13-Aquamarine

Solved

Enhancement Requests for Creo - Now's the time to speak up!

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
January 21, 2013
30 replies
38558 views

Hi Everyone...

Starting tomorrow January 22 through the 24th, PTC/User is holding it's bi-annual "face to face" Technical Committee ("TC") meetings. These meetings are held twice a year- once at PTC Headquarters and again at the PTC Live World Event (or whatever we're calling it this year).

Volunteers from PTC customers and other interested individuals comprise the membership of these Technical Committees. Working closely with PTC, the Technical Committees provide product feedback, enhancement requests, and other information that helps to influence future software development. At the face-to-face meetings,Technical Committee members have direct access to PTC software developers and Product Line Managers. These are the people responsible for enhancements, upgrades, and future functionality for all PTC products including Creo/ProE, Windchill, and Creo View.

There are well over a dozen different TC's of which I'm a member of about 6 of them. Originally, I joined with the intention to share NASA's feedback, comments, and concerns with the software developers and other committee members. But having spent a tremendous amount of time interacting with users on PTC Community, I'd like to throw the door open for everyone to submit their feedback, insights, comments, concerns, and enhancement requests.

The goal is to make positive contributions and hopefully influence future enhancements to the software. This isn't intended to be another "gripe" thread. Let's please focus on bringing something positive to the discussion. These are professional meetings held at PTC Headquarters and we're invited guests.

To be blunt... I can't just go into a TC meeting and start ripping the PTC people a new one because I don't like the ribbon interface. However, I can go in there with a reasonable request supported by sound logic and a true business need and make a case for a software enhancement.

The last time I attended one of these meetings, many people just sat there quietly taking in the scenery and munching on free snacks. You could hear crickets chirping in some of the sessions. Sometimes PTC Product Line Managers were standing there asking for feedback and people just stared at them. That absolutely cannot happen! How often do you get these people in a room giving you their time and attention? This kind of opportunity cannot be squandered.

I realize we have the "Ideas" section of the PTC Community and we've been assured that those enhancement requests do make it to the developers. But this is a chance to speak directly with the software developers. If there's an enhancement you really need... or a problem you're having... or some piece of feedback you really want to make it up the chain of command, now is the time to say something!

Add to this thread and send in your feedback and requests. I'll do my best to get it in front of the developers. They might be sick of hearing from me by the end of the meetings... but I've never been afraid to speak up.

Remember to keep it positive if possible... but let's hear what you have to say!

Thanks!!

-Brian

PS: I am currently a member of the following Technical Committees so I can address topics in any of these areas:

Routed Systems - Cabling/Piping & Schematics
Core Modeling
Model Based Definition (ASME Y.14.41 Standards)
System Administration
Detailing
Creo View / Visualization
Windchill

PPS: If you're interested in joining a TC, go to the PTC/User Website, create a login, and sign up!

This thread is inactive and closed by the PTC Community Management Team. If you would like to provide a reply and re-open this thread, please notify the moderator and reference the thread. You may also use "Start a topic" button to ask a new question. Please be sure to include what version of the PTC product you are using so another community member knowledgeable about your version may be able to assist.

Routed Syst. Design

Best answer by BrianMartin

I'm posting the wrap-up notes from the Technical Committee meetings as an attachment to this thread. I'm also going to write a blog post to tie things up. I'll also respond to each person individually (in the thread) so everyone understands the disposition of their requests.

Thanks!

-Brian

PrebenReventlow_103697

1-Visitor

Hi Brian

I have a long list of enhancement requests.
Typically in the area of Sheetmetal, administration and Windchill.

I have a lot of colleagues that's been using Inventor before, and they have some pretty good ideas and experiences with Inventor.

Direct export of DXF from unfolded sheetmetal part as one of them.

I think Creo 2.0 is a huge step in the right direction, and I've been so fortunate to have some sessions with PTC, where I was able to show our problems to PTC's R&D.

Useability is a key point today as functionality is hastily coming along in other CAD programs as well.

If the user has a good experience, he/she will be happy with the programs.

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

Thanks Preben... I absolutely love this idea. I've had colleagues and users I support ask for this numerous times. Rather than having to make a drawing just to dump out a flat pattern, there should be either a way to do this in sheetmetal mode- or there should be a way to dump out a 2D line drawing of any view in model mode.

For example, let's say you've got your flat pattern and it's oriented so that the "front" view is looking down on it ("plan view"). Other users have asked for the ability to spit out a DXF/DWG (a 2D line drawing) of whatever their current view is. So you'd orient to the "front" view in this case, hit a button, and save a DXF from the view.

This would give you what you're after but it would also provide 2D line drawings of any other view, too. Several users have asked for simple 2D output from 3D but we haven't been able to give it to them.

I will carry your suggestion and my suggestion to the meetings tomorrow. I'll stop in to the Sheetmetal TC, too to make sure this makes it to their radar.

Thanks for the input!

-Brian

rohit_rajan

15-Moonstone

1. selective dual dimensioning.

2. to give different color to a feature directly-instead of selecting surfaces.

3. ablility to put number of holes with one selection of hole option. (it was there in Pro/E 2001)...now we have select hole option n number times to create n number of holes.

4. double-clcik to activate feature or sketch in addition to "edit" and "edit definiton"

5. include symmetry constrain in right click in sketcher.

6. include model properties tab in quick access toolbar by default.

7. ability to fill( hatching and solid fill) wrapped sketches.

8. chain and loop option in "use edge" in detailing.

will add more...

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

Thanks Rohit...

You've got quite a few good suggestions... and some of them are definitely out of the normal realm of what's requested by Pro/E folks. I especially like the idea of double-clicking to edit the definition of a sketch or feature. I read #4 that you want to be able to double-click to "activate" a feature... but I guess I'm not clear on what that means. You can single-click to "activate" or select a feature now... what do you envision should occur when double-clicking? I think I'd like to see a double-click turn on the dimensions of a feature. Maybe a "CTRL+Click" would automatically edit the definition? Hmm ... I'll have to kick that around. What are your thoughts just so I am clear on what you mean?

I think #5 is a good addition... but I would go one further. In Wildfire 2, symmetry would automatically turn itself on as sketched once your sketch got close to being symmetric. This is much in the way that the "T" for tangency turns itself on once you've sketched geometry such that it's nearly tangent to an arc. This USED to happen with symmetry but was removed in Wildfire 3. Rather than having to select symmetry from a right-click menu, I'd like to see it go back to the Wildfire 2 method... or at least a config option to toggle that older style symmetry selection on again.

For #3 (sorry to jump around), I actually do not remember this from Pro/E 2001. To my memory, you always had to add holes one at a time. I think we could benefit from being able to select references and then drop multiple holes based upon those references... or perhaps we could have a "repeat" button like they do in piping applications where you can quickly duplicate the last active option. Both methods would allow multiple hole creation. There are some enhancements submitted in the "Ideas" area which allude to this type of feature. I'll bring it up and see what the developers say.

Thanks for your feedback! Keep it coming!

-Brian

rohit_rajan

15-Moonstone

hi Brian...

thankyou very much for your effort to reply to our mails...

1. by double click i mean to directly go to the sketcher mode..right now we have to right click the sketch and do edit definition to go into sketcher mode.

2. in Pro/E 2001 once i select the hole option..it remains activated after i make one hole...and i can make the second hole while staying in the hole option.

3. what about selective dual dimensioning?

once again thanx for your reply.

Rohit

huggre

1-Visitor

Brian

Thanks for taking the initiative 🙂

Here are a couple of requests from me:

1. Weldment assemblies

Similar functionality as Solidworks, beeing able to define mutiple bodies within one part.

2. Effective method of creating single part views within an assembly drawing with correct balloon/note reference to item number in partslist.

3. Relation improvements.

Include typical javascript functions within relations.

Add a "Real to string" function or something similar.

Enable creating your own functions within relations.

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

Hi Hugo....

Thanks for your input! I have some questions...

On #1... I am not a Solidworks person so I don't know what you mean when you say "define multiple bodies within one part" Are you saying make ONE part model in Creo but be able to assign welds as though that single model was really comprised of multiple part models assembled together? If that's what you mean... I am a little fuzzy on how that would work. I might need to see that one to get my head around it.

For #2... I definitely see what you're asking for there. There are, of course, ways to do this already in Creo... but the method for achieving it is a bit sketchy. Well, it's not "sketchy"... it's just very laborious. I recently worked on a project with some other NASA guys and we could've used this. I think it's worth running up the flagpole but I can imagine I might have to demonstrate what this would look like in real life. I can imagine the PTC guys not really "getting it" through words alone.

And for #3... I truly wish we could just junk the entire relations thing and move to JavaScript. The relations bit of Creo (and Pro/E) has bothered me for 20+ years. It's a real mess (as is Pro/REPORT... and table relations, too... yucko). Although I can tell you we're going to get shot down on this one, I will definitely try to make the case for a "RTOS" (Real to String) like the current ITOS (Integer to String) function. Right now to do "Real to String" you have to perform multiple steps... multiplication, convert integers to a string, and then dissect and reconstruct the string with a "." added back in. What a mess!!

I'd love to be able to define my own functions within a relation... like a real object-oriented language. But even an "object-based" language like JavaScript would give us a tremendous boost in what relations can do. I'm sure the suggestion will go down in flames but someone needs to fight for an improvement to the relations/programming part of Creo. I'll give it a try!

Thanks for so many good ideas!

-Brian

huggre

1-Visitor

Brian

Again, thanks for your commitment to helping out the community.

As you may guess from my requests, im not a typical end user of Creo but more like a CAD admin in the company where I work.

Anyways, all try to clarify a little bit.

In my company we often design steel assemblies welded together from plates, bars, profiles etc.

From one point of view you may say that this is a single component, as the final result (after welding) is one physical object with one part number.

On the other hand, we want to be able to treat each plate, bar, profile etc. as individual items for making partslists, balloons etc. on the steel assembly drawing.

The way we manage this today is to create traditional Creo assemblies where each plate, bar.., is created as individual parts.

However, as each plate, bar etc. within the assembly does not have it’s own drawing/partnumber, managing these items separately within PDMLink as unique parts with numbers and revisions/iterations is just a waste of time for us.

The solution to this problem would be to define a new type of assembly in Creo (Welding assembly) where you could create individual parts within the assembly.

The difference being that the parts would be stored within the assembly file and not as separate files.

Your right, there are several ways to do this today (simplified reps., show/hide components, single surface view etc.) but they are all a mess and a lot of work.

I would just like to insert a “single part view” where I select the component from the model tree and still be able to balloon the part with reference to the assembly partslist.

Can’t imagine that it would be very difficult for PTC to create this function.

I know that changing the current relation syntax to javascript is a long shot, but imagine the power you would have at your disposal for creating intelligent designs.

(Not to be confused with the “intelligent design” debate going on in the US 🙂

Anyways, a RTOS function would be helpful as our current startpart currently contains two pages of relations just to convert real’s to strings, what a waste.

Thanks again

Hugo

James62

1-Visitor

Hello Brian,

Good to see you back on the boards. So I've got plenty but here's few:

1) Drawings

Surpress and show leading and trailing zeros of selected dimensions through RMB --> Properties menu.

2) Creo Session

Find Session folder after Creo crashes with the previous automatically saved data, and restore the last selected working directory path.

3) Drawings

Delete/hide/erase unwanted thread/quilt lines in drawing xsection without having to convert the view to draft entities.

4) Assembly drawings

While using automated bom ballooning by view, don't let Creo to put balloons onto parts that are infront of the xsec and also behind it. Simply put, show baloons only for components affected by the cross section.

5) Drawings

Enhance creation of cross section from drawing mode, there are still the old menus. Make it the same just like in modeling mode.

6) Mapkeys

When creating for example Extrude feature there's an option to switch it to surface and create a surface feature. The same option is also for Revolve, Sweep, Blend, etc. features. Make it possible so that only one mapkey is needed to switch a feature like that to Surface.

Right now if you create mapkey to switch Extrude to Surface, it doesn't work for other features, even that the button on dashboard tab is completely the same.

Same applies to Through All, To Selected, and tons of other options that are similar/same for features through the whole Creo UI.

7) Mapkeys

Add new config.pro option that will allow user to activate a mapkey using MMB or RMB, and in case user makes a typo in the mapkey this button will then erase the command line, so that new mapkey can be typed in instantly without having to delete the command line first. This is actually the number one thing Creo needs in my opinion.

~Jakub

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

Hi Jakub...

Good to hear from you... and it's good to be back. I was SOOOO swamped with work it was getting tough to breathe. Just a few weeks ago, I had an angry project manager literally screaming in my face. Finally, that guy has moved on to screaming at other people!

Anyway... back to the point... there's certainly lots to digest from your feedback. I need to ask a few more questions so I can completely understand what you're asking for.

For #2... I think we can ask for restoring the last known working directory. However, I think having your work saved when Creo crashes is probably not possible. This has been the Holy Grail of veteran Pro/E and Creo users for at least 20 years. I'd have to say if they haven't done it yet, there's probably some technical reason why. I'll ask about it and see what they say. I'll report back, too.

For #3... you haven't been able to do this already using the Edge Display features? I'm not saying you CAN already remove these unwanted lines... I'm just asking. I've probably not tried it in so long I've forgotten whether or not it's possible. There are some drawing config options that affect the display of surface lines. Can you give a concrete example, take a screenshot, or provide a small demonstration drawing so I can see what you mean?

For #6, I see what you're asking for but I'm not sure how to ask for it. It's easy to understand what you mean but I fear that in practice, this is going to be tough. It would be great if the buttons on each dashboard operated like "methods" (subroutines/procedures/etc) within an object-oriented language (like Java). Each icon/button on the dashboard would have a name. The button would simply fire off the "method" which in turn "does something" in Creo. For example, the "Surface" button would set the feature into surface mode and the "Solid" button would set it into solid mode. If this paradigm were possible, you could write mapkeys to activate those buttons in a consistent way. Maybe the nomenclature would be "CurrentFeature.solid" or "CurrentFeature.surface".

I'd love to see this... but I'm just not sure it's possible. I don't know enough about the 'guts' of Creo to understand if this is even programmatically possible. I'll see if I can corner a developer and pick his/her brain about the issue.

Thanks so much for all your feedback!

-Brian

James62

1-Visitor

Oh, I know that one too well, my boss keeps screaming at me all the time. Usually, until I keep listening, when I am not, he tries louder, and he's like the loudest person ever.

There is a story about a not so fast plane that you can first hear and then see coming over. I can't remember the name of that plane, but I'd compare that one to my boss. The plane is also really loud.

Thanks for taking these ideas into consideration. Hope they are not too overwhelming.

For #2: I can hardly imagine how long 20 years is, but as long as an autosave is there and the current session is stored into a folder predefined by a config.pro option then it will all be fine. I know some assemblies with tons of circular refs can take forever to save on older computers, but that's why this should be only added as an option. Retrieve last used working directory button would be nice as well.

For #3: You're right, Edge Display works for Erasing lines in drawing views, but not the lines affected by cross sections. See the case with quilts on picture in the attachment.

For #6: As long as #7 is there i can make as many mapkeys as can be possibly made for like every single button in Creo. I would't mind having so many if I could make typos while typing a mapkey. It's annoying being always only one shot with these so many modes in Creo. So many that it should be against law.

I've got just one more.

😎 Make feature from IDD menu Edit --> Extrapolate available inside Creo Parametric core product under Model tab. There's many occasions where I would like to work with an untrimmed surface directly instead of having to Trim the surface in U or V direction first and then extend using Extend feature. Resulting surface wouldn't require creation of additional datum plane for trimming.

Thanks again for considering these.

~Jakub

DavorGranic

16-Pearl

Hi Brian,

Evrything about whats needs to be done has been said on this forum already.So ill try to ask for something diffrent:

For the love of god make them see that Creo must come out of the box with standard parts and material library. All they need is 2 engineers they can pay with beer and it will be done. There is no excuse under the sun for not doing this.

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

Hi Davor...

I had to laugh out loud at your post. I agree... WHY in the name of all that's holy don't we have a decent material library? I'd say maybe it's some type of liability issue... but Mechanica came with a library for years! Also, the library should be dynamic instead of static. I want to be able to keep my materials in Windchill if I want and have Creo recognize them!

I'll take this to the PTC guys for sure.

Thanks again!

-Brian

JoshH

1-Visitor

Hey Brian, I second your sentiment on managing materials in Windchill. I'm not happy that I won't be there to discuss it again.

Must have material informaiton stored in Windchill and associated to Creo documents. Probably need to have a choice on whether it iterates the parts.

Question...what about finishes? Are they applied as a seperate wtpart?

Say hi to Paul for me

Dale_Rosema

23-Emerald III

Brian,

1). WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) on text boxes:

http://communities.ptc.com/message/193374#193374

http://communities.ptc.com/ideas/2059#comment-7802

2). Excel/Table/BOM's - one and the same as for functionality. Copy/Paste/Move Column-Rows.......

3). Family Tables/Excel - same thing

4). http://communities.ptc.com/message/194422#194422 – Bug noted by Antonius

5). Improved functionality on GD&T on drawings.

6). Hole tables to see holes from both side of a plate: http://communities.ptc.com/message/183117#183117

7). Hole table with different accuracy for different sets of holes: http://communities.ptc.com/message/184190#184190

These are some of the things that I went through that we in "Your stuff" "Discussions" from my login. There are probably others that I agreed with, but didn't comment on.

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

Hi Dale...

Thanks for the list and the links. I have been hammering the issue with notes for many weeks now. The WYSIWYG part of your suggestion is included in what I've been asking for. I've also asked for tabs and Microsoft Word-style numbering so that drawing notes will autonumber and automatically format themselves to be indented properly (rather than having to add spaces all the time).

For #5, could you clarify what you mean. I know, I know... there's a whole BUNCH of stuff wrong with the GD&T system... but if you have any specific instances of problems, that would definitely help. For these meetings, we need to be very specific. And, if possible, we need to have demonstration models, screen shots, videos, etc.

I'll go back through all of the links you posted and see if I can raise these issues during this week's meetings. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. Please write back and clarify #5 so I have something more concrete to discuss.

Antonius should probably jump in here, too if he's not too busy... or too frustrated with the lack of responsiveness he's been getting from tech support.

Thanks!

-Brian

Dale_Rosema

23-Emerald III

Brian,

This is what I came up with for a search using GD&T from the discussions:

GD&T Dual Dimensioning: http://communities.ptc.com/message/187521#187521

Support ASME Y14.5 2009: http://communities.ptc.com/ideas/1116

Drawing Unstable (Antonius - GD&T at the end of the thread) http://communities.ptc.com/thread/38943

Multiline composite GD&T symbols: http://communities.ptc.com/ideas/1140#comment-5496

GD&T – hard crash: http://communities.ptc.com/message/185437#185437

Hope this helps.

Thanks, Dale

David_M

1-Visitor

I'm going to highlight an important basic feature which I think needs improving, and I'm sure others will agree:

Thicken.

The Thicken command ought to be able to cope with radii that are too small to appear on the inside of the thicken feature. The same goes for shells and offsets. I think this would be a very useful enhancement.

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

Hi David...

Thanks for your input. I agree that the thicken command should be robust enough to "figure out" when a radius cannot be made and simply remove it when necessary. This would strengthen the shell command considerably. Perhaps there could be a checkbox for "Remove Zero-Radius Arcs" or something like that. I'll add this to the list!

Thanks again...

-Brian

TomD.inPDX

17-Peridot

What we need is a better connection with developers. This customer service filter is just not working. Developers need to become engaged with users so they can -begin- to understand where users are having problems. They need to see things as we see them, not as they understand them. It is the "step back" approach to knowing that the product they have developed is really translating into the product they envisioned.

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

I couldn't have said this better myself- and I have tried many times.

We do need a better connection with developers. The Technical Committees are just about the only way to do that now. This is why I've put so much energy into joining them and pushing my employer to support them.

For years I did what many other people do... I complained loudly about software deficiencies to Tech Support, my sales rep, value-added resellers, user groups, online publications and to colleagues. The sum total of all of those efforts... nothing. This is about the only thing left.

I can say that I have never met nor spoken with a real PTC developer until I started attending the TC meetings so that gives me hope that this is the right way to go.

Take care...

-Brian

JPenner

1-Visitor

A few more things to add to the list;

1. a view cube similar to Inventor that would allow the operator to pick one of the 8 faces or 8 iso views from onscreen.

2. Include the 8 possible iso views in the view menu.

3. In drawing mode, allow the placement of multiple projection views from the base view in one operation (one click one view). Allow iso views to be pulled off the the base view. (similar to inventor)

4. A appearance library already populated with colors and surfaces with real names. (ie. steel, aluminum, wood, chrome, diamond plate, etc...)

5. Define section views by drawing a sketch on the base view in the drawing.

6. On a more complicated note, when selecting a face or line, the slection should start with the closest object on the outermost object, ie. the visible face first, then the next face below that, then the line below that, etc.

These are just few items that items that sould make the process more user freindly and save time and mouse clicks.

Jon

JonathanHodgson

13-Aquamarine

6. On a more complicated note, when selecting a face or line, the slection should start with the closest object on the outermost object, ie. the visible face first, then the next face below that, then the line below that, etc.

Ooh, yes - please, please try to get a review of the picking order so that when you click in the middle of a surface, it selects the surface first and not some edge on the reverse of the model. At least in shaded and no-hidden view... maybe not in wireframe?

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

Hi Jonathan...

I like your suggestion of disallowing picks for hidden items (optionally). Unfortunately this was a suggestion that I just never managed to get in front of the developers. Sometimes it's timing... and I just couldn't get the floor at the right time to bring up the request.

I'll definitely keep your requests and take them back to the developers in June. We had a brief discussion about 'picking order' but the concensus was that it's already supposed to be picking things in order of closest to farthest away. If it's not working that way, we need to provide an example to illustrate the problem. I think if we can show that it does not woth this way, the developers would see the benefit in fixing this straight away.

Thanks for your feedback... we'll take another run at it in June!

-Brian

TomD.inPDX

17-Peridot

I have one: Allow user to enter modeling mode "through" a view on the drawing. This allows one to pick exactly the feature edges they want, and if the feature is outside the view, it automatically makes it a double arrow extension. Maybe you know what I mean from Unigraphics NX.

Another enhancement would be to allow user to add datum axes in the model for the express use in drawings. They could be considered "drawing axes" and not reflect back to the original model part or assembly. This includes planes as well, as they could be used for drafting only requirements for GD&T annotations used only in drawing mode.

This type of enhancement would take a serious load of the model and the subsequent screwing up of next level assemblies where you are suddenly overwhelmed with massive annotation data that wasn't there last time you left the model.

TomD.inPDX

17-Peridot

I would also like more robust spline control with traditional handles that we can dimension.

BrianMartin

Author

13-Aquamarine

Hi Antonius...

I didn't get to your suggestion about spline control. It kind of got swallowed up in a sea of other discussions during the part modeling sessions. I need to hold on to that suggestion and try bringing it up again in June.

However, we did discuss your suggestion to enter 3D mode to aid in edge selection. The discussion took a weird turn but I was able to remind the developers that we used to have something similar to this in drawing mode. There was a Dim Scheme button that allowed you to briefly step back ino 3D mode to work with driving dimensions. We received some very positive comments about this... although in the end I'm not sure if the discussion will lead to any new developments. This was one of those discussions where people seemed to like the idea and the developer seemed to see the logic behind it... but I'm not sure if it made the list of things to be worked on or if it was just a nice discussion topic for 5 minutes. Sometimes it's hard to tell.

We got positive feedback so I colored the request green on the spreadsheet (included in the Answer to this thread).

Thanks!

-Brian

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