scenario before parametric design concept..

What was the scenario of the CAD industry before PTC brought its
revolutionary "parametric design" concept?
How were CAD softwares working then?

Also why PTC was so late in introducing the graphical menu based
command in proE?(They changed from earlier popup based menu to current
gui menu when they introduced the proe wildfire in 2001.)
regards,
Yogesh Joshi

 

Pre-parametric, CAD packages were just electronic drawing boards, with some
offering basic 3D protrusions of 2D sketches to produce rudimentary '3D'
images.

Their power lay in electronic storage and rapid editing/duplication of
features and drawings.

 

That was a fun link! We have all come a long way indeed. I find the
message monitor interesting. Lots of folks today are using two
screens to seperate graphics from input. Maybe there is something to
that afterall.

 

They did it because they had to. Everyone else has gone to the win32
style of doing things. Personally, I am not totally sold on the
benefit to the experienced user. New users clearly have a better time
of things however.

UG is currently in a similar state of transition to NX. Though the
process is a bit different than what PTC is doing. Since they have
I-deas technology and development culture to integrate and a somewhat
more advanced UI to begin work from, their development will continue
to add new functionality while getting UI issues done at the same
time. PTC is doing some of this, but clearly has bitten off a lot
doing it all in-house.

It's funny really. Existing Pro/e users have few, if any problems
with the menus. One can work surprisingly fast, if the knowledge is
there. Selling that package today has not gone over very well at all;
thus, the new UI effort. Underneath it is still Pro/e though.
Overall, it's a spit 'n shine on the same core software.

Interesting dilemma for PTC. They need new blood to keep sales going,
but are turning away a nice chunk of their existing, loyal (trapped?)
base with the changes. Given the added complexity underneath the UI,
new sales are likely to remain tough for quite some time...

They do however make a Linux port! Wouldn't mind seeing the same from
the NX camp.

 

got the information i was looking for from the following link
http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~me232/lecture_notes/feature_based.pdf

Also one more question ,
does autocad offer parametric or constraint based drafting?(I posted
the question on autocad group also.but in case someone here knows by
chance..)
regards,
Yogesh Joshi