Customer Reviews

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire for Designers Release 2.0

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Just wanted to state that the errors one of the reviewer mentioned in his review is incorrect. In this textbook, there is nothing like what he mentioned. May be the reviewer forgot to check the name of the book or the release...

B. Tupper made me recheck if I received the correct proe wildfire version 2 book from tickoo or not. Because in my book i did not find the error he has writen in his review. I think he tried to write for another book...

I am liking the tutorials in this book. Thanks to proe company also for making circular array easy in this version.

Original review, 2 November 2004

Revised 25 January 2005

Turns out my original review was referenced to the wrong edition, and with that I accept the objections which Raks and Nick raised. The problem goes back to Amazon.com, who sent me the wrong book.

That said, much of my original review still holds, though I am raising my evaluation from three to four stars.

This book has much to recommend it--especially for beginners in a classroom situation. However, it has too many errors and omissions to be fully satisfactory for unassisted use by the beginners it targets.

This is a tutorial, not a reference work. That is, going page by page from the beginning to the end, one gets reasonably complete coverage of the main features of Wildfire. However, many features and operations are omitted from discussion or covered only superficially. This would not be a problem in a classroom situation, or if there were an experienced Pro/E user close by to answer questions. But a student working on his own will often be left floundering. It helps if one has recourse to the Pro/E Help Center, though that is unnecessarily difficult to find answers from.

Given the nature of Pro/E and the editorial style of the book, it is not practical to use an edition of the book which is not specific to the particular release of Pro/E. Among other things, PTC Corp is in the process of converting the Menu Manager with its submenus to dialog boxes, so that a student may be misdirected unless matching editions are used.

This edition appears to have fewer errors than the previous one. Still, Mr. Tickoo needs to submit his manuscripts for editing, both of grammar/punctuation and of technical directions, by persons competent in English and in the programs. The language errors are aggravating but do not diminish the technical value of the book. The technical errors and omissions are more serious. The instructions are often incomplete or incorrect to the extent that the indicated operations cannot be completed based on the information given. For example, on page 4-14, Figure 4-24, the student is instructed to select the Edge. That doesn't work. The correct instruction is the corner--the "Vertex." The discussion of the Datum System, perhaps the most difficult and most critical aspect for a working knowledge of Wildfire, is skimpy at best. The examples and instructions given in the text only equip the student to stumble around looking for workable solutions.

The tutorials are for the most part explicit and complete, though sometimes excessively redundant on common features and short on instructions for new or uncommon features. The Exercises, at the end of the chapters after the Tutorials and Review Questions, often rely on operations which are not discussed until a later chapter.

Neverthless, all things considered, I would judge this book as a qualified success--excellent for classroom use or under the tutelage of an experienced user, OK for a resourceful independent beginner willing to poke around for solutions when things don't work as expected.

It should be noted that Mr. Tickoo has provided extensive material on his website supplementing this book. However, those materials work only for the Student/Tryout version of Wildfire, not for the commercial release. A person using the commercial release should obtain a tryout version (free for two months) if he wants take advantage of Mr. Tickoo's supplementary materials.

1. My credentials: User of ProE since Release 18 (1998). Degreed Mechanical Engineer with 20+ years of experience. I consider myself of intermediate ProE level, not advanced.

2. My opinions about this book:
2.1. VERY verbose book. What could be said in 1-2 lines takes a whole paragraph if not 2. Autor could have reduced the thickness and weight of his book by 1/3 to 1/2 had he been less wordy. Perhaps it is the British influence on his early education system (British books are usually very wordy). Experienced users do not need that level of handholding, it slows them down.
2.2 Poor index. Ex: No entry for "Baseline Dimensions, Equations in Sketch, Text in Sketch, etc.". Info is in the book but not in the index.
2.3. Some minor errors. Ex: Page 3-6 item 5 says that if you click on the sash at RH side of Model Tree, that will increase the graphics area (by collapsing the Tree) per Fig. 3-7. Yet Fig. 3-7 still shows the Tree.

3. No info on intemediate subjects (family tables, Simpl Rep, etc.) that are routinely encountered in industry. Author has been in industry, he knows what a real designers needs in order to earn a paycheck.

4. Number your paragraphs, it makes them easier to refer to (instead of pages) and gives structure to the Table Of Contents.

5. What could be done:
5.1. See 2.1 above.
5.2. If Prof. Tickoo can publish a "How-To book for Intermediate ProE Users" instead of a treaty on English prose, I'd buy it ASAP. Ex: "Pattern: Here how to do it (linear, radial, etc.) followed by skeleton instructions on mechanics of doing a pattern (Top Menu > Insert > Pattern > etc.). Avoid long flowery sentences.

All in all, not a bad book but one that can be editorially improved. No CAD book is perfect, hence I suggest a prospective buyer to actually surf a book at your local bookstores before buying it.

Well worth the money.Examples easy to follow.A good start to learning Pro E.As always, excellent service from Amizon.

The author has done a very good job in writing this introductory guide to Wildfire 2.0. As noted by the other reviewer, this is a great learning tool for the beginner and is quite detailed. There are very few mistakes (only the occasional figure no. & scale factor typos as well as an incomplete sentence or two). If the reader only works the tutorials and successfully solves the problems at the end of the chapter, he will at least be competent at 3-D part modeling, 2-D drawing, and generating assemblies. However, I do have a few minor quips to note. There is no information on how to recover from a mistake, which can leave the novice user quite frustrated. In addition, there is no coverage of how to repair a failed feature, which cannot be completed, or change(modify) a feature in an existing model. No example of top down modeling (i.e. drawing parts in an assembly first). No coverage of sheet metal modeling (the author may not have considered this basic, but I would). Pro-E is not intuitive. However, once the reader becomes comfortable with a few of the commands, the overall logic of how the program operates seems to make more sense. That said, some operations are very complicated, including copying a feature from one orientation to another orientation. Although it would be no simple task, this reader would like to see a listing of all of the commands and their options with descriptions, where appropriate. Perhaps a new book idea for Mr. Tickoo? Finally, for the novice, patience and experimenting are the keys to successfully learning a new computer application. Good luck!

I started learning proe wildfire when my project manager asked me to do so because I had to work on a project. With some solid modeling experience and this book in hand, I started doing it. I must say that it is because of this book that I was able to learn the software so easily and must importantly, I did not take much time. The chapters in this book are perfectly arranged. The layout of this book is the main reason I was able to learn the software. Well done author, keep up the good work.

Sham Tickoo writes from the standpoint of someone very familiar with the subject as he apparently is. The book represents a very easy-to-follow, step-by-step methodology, which is suitable even for complete beginners. The author covers the theory first and then illustrates it with appropriate tutorials. At the end of each chapter there are self-evaluation questions and exercises.
Price may look quite high, but in fact it is fine for such a type of specialized technical literature. In any case the book is worth the money.

The students "love" Sham Tickoo's books.. compaired to the other books... these books are FAR-FAR better.... especially when someone is sitting @ a station on their own outside of class time.