Wildfire 3.0... benefits for everyday users?

Wildfire 3.0 will make its much-heralded appearance this Friday (March 17, St Patrick's Day).

Here I'll highlight some of the new features I think will be most beneficial to everyday users (with links to PTC's official blurb). A real road-test will follow sometime soon...

Part Simplified Reps in Drawings
At last! - they've brought back the ability to simplify a part drawing without family tables, eg: if you want to show milling/turning details on separate views. (Read more: How-to guide from PTC Express & Profiles article on simplified views)

Horizontal text for Rads
Yeehaa - now we don't have to create a note and use &d** to show readable rads.

Sketcher
Re-orient sketches without the old dialog box and go into a sketch without orientation picked... plus use Copy+Paste - and Locked dimensions stay locked outside sketcher... and we've now got a box of common shapes to use + save for 2D sketches.

Curved Patterns
Repeat features along a sketched curve... this will be very useful. Patterns are generally improved, including preview, mirror + convert to table.

Shaded Views in Drawings
Catching up with Solidworks et al, and letting you make "nice-looking" drawings with 3D graphics... is this vital?

Assemble Components Quicker
Dashboard comes to assembly mode, banishing clunky dialog box & allowing quicker assembly. Plus, you can Ctrl-C/V copy + paste components... (and undo/redo is supported)

Component Interfaces get re-vamp
Maybe more people will discover this feature now? - and save time inserting common parts into assemblies. Replace Components is also updated.

Structural Simulation (AKA Mechanica)
There's a lot of advances in this area, introducing more Pro/E-type abilities (eg: spin center, copy+paste, exploded views) and others...

Flexible parts in Mechanism
Not quite a total solution, but allows temporary hide for springs during drag.

So, Sketcher has got the majority of the "cool" enhancements (along with a few on Rendering + 3D drawings) - and there are several ongoing tidy-up operations. It will be interesting to see what the stability is like... watch the exploder!

(Also read more on PTC's Wildfire 3.0 Resource Center )