HEEEELP! How to edit an .igs file on PTC Creo?

you guys are scaring me,ultimately developers will have that surface hardening effect,just like what happened to Internet Explorer,no matter how much people bitch about it ,they are so self motivated or surface hardened that they keep making release after release after release without improvement in basic functionality.

I started using Pro/E since about version 12, which was about 20 years ago. In general, every few upgrades, they add a few nuggets that are cool, while completely scrambling the UI for what is essentially no reason. Why do I think it's for no reason? Because you have to re-locate all your buttons, re-make mapkeys, learn new config options, etc., all to do what is essentially 95% the same work you did before the upgrade. A few years later, they change it again. It's quite annoying.

I think that certain people at PTC must justify their job by changing things so it seems like they are making things better. But mainly they are just making things different. All the while, thousands of hours are wasted around the world as people struggle to adapt.

Now that I am on Creo, I see absolutely no difference for what I do on a daily basis. I don't use the new features. I just spend time trying to learn where the old features have been moved. Thanks, PTC!

Oh, and while the graphics quality of everything in the world just gets better and better, Creo's graphics have stayed the same or gotten worse. I have lots of graphics issues on a PTC-supported set-up and Creo support has viewed my screen and verified it's working properly, glitches and all.

I will adapt and get back to full speed in a few months, but I feel like all the time spent adapting was a waste.

Most of the issues I've seen on this thread concern the interface. Rest assured, in the CAD world, this is universal. The marketing department runs all the CAD companies, AutoDesk, Dassault (SolidWorks), etc. They insist on a new release every year, and there MUST be 6000 changes. Usually the engineers only have a couple dozen things to address, so they fill in the rest with change just to be changing. The user interface is particularly vulnerable, as that's all the marketers see (they usually have no idea and no concern how the software operates). The end result is a user interface that must be re-learned once a year, with no regard to the agony this causes the user. The CAD companies can do this because the software is bought by purchasers who also have no idea and no concern how the software operates. As long as it looks different, the marketers can say it's "new and improved", and as long as it looks different the purchasers will believe it. Accept it -- it's the business model.

Other places to register your rants:

Ribbon Angst

http://communities.ptc.com/groups/wf5-ribbon-angst

Allow the status bar to be moved to the top of the Creo window

http://communities.ptc.com/ideas/1327

Remove the Ribbon

http://communities.ptc.com/ideas/2359

OK....

I have now been working with SolidWorks and Creo 2.0 for 9 months.

I'm absolutely up to speed on SolidWorks, which was new to me when I started.

Continuing using Creo 2.0 and PDMLink was just a bonus as I see it now.

PTC can learn something about UI from SW, but SW can learn something about robustness and features from Creo.

In my opinion they cover 2 different approaches to CAD which necessarily don't have to rule the other one out.

I love the way sketch behave in Creo, and SW is just as nasty when it comes to references as Creo.

Assemblies in Creo are much more intuitive, especially when something goes wrong!

You can constrain an assembly in SW so that NOBODY can grasp the idea on how and why things are as they are:) - I've seen examples from colleagues that gave me a lot more grey hairs than Creo ever have.

Just to make even more fun within the next ½ year or so we're all moving to Siemens NX 9.

That will give some fun!

Have a nice day!

Preben

We just jumped from WF4 to Creo 2.0. I had tested WF5 and Creo 1.0 and knew I would hate this for one simple reason, the RIBBON! I have yet to see anyone that likes it. I hated the ribbon when Microsoft started using and I still hate it. Im all for change but when the only change is just to make things looks pretty I could give a rip about pretty gui. There is some new functionality with Creo I give credit for that. But productivity is down due to menu system. We have requested new features for years to a deaf ear at PTC, what do we get? Something we did not need or want, a ribbon bar. Whew, I feel better now.

Anybody having a lot of crashing issues with Creo 2.0 M090?

Plan To Crash (PTC) Creo 2.0 happens more often than it should...

I''ve been prettty much a lurker and came across this thread. I'd like to chime in with a few of my thoughts if I may.

Been a PTC customer now for almost 25 years (user and administrator) and have seen many progressions/evolutions with their products. I've also used/administered SolidWorks since 1997.

Transitioning from Pro/E in the early days to Wildfire 1.0 was a nightmare. Icons?? An unmitigated disaster. We were constantly fighting it all the way thru WF3 and decided to evaluate SolidWorks. Needless to say, we couldn't even get thru 1/2 of the evaluation due to SW crashing and spitting on our complex assemblies (helix's). Intralink was also a far better option to manage the data then what SW was offering.

Bottom line was that although the WF interface sucked, it just worked. How much time would we save with a GUI if the system keeps crashing? No brainer.

We upgraded from Intralink to Windchill in 2009 and have to say it's been nothing but exemplary from a performance standpoint. Sure the interface is "web based" and a maybe a little clunky, but it works well and the integration/speed with Creo is lightning quick. Access across the WAN without replicators is no problem. No other CAD vendor can globally manage their data as efficiently as Windchill can and that's a fact.

Fast forward to 2012. Creo 2.0 is deployed to my user base and 95% of them are extremely happy with it. It never crashes, most of the commands can be accessed with right mouse clicks while the interface is getting more consistant. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. But it works.

Last year because of corporate acquisitions of some small companies (using SolidWorks) I was approached by senior management to perform another Solidworks evaluation. In summary:

• SW still has issues with large assemblies
• Dassault is moving away from the current Parasolid kernel with V6 which means that were will be no UPWARD file compatibility
• SW V6 (catia V6) kernel is 100% incompatible with Windchill.
• Creo 3 will accomodate SolidWorks files in their native format (game changer)

It's my personal belief that for many years, PTC spent much of their development $$ on Windchill and let Pro/E slide. This is now visibly changing as a lot of new technology will be incorporated into Creo 3. Dassault has been spending their $$ on V6 which is why SW has not had any major functionality upgrades since 2008.

Creo 5 as someone had posted earlier, may finally be the panacea that we've been waiting for.

Sorry for the length of this post. Cheers!

I'm in the process of switching to Creo 2.0, after 1 1/2 years on Pro-E 5.0 and 20 years of AutoCad. So far I think

that Creo 2.0 is going to be easier to use, more user friendly, than ProE 5.0. Maybe its my backgound with AutoCad but I'm liking the change so far. I guess after a few months I'll see if I really like Creo 2.0 or not.

Having used Pro/E 18 many moons ago it has came on massively over the years to give us WF and now has taken further leaps to bring us Creo.

I have used the right hand menu manager which newer users won't be familiar with. I found it easy to use but now when its nearly gone (it still pops up now and again for some commands) I realised I hated it and how slow it was compared to the current icon based interface. PTC couldn't keep the menu manager...it wasn't scaleable and needed to be replaced to embrace current Windows standards in user interfaces.

I have worked with a few engineers who have hated Pro/E or Creo. In my opinion there is no real basis to the hatred. I usually put it down to poor training and poor expectation management of the software. They have been duped into believing that after a week training in a classroom that it can do everything they want in half the time.

Generally out the box PTC training is a very broad - bespoke customer focused training could help but would inevitably cost extra.

Usually when I was called upon to help my less experienced Pro/E user colleagues when they hit a roadblock I could show them how to do something and it the comment was usually 'I didn't know it could do that' or 'that was easier than I thought it was going to be'. Some people have a pre-conceived notion that the software is complicated and unfriendly so that mindset inhibits users from exploring the software because they think its too big and scary.

It like learning to drive...you had the lessons to learn the basic operation and rules, get to a decent level to pass a test but you don't actually start learning properly and get competent until you go out in the road yourself and get experience!

And every day you are on the road you learn more and more until things become second nature,

That is a bit what learning Pro/E & Creo is like. How long that journey is to being competent varies massively with the user and the situation/company they work in