Sel By Menu????

My company has recently switched from 2001 to Wildfire 2.0. What the
hell happened to the Select by Menu option? It was a fast way to
navigate your way through a part or assy.

 

It's still there. Hover your mouse pointer over an area with complicated geometry
so lots of stuff prehighlights in cyan. RMB 'Pick from list'. This is the old
Select by Menu option, just packaged a little differently. This works for sketcher
too, so you can pick between a geometry endpoint and a coincident constraint.

 

It's not 'exactly' the same. For instance, when I am assembling a
component in a very large assy and I want to assemble it by a
coordinate system, I need to have the part csys layer unblanked in
order for it to show up in the "Pick from List" menu.

For small assys (<100 parts) it isn't too bad. But try it with an assy
that has about ~5,200 parts nested down ~12 indented sub-assys. It is
a pain in the ass to always have to turn specific layers on or off, or
pick it from the layer tree. Before, the menu picks were: Sel by Menu
-> Query Sel (pick part on screen) -> Sel by Menu and voila you could
see all csys in the part being assembled.

 

Another person sent me an email saying to use the binoculars to "find"
the datums features. I wasn't aware of that trick. This should help.

Leave it to ptc to "fix" something that wasn't broke.

 

Very valuable function. If you learn to use it to advantage, you will rethink your
next statement. You may wish, for instance, in one of your bloated assemblies, to
find every instance of a particular fastener, through all the layers and levels of
the assembly, an replace it with an NAS or MS part. Simple with the Find utility.
Or while in the middle of some procedure that requires a mass selection, use the
Find utility to make your list or find your exact feature or part. This is very
powerful, just a little beyond a "trick".

That said, we could still be using R.17 (14? 10? any favorites?), good enough for
government work. But try to find a thousand people who'd go back! I know I
wouldn't. And if you're like most new users of WF or WF2, it'll take some getting
used to...... and then YOU woudn't go back. Happens every time a new rev comes out
and users have to migrate. I call it the Old Newbie Syndrome, where you have to go
from being the efficient, accomplished user to being the clumsy, inept newbie.
But, after 5-10 revs, shouldn't you be used to it by now!?! Give yourself some
time! 2-4 weeks and you'll back in the saddle. Really, it's not that bad, relax.
And it's getting easier for people who're fully into the GUI revolution of the
'90s, who've never even seen the command line driven Pro/e.

That said, the only thing I miss, in where they're headed, is the use of the MMB
for Done/Accept/OK. They're getting away from this and it's too bad ~ I loved it.
It was so natural, I looked for it in other applications, it's just such an
available, intuitive use of the middle mouse button. Now completely compromised by
the scroll wheel which pretends to be a MMB but whose Pro/e functions are
cancelled by the slightest movement of the wheel. Anyone interested in an optical,
cordless, PLAIN three button mouse?