Introducing PTC Creo
Creo Elements is PTC’s recognition that several different approaches to computer-aided design (CAD) exist, and all of these have value. PTC is the eponymous parametric-pioneer Parametric Technology Corporation (ptc.com). Its new CAD system makes the tradeoffs in 2D/3D and direct/parametric design moot by incorporating all of those approaches. “Creo is going to support 2D drafting, 3D direct modeling, 3D parametric modeling, assembly-based modeling, and PLM-based modeling of assemblies,” says Mike Campbell, divisional vice president of Creo Product Development. “We’re going to support this idea that you can create data in any of these environments and move data effortlessly between them.”
What’s in Creo 1.0?
Creo Elements 1.0, debuting summer 2011, is an overhaul and merging of PTC’s CAD and visualization products. It starts with rebranding: Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5.0 becomes Creo Elements/Pro, ProductView becomes Creo Elements/View, and CoCreate becomes Creo Elements/Direct. Add to this several major changes in what was Pro/Engineer. Creo will emphasize geometry, not the history of steps to create that model. It will have a new top-level user interface (UI) consistent with the Microsoft Office ribbon.
Last, Pro/Engineer will be broken up into eight applications, all built on a patent-pending common data model (CDM). A simple 2D sketching application lets users quickly draw the form of a product. The data created here can be referenced visually in other Creo apps, but there will be no direct data exchange per se. This is in contrast to a conceptual engineering app for creating initial 2D layouts of machines, axial-symmetric designs, and complex layered designs that begin in 2D, but progress to 3D as the designs get fleshed out. The data in this app will be fully interoperable with Creo 3D apps. A visualization app includes capabilities for design reviews, mockups, interference checking, and the like. A 3D illustration app lets people create sequences and 3D callouts, such as those found in illustrated parts catalog, disassembly sequences, and servicing steps. There will be an app for designing piping and cabling layouts. Another app provides non-history-based modeling so people can work on geometry directly: create, push, pull, move, rotate, and so on. PTC’s Mechanica structural analysis program has been “Creo-ized” to run as a standalone application—a CAD system not required—or run alongside or within other Creo apps. Last, a parametric modeling app (what people knew as Pro/Engineer).
All of these “apps” are single, standalone programs. They can be installed and uninstalled independently without affecting the rest of the Creo. Each app will have a specific set of capabilities for a particular role. Apps can be extended to handle additional capabilities required by specific user roles or jobs. These will be akin to product “suites.” For example, the basic capabilities of the visualization app will be to create, view, and review (mockup and markup) 3D data. The optional extensions would include interference checking and animation capabilities.
Behind the user interface
Creo is based on four technology enablers:
• AnyRole simplifies CAD by letting users purchase only the applications they need, each with a simplified, focused UI for specific user roles.
• AnyMode lets users work in 2D, 3D direct, and 3D parametric—and switch design methods as desired.
• AnyData lets Creo apps use data from any CAD system. It incorporates Creo Elements/View to convert third-party CAD data into a high-fidelity model (i.e., not IGES or STEP models). Incidentally, companies already managing their data in Windchill (PTC’s product lifecycle management system; PLM) already have Creo-native data.
• AnyBOM supports the reuse of information for highly configurable products (a.k.a., serial number configurations). Users can create a geometric representation of a unique variance of a configurable product by selecting different components in a BOM. That representation can be worked on (such as validated, verified, and checked for interferences). AnyBOM is bidirectional; changes to the geometric representation will change the BOM.
CDM makes all this possible. CDM lets users work with the same model in different applications. It tracks what geometry information is being edited in what design environment and what app. Plus it synchronizes all the geometric data, keeping it all current. To make this work, PTC has defined a parametric representation for everything in the direct modeler—even things that today don’t exist as parametric features. Take, for example, relocating a design feature by grabbing and moving it to a new location. PTC created “flex move” features that reference geometry, direction, vector, and distance. Together these define in a parametric sense a direct modeling activity. When the model is later opened in the parametric environment, flex move and other parametric-like features tell the parametric environment the location of all the geometry, how the geometry was initially created, and how the geometry was changed. Flex move becomes part of the history in creating the design. The result is a parametric, feature-based definition of the geometry that can now be interpreted in the parametric environment. The parametizing of 2D data is invisible to the user; it’s all managed by the CDM. “When users move newly created geometry into the parametric world,” explains Campbell, “they’ll see that geometry information through a ‘parametric lens.’”
Creo will run on any standard engineering workstation or laptop. Unlike Pro/Engineer and CoCreate, which ran on Unix, Creo will only run on the Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems. Creo doesn’t need an SQL server, Oracle database, or anything like that. Last, Creo will run better from a business perspective if managed with Windchill, but PLM is not required.
