Saturday, February 16, 2008

PLM is the Theme of Wildfire 4

The term "PLM" has been around for a number of years. I used to view it as a smoke and mirrors type of marketing campaign. I never really understood it, until recently. I used to always view the CAD market as high end (old, clunky, yet powerful) vs. mid-range (new, super cool, 90% functionality). I really didn't get the high end market. I figured alot of it had to do with legacy installations and complicated relationships at large organizations. But the more you dig into it, there is some method behind the madness. It is more than just modeling products and tracking them via a vault system for PDM. There is the interaction with ECAD data, routing & tubing but more importantly it is the "lifecycle" of the design. Not sure I can really put words around what that means, but I think I get it. Check out the New Features in WF4, it should shed light on what I am saying.

We have been partners of PTC for a very long time. We have been fortunate to see Pro/Engineer evolve substantially over the last few years. Having access to all of the CAD systems is a real treat. We are able to get our hands on the releases ahead of time and provide feedback to the developers. I have been driving WF4 for a few months now. To see a video of how to perform an Upfront CFD analysis with Wildfire 4, click here.

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