Action-stations @ PTC HQ

PTC has been in the CAD blogs this week (eg: PTC India + Press Day from CAD Insider and PTC SMB from WorldCAD) - so I thought I'd chime in: I've also been in Boston @ PTC HQ this week, but for quite a different reason from Ralph, Roopinder and his media buddies... I've been getting my first taste of the PTC/USER Technical committees.

These committee meetings are a wonderfully eye-opening experience for anyone who's using the software. If you use CAD software, you'll have your own wishlists and questions, and this is the best place to bring those lists: right into the HQ of the product-makers, with influential people ready & listening. However, the committees and meetings are all covered by non-disclosure agreements, which I'm not about to break. So, if you want to influence the direction of Pro/E and Windchill software, get yourself involved - see the PTC/USER website for starters...

Even though I can't mention any details of what I saw or heard this week, there's plenty to take back to my company which will help us save muchos muchos time + effort. PDMLink ranks highly in discussions, as do the (in)compatibility issues between Pro/E and Pro/Intralink / PDMLink. No doubt I'll talk about new features on this blog as soon as they get general release.

Taking advantage of my Boston visit, I arranged to meet face-to-face with folks inside PTC (behind the security doors!) about the Pro/E <> Mathcad integration already mentioned on this blog (eg: Working Wildfire 3 with Mathcad, Mathcad capabilities, PTC buys Mathsoft) - in fact, these meetings were originally triggered via PTC employees reading this blog, so there you go: it's given me some more great payback :-) Turns out, we seem to be at the cutting edge of Pro/E with Mathcad, and I got a chance to show-off our current prototypes. We had a good laugh at one stage as I tunnelled out through PTC's firewall to access Pro/E and Mathcad licenses on my server back in the UK...

Overall they (PTC) seem keen to listen, and hopefully suggestions will be taken on-board. Watch this space...