Teams of engineers race to build the tallest, stable structure using Tinkertoy® components at the 2003 PTC/USER World Event.

While every conference is a unique and special experience, the 2003 roster of speakers was exceptional by any standard.

An American Hero

At the opening general session, conference-goers welcomed Rear Admiral T.K. Mattingly (Ret.) with a standing ovation. A real-life hero, T.K. (as he prefers to be called) talked about the importance of teamwork and leadership in bringing the Apollo 13 crew safely home, wringing triumph from what could just as well have been tragedy. T.K. pointed out that success was due in large part to the personal commitments of each and every one of the thousands of engineers, technicians, managers and contractors involved. As one technician summed it up, this commitment was simply “It won’t fail because of me.”

PTC Corporate Update

Jim Heppelmann, Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President of Software Solutions for PTC, delivered an important update on the vision and direction of the company’s product offerings. Although he didn’t spend much time talking about the technical aspects of the Wildfire release, Jim mentioned that the quality of Wildfire was perhaps the best of any release in the last five years. Furthermore, users were more directly involved in developing Wildfire more than any previous version of Pro/ENGINEER.

Jim also discussed PTC’s “Product Development System” (PDS) and its importance for users and their companies. PTC has a great foundation to perform design and data management functions relative to competing solutions, which often require the use of multiple, independently developed packages to provide required functionality. With the advent of PDS, PTC will eliminate another obstacle that has troubled users by ensuring compatibility between Pro/ENGINEER, Pro/INTRALINK, and other PTC components each time a new version is released.

More details about Jim’s presentation appear in Peter Nurkse’s daily conference newsletters, available at www.ptcuser.org/2003/reports.html. If you’ve never checked out Peter’s reports, they offer a wealth of information about many of the conference presentations. They’re definitely worth a look.

Other Highlights

• PTC/USER members were treated to a free, two-hour seminar featuring hands-on training on Wildfire. A special lab was created to allow participants to work directly with the software, guided by PTC staff.

John Dean, Chief Information Officer for Steelcase, spoke in the Tuesday general session about how his company uses PTC software to achieve competitive advantage in the furniture and architectural products marketplace.

• Author Scott Sullivan recounted his
  10-year project to recapture the lost details of the Apollo spacecraft, and model them in Pro/ENGINEER. He ultimately modeled several thousand parts in a spectacular recreation of the Apollo Command and Service Modules, detailed in his book Virtual Apollo.

• PTC/USER Technical Committees met prior to the conference to review progress. The committees are groups of users who work closely with PTC product managers to prioritize enhancements and help shape the future of each software module. (See Evan Caille’s article for more information.)

2003 PTC Awards Top honors in the 2003 PTC Awards competition, announced at the closing ceremonies, went to a step-climbing electric wheelchair. Students from the Valencia Polytechnic University in Spain submitted this remarkable design, which also won the Education category. You can see all seven category winners at the PTC web site.

PTC Presentations

PTC offered 17 Product Update Briefings (PUBs) this year, covering virtually all of the major product areas managed by the PTC/USER Technical Committees. PUB sessions provide technical details on the latest enhancements to the various software modules, as well as insights into the long-range direction of the products. Here are just a few of the highlights:

• In Core Modeling, PTC’s Netesh Gohil discussed some of the basic features of Wildfire, including modeling using the new dashboard.

• System Administration reviewed Wildfire functionality and included a discussion of hardware requirements and installation tips. Pro/ENGINEER is available for Linux, but is still in an evaluation phase. PTC has not yet determined if it will continue support or extend the porting to other PTC modules.

• In the Data Exchange and Archiving session, Asa Trainer reviewed tools and methods of exchanging product data. It was noted that in an independent assessment of nine CAD programs, Pro/ENGINEER scored the highest in accuracy for both import and export of geometry. Wildfire 2.0, due for release in October 2003, will support STEP AP214, and Wildfire 3.0 will include GD&T support in STEP.

• In the Visualization briefing, there was a good discussion of the long-term plans for ProductView and a preview of the upcoming product, ProductView “Lite”.

PTC also presented 13 Best Practice Seminars, detailing real-world techniques and processes to help users maximize their productivity. Topics ranged from “Getting Productive with Wildfire” to “Influence Product Quality with Simulation.” These sessions offer valuable advice that you can’t get anywhere else. For example, in “The Best Path to Pro/INTRALINK 3.3,” one suggestion for Pro/INTRALINK users is to upgrade to version 3.3 before migrating to Wildfire.

Expert Presentations

In 2003, PTC/USER offered 33 expert user presentations—more than at any conference in our history. Perhaps the biggest challenge for attendees was deciding which presentation to go to. At the conclusion of the conference, attendees voted for their favorite sessions within the two major learning tracks and then for best overall. This year’s Best Presentation Awards went to:

• Administration & Information Technology Track
  David Graham, Pro/E Solutions
  “The Dos and Don'ts of Family Tables and Pro/INTRALINK” (see the lead story in this issue of Pro/files)

• Design & Manufacturing Track
  Michael Sandford, Technical Documentation Consultants of Arizona
  “Communicating Design Intent: Practical Application of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing”

• Best Overall Presentation
  Ron Grabau, HP
  “Work Smarter, Not Harder”

Presentations that were updated or changed since press time are available for download at www.ptcuser.org/2003/downloads.html.

Exhibits

The Exhibit Hall is a perennial favorite of conference attendees because they can meet directly with sales and technical personnel from key PTC partners. PTC’s exhibit area was redesigned to create a more open feel and make it easier for attendees to visit demonstrations, yet retain the traditional proportion of PTC exhibit space (about one-third of the hall) to Industry Partner space (two-thirds of the hall). Several new partners were among the 54 exhibitors this year, including Adobe Systems, CD Adapco, Thomas Industrial Network and WebEx.

What Attendees Say

Attendees were very positive in their ratings of the 2003 PTC/USER World Event. Hotel food, guest rooms, and service all scored very high, ranging from 3.8 to 4.2 on a 5.0 point scale. Keynote speaker T.K. Mattingly tied for the highest score in conference history with 4.6, matching NASA’s Jennifer Harris in 1998.

Recent efforts by the Board of Directors and conference team to increase the quality and quantity of expert user presentations appear to be yielding results. Ratings for these sessions have increased from 3.4 to 3.8, which is a remarkable change over just two years. Although we have improved the process of soliciting and selecting presentations, we want to get more attendee feedback on individual sessions, so that we can get a more accurate assessment of which topics and speakers are favored by conference-goers.

Attendees cite many reasons for coming to the PTC/USER World Event. More than three-quarters (78%) want to learn tips and techniques they can use on the job, and almost as many (74%) are looking for information on the new release of Pro/ENGINEER. Two-thirds (66%) come to hear about industry trends and new technology, and another 63% attend to network with their peers in the user community.

For those of you who have never been to a PTC/USER World Event, consider these statistics. An incredible 97% feel the conference is a good investment of time, and over 80% plan to attend one of next year’s world events in the USA, Europe or Asia. Of those who don’t plan to return, nearly four in ten say that a different person from their company will attend, while a quarter indicate budget constraints may not allow them to travel.

If your company is heading into budget season and you want to be on hand for next year’s event, now is the time to talk with your manager about allocating funds for 2004. Many people have successfully used our "Letter to My Boss" (www.ptcuser.org/2004/boss.html) to help justify funding to attend.

Nashville Bound

Get set for another great PTC/USER World Event in 2004 as we head for Nashville, Tennessee and the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Conference Center. This amazing property, boasting acres of gardens within its huge atriums, is a perfect setting for our next conference, to be held on June 13-16. Once again, these dates do NOT interfere with Father’s Day! Please visit www.ptcuser.org/2004 for more information.

We hope to see you there!

Special thanks to Israel Pabon and David MacNeil of Raytheon and Peter Nurkse of Sun Microsystems for their contributions to this article.