Wildfire Questions - PTC PLMs

I asked a couple of questions about Wildfire (with implications for our 150+ users) to a few PTC PLMs (Product Line Managers - people with clout) in the exhibit hall. Here are some responses (important stuff in bold):

Q1 - Why are WF2 files incompatible with WF1, and when will PTC introduce the capability to save fully-featured models to previous versions?

WF2 is a major release & features are implemented differently from WF1. CAD files contain a database of information, & the structure seems to differ between major releases. That's why files can't be opened directly by older versions.

I cynically suggested there was maybe another reason behind this incompatibility - eg: all users are forced to upgrade to the latest version in order to use the files... unlikely I know, but not impossible. Everyone gave safe answers, saying it was due to functionality. I asked if there were any programmers to discuss technical reasons face-to-face. "There are no PTC programmers at the PTC/USER event, just sales & marketing." The programmers are all busy "working on the code".

We've taken about 6 months to get from 2001 to WF1, including training and transition period. If I had known that WF2 was incompatible with WF1 I wouldn't have bothered with WF1. I know it was naive of me to think just because both releases are called "Wildfire" that they'd be compatible. Duh!


Q2 - Why do WF2 licenses not work on Windows NT 4.0? Why is this not mentioned anywhere in publicity?

Thanks to Tech Support - they pointed me to the place where this is documented on the website:

PTC | Support | Platform Support | Future Minimum Specifications

Easy, eh? This section shows what hardware is "decertified" for future releases. Right enough, WinNT4 is not supported from WF2. So - if you plan to move, ensure your license server is ready, or at least have a standby server with Win2K available.


Q3 - Drawing View | Represent - What happened to this?

It's gone. Removed permanently. Quote: "It was buggy, and often caused problems." We used this functionality on about a third of our production drawings, (eg: showing different views with turning and milling details) and never saw any problems in 3 years of constant use. Workarounds in Wildfire: use family tables, or part simplified rep > assy simpl rep > assy drawing showing simpl reps. Currently part simpl reps are not visible in drawing mode. I was assured that PTC are working on this, and part drawing reps will be available at some point. I couldn't get a firm date, but it looks like at least WF4.0... Until then, we'll be using family tables to show turned/milled instances of a part.

Note: this just seemed to disappear without consultation or publicity. For instance, our PTC account manager didn't know about the loss of functionality until I mentioned it (a full year after Wildfire was released!).


Thanks to the PTC people for being so helpful & honest, particularly Lauren, Danae & Asa.

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