much to see in hardware, software, and services. Vendors joining us this November were NASCO, Pentagon, RAND, Landmark Systems, Product Development Technologies, and EMS.
Pro/PHOTORENDER Tips
Around 2:45, everyone settled back into their seats to view Rodger Premeau’s presentation entitled “The What, Where, and Why of Pro/PHOTORENDER”. I have always marveled at the images on the covers of the Pro/E magazines and PTC website. But, I never truly believed that those images could be created with the basic Pro/PHOTORENDER module alone. Rodger started his presentation with an impromptu survey. I, along with the vast majority of users, had used Pro/PHOTORENDER only to get washed out or blurry images unsuitable for any presentation, let alone a magazine cover.
By explaining some basic universal lighting techniques and pointing out some common pitfalls, Rodger was able to relieve most of the aggravation I’ve had with this area of the software. Some of his key tips included:
- Rather than trying to move the object relative to the room, use the front view while changing the size of the room height to “move” the floor of the room to the object.
- Turn off the ambient light.
- Create lights that are either blue (cool) or yellow (hot), but never white.
- Provide a back lighting.
Model-Centric Approach
Andy Meinert of NASCO Technologies returned to the SMUG for the day’s final presentation, “Executing the Model-Centric Approach”. With his fast, loose and informative style of presenting, Andy overviewed a project he was involved with that made use of an inventive approach that used primary surfaces of castings to speed the creation and time-to-manufacturability. It involved grouping a large number of similar parts by their key features. Surfaces of these key features were then created, transforming them into what I'd describe as quasi-skeleton models. The next step was to add additional machining data, like datum points. These “lightweight” models were then propagated through a family table to cover all the variations in the group. This approach allowed the parts to be manufactured without completely modeling the entire solid casting. This is definitely one of those “you had to see it” presentations…very hard to condense in a paragraph without pictures. -Which is why you should really attend these events, not to mention all the cool door prizes!
Door Prizes
Speaking of door prizes...as always, to end the event we gave away the goodies. And a nice bunch of goodies they were! Here’s the break down on the lucky winners.
Troy Roark won the Air Treatment System; donated by Alticor
Barry Andersen won the MP3 Player; donated by NASCO Technologies
David Mellendorf won the GPS Unit; donated by Landmark Systems
Richard Bourque won the Digital Camera; donated by Pentagon
Bill Bartloff won the GPS Unit; donated by RAND
Scott MacGirr won the Circular Saw; designed and donated by PDT
Final Words
With a free lunch, free t-shirts, free door prizes, and fun & informative presentations, I am going to declare the Nov 6 meeting of the SMUG a definite success! Hope to see you at the next one.