How to 'fly through' a model

[messenger]

I am fairly new to PTC and Creo. I learned 3D modeling with Autodesk Inventor a couple of years ago and find myself running into situations where "I know how to do it in Inventor," but I'm not sure how to convince Creo to act the same way. One such instance is with Inventor's "Perspective View." It allows the user to not only change the field of view, but also 'fly through' the model. This 'fly through' functionality is what I'm REALLY missing in Creo. I want to be able to find, and reference, internal geometry with the click of one button again (without hiding, sectioning, activating, etc.). How can I do this in Creo?

[TomD.inPDX]

If you have the learning connector, you can have it search for Fly-Through and it has some good info.

I'm not sure it will do what you want, though.

[TomD.inPDX]

I found the following here: http://www.ptc.com/WCMS/files/77175/en/WC_10_Practical_Guide_FIRST_ROBOTICS.pdf

Creo View lets you use the mouse and keyboard to easily navigate in the viewer. There are two navigation modes:

fly-through and inspection.

o

Fly-through mode allows you to interactively fly around a 3D component to view that object from different depths and angles. You can think of this like moving your head, where a slide to the left moves the head to the left, with in the object in the view moving to the right. You use the middle mouse button (Alt + right mouse button for a two-button mouse) to fly.

o

Inspection mode is like holding an object in your hand and viewing it from different angles. This mode is the default. You use the right mouse button to spin the viewed object.

[messenger]

Thanks Antonius. I've explored this before. It changes the view perspective similarly to Inventor, but I have not been able to zoom through model geometry. In Inventor, the geometry would begin breaking away as you continued zooming in. If you kept zooming in through the model you would actually be going away from it on the opposite side. My main interest here is being able to quickly and easily select internal geometry/features with confidence that I have what I need. Right now I am either just clicking near the internal feature(s) I want and toggling through features until I think I have it (guessing) or hiding components (usually many) until I have uncovered the feature(s) of interest. I hope I'm explaining clearly enough to get the gist. Thanks for the help.

[TomD.inPDX]

Yes, I know what you are refering to. Unfortunely, no one at PTC has ever used inventor, obviously, because I find Fly-Through as annoying today as I did 15 years ago.

[BrianMartin]

Hi Ryan...

I'm not clear but from Antonius' original response were you able to get the fly-thru mode working? If you simply switch into Perspective Mode, it works well enough. There's a definite trick to flying around and manipulating the view such that you can really fly into, around, and through models. While the feature is cool for people who've never seen it, many people don't use it in Creo.

I use it when I'm trying to impress someone with a trick they've never seen before... or when I need to create an animation of a fly-thru. In general, those are the only times I bother.

It seems to me you're struggling with being able to select geometry. As you work with Creo, you'll get better at selecting objects. You can always right-click an object and select Pick from List to step through all the available objects at the location of your click. The Pick from List option brings up what we veterans used to call the "Query Bin". This should help you pick the right feature, edge, surface, etc.

You can quickly step through any objects in the query bin by simply tapping your right mouse button repeatedly. This is called "right-tapping". There are also tools like the Filter drop-down selector, the Find tool, and several handy CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT options which allow you to hone in on specific pieces of geometry or features to select.

I'd investigate some of these tools further rather than trying to utilize fly-thru to select features. I think you'll get more out of your time trying to master those tools instead. If you need more help... or if I've completely misunderstood your message, please write back. Somewhere on the web Leo Greene put out a nice video on different ways to select features and geometry using the various tools... I might be able to find it if you need it.

Thanks!

-Brian

[messenger]

Hi Brian,

I'm sure I haven't figured Perspective Mode out completely. It seems much more cumbersome than Inventor. The only reason I was trying to use it was to more easily select interior geometry. I'll try exploring the other methods you mentioned. Thanks.

I'm disappointed that Creo does not seem to have a piece of 3D modeling functionality I used routinely in Inventor. It is a huge time saver. Is there a way to recommend PTC include this functionality in the next Creo update?

[TomD.inPDX]

You can submit an "Idea" in the idea area. You have to have current maintenance to submit ideas.

[messenger]

Current maintenance? What does that mean?

[TomD.inPDX]

When you buy Creo, you get a 1 year Mantenance package that entitles you to various support features. One of these feature is customer support and software updates, but there are a few others. One of which is the ability to post ideas.

For "special" customers, like large enterprise customers get to request enhancements directly, but us little people have to be satisfied with the forum tools. So if you work for a large enterprise with many PTC seats, you might have greater influence. You would have to talk to your CAD administrator to find out more.

But as a general user, with active maintenance, you can post Ideas right here in the PTC communities. Only people with active maintenance can view these.

[Van_Diemen]

Hello, this is a pretty old thread but I have a solution / work around.

Are you still interested in a live fly through option?

I have one.

[dcokin]

If you've got a solution, I for one would love to hear it.  There are so many problems with perspective mode; if if you save just the view you want, the focal length actually changes if the model bounding box changes...  huh?  (They do have the capability of locking view angles though, because a view from a manikin's perspective does lock at a particular angle regardless of model size.)

I've submitted enhancement requests related to this a couple times in the past (first time, second time), but I don't think anyone at PTC actually reads these.  I targeted those towards Creo View, as I figured it would be easier to add some of the needed functionionality there versus Creo Parametric, but if was available with either tool I'd be happy...

[Van_Diemen]

Here is the mapkey we came up with -

mapkey ff @MAPKEY_LABELfly-thru;~ Command `ProCmdViewRefit` ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdViewPerspective` ;~ Update `persp` `EyeDistSpinBox`200 ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Open `persp` `PerspTypeOMNew`;~ Close `persp` `PerspTypeOMNew`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `persp` `PerspTypeOMNew`1  `Default`;

It maps ff to Flythrough.

It brings up an eyeball in the centre of the screen.

Middle click on the eye to look around.

Middle click again to move forward. The longer you hold down, the faster you go.

Ctrl+middle click to slow down and stop.

It handles like a car with shot brakes.

Left and right mouse button corrects the view (roll or yaw).

It will take a while to master the movements.

To return to normal, click Manage Views or a Saved Orientation.

Ridiculous that we have to make our own 'Fly Through' mode for a 'high end' modeling package.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Matt Turfrey