Still hate drawing mode in creo..........

[Patriot_1776]

Honestly, the more I use it the more I hate it. I've given it enough time, it's still pathetic and there is no learning curve. there is no excuse for this garbage. It's slower, more frustrating, time-consuming, and aggravating the more I use it.

I'm showing shaded views in a dwg, and I've created datum curves with x-hatching so I use them as markings for the views. It''s been almost impossible to select the curve to change the properties of the x-hatch so it's solid. And, surprise surprise, the ribbon is a tedious and maddening as ever. Oh, and did I mention that if you get a mapkey that works in modeling or assembly mode that it won't work in drawing mode, and vice-versa? you know, things like creating or opening a model, assembly, or drawing. you know, things you do very often. Nice! must have taken a lot of though to screw that one up, right? Gee, my mapkeys all work fine in either mode in WF4.

Honestly, as I mentioned, I cannot recommend creo over Solidworks anymore, sorry. And it pains me to say that, truly. I can recommend WF4 over S/w without hesitation, but not creo.

I thought the purpose was to expand market share, not have your veteran users turn their backs on it. Nice move.

P.S. Oh, and I stopped giving my free time to PTC to fix their software. They want my help again, they'll need to give me something for it. No more freebies.

[BrianMartin]

Hi Frank...

Correct me if I'm wrong- but aren't you actually using Creo Elements/Pro 5 (Wildfire 5)? For my money, this is "Creo" in name only. I do not love drawing mode in Wildfire 5. However, in Creo Parametric 2.0, I find drawing mode much more manageable.

To me, Creo 2.0 is "real Creo". Wildfire 5 is some sort of odd hybrid where some things work the old way and some things work the new way. It's jarring and can be frustrating... especially the ribbon implementation.

BUT it seriously gets far better in Creo 2.0 You have to set up your screen menus to take advantage of the icon toolbars. But once you've gotten these configured, you can fly just like in Wildfire 3 or 4. I still don't love the new show/erase paradigm. Seems like someone tried to save a few mouse clicks and in doing so, made the whole process confusing. (Was the old tool really so tough to understand that we needed to change it?)

Otherwise, drawings don't really bother me in Creo 2.0. Lately we've been doing work using model-based definitions for everything. This is a step beyond modeling with "design intent". It's more like modeling with design intent and "documentation intent". You're adding notes, surface symbols, weld callouts, masking, part marking, and other annotations in the model. You're also adjusting the location of those annotations, all dimensions, datum callouts, etc. in the model, too.

If you've done it right, you don't really need a drawing at all. But if you still want a drawing, you can create one so quickly it's almost an afterthought.

Maybe I should try to highlight some of the cool things about Wildfire 5 that might offset some of the problems you've had. These are things you cannot do in Wildfire 4:

• Dynamic Editing (Auto-regen while dragging)
• Lightweight Holes (Speeds up regen times)
• Far improved shrinkwrap utility
• Auto-Rounds (okay you can do some convex/concave rounds with a hidden config option in WF4 but this is still better)
• Trajectory Ribs (amazing)
• Pattern by sketched points (finally)
• Tapered holes & threads (NPT and NPTF work great)
• Component Transparency & Active Component Shading
• Sketcher diagnostic tools
• New sketched geometry types (thicken, slanted ellipse, slanted rectangle, parallelogram, etc)
• Layer States
• Combination States

If you want the best of the bunch, I think the most useful feature in Wildfire 5 is Combination States. Layer states are also a nice addition... but Combination States are my favorite. If you want an example or an explanation, just let me know.

But those are just additions to Wildfire 5. Creo 2.0 goes far beyond this. I wouldn't necessarily throw in the towel just yet. Let's be honest, the Wildfire 5 drawing package isn't great. But I think we've turned a corner with Creo 2. Have you had a chance to test drive it yet?

[Patriot_1776]

No, we're stuck where we are for now. that's why this is pissing me off so badly. This is a horrible interface. we must produce dwgs, and that's the problem. The changes to creo/pro5/whateverthehe77they'recallingitnow in the other modes don't offend me as much (ok, the simplified reps blow, but there's a setting to turn it back to the better/old way). Honestly, the "upgrades" to creo don't impress me much as I don't use any of them, or need to. I don't autoround, we don't shrinkwrap much, we haven't found a need for trajectory ribs, or tapered holes, etc., and there were diagnostic sketcher tools in WF4. Granted, some people might find some of these or all of these helpful, but I haven't found a need for any of them, and so all I see is everything else that grates on me. If they'd just given us added functionality like they did before they started mucking with the interface, that's awesome. What I have a beef with is completely screwing up the core functionality and interface. You're right, the "show/erase" interface for showing dimensions etc. completely blows. It is an absolute pain to use, and doesn't even seem to work right. some things like datums flat refuse to show up, and so I've had to create a datum symbol that we can use anywhere. Drawing mode is an absolute nightmare to use, I'd rather be using AutoCAD for that.

From what you're saying about it, I'd really like to skip this garbage and go to creo2, but unfortunately that's a corporate decision. Until then I must just keep telling the boss that creo drawing mode is so bad that that's why the drawings from everyone are taking so long. It's been a serious downturn in productivity, and I have to keep hearing about it. But, I'll push for creo2 so maybe that'll help. Gah.....

[Patriot_1776]

Finding it impossible to simply show some axiis I'm trying to dimension to in dwg mode. The totally lame-O interface refuses to show any of them. So, I gotta do what I had to do on the drafting board 30 years ago: Fudge it. Wow, what an enhancement!

[BrianMartin]

Hi Frank...

Go to the side MODEL tree, expand the feature containing the axis you need, see if you can't "Unhide" or Show the axis there. I'm sure you've already tried the "Show" tool and the drawing tree... try the model tree (bottom left), too. I've had good luck turning on axes that couldn't be turned on any other way.

Let me know if that worked for you!

Take care...

-Brian

[Patriot_1776]

Well, it seems if you show it, (I need todimension to it, then put a sketch point on top of it for dimensioning purposes), then erase it, you can never show it again! I've tried putting in new views, and can show them there, but I can't do anything with views I've already had certain datums or axiis erased in. In earlier versions, you could turn it off and on at will, and they never went away, now they disappear and you're just hosed..... I hope we can get to creo 2 sometime soon....ANYTHING but this. This has to be a bug. I'm just fudging stuff and I shouldn't have to do that with a CAD package supposedly this sophisticated, especially when I didn't use to have to.

Hope all's been well with ya Brian!

[BrianMartin]

We've seen the "erase it once and it's gone" behavior before... look for the option to Unerase in either the model tree of the drawing tree. Can you find the axes in the annotation list (drawing tree)? See if there isn't an Unerase option.

We were able to bring back those lost axes using this technique.

[Patriot_1776]

They're just.....gone. I've not found any "unerase" for them. Totally pisses me off. Like I said, in dwg mode, I haven't yet found anything that doesn't significantly slow me down. If it was even AS useful as WF4 dwg mode was, then I'd have no issues, but it's worse in every aspect I can think of. As bad as it is, this would be a great excuse to go drawingless! Maybe that's PTC's goal? Make dwg mode suck so bad you're forced to go model-only?

[ptc-129226]

This works for me at least on erased datums. In the model file goto the Annotate tab. Next highlight the datum and then right click. Pick Create Annotation Feature. A new window will open. You can click OK at this point or if you want to rename it click on the Properties tab and type in the name you want. Back in drawing mode It will dispaly in your model tree now assuming you have it turned on with the little arrow next to it. Click on the arrow to expand the tree and it will show some like AE_SET_DATUM_TAG_C. If you right click on that you can show or erase the datum.

chuck

[Johny]

I have to agree with Frank on this one, CREO, in whatever form just sucks. I hate it with a vengance. What on earth was PTC thinking of? Don't bother with CREO 2 Frank, it is just another bug fix for CREO1 and they still haven't got it right.

I have been using CREO for a couple of months now, forced into it for parity with a customer. Have had long discussions with said customer and we both agree that this will be the first and last project that we will be using CREO for, the next one we will revert back to Wildfire 4. I know it sounds crazy, but no company can afford the loss of productivity!

And good for you Frank, for championing the cause on this issue, we are with you 100% We have even cancelled our maintenance with PTC until they come up with something useable. Perhaps if more people did that then PTC would finally wake up and take notice!

[rohit_rajan]

Hi,

i had attended the PTC Live Tech forum in India, and i think CREO 3.0 would be very powerful. Brian Thompson was there....and he showed some slides of what we could see in CREO 3.0. from what he showed i think we are going to get a very very improved CREO.

I agree i still like to work on Pro|Engineer 4.0, but CREO is not that bad...they are working on it. I bieleve it would improve a lot in its next release.

[Patriot_1776]

Thanks John, I wish they were truly listening......

[Leila]

I feel the same.

what ever i spend time on creo drawing, and its weak graphic and technic  as more I hate it. IT might be a weakness of a software that after 2 weeks still i cant draw something. why defult drawing must be in configuration.

why i must go and config in order to show tolerance :|. it is because may they havnot a good exemple toturial in youtube. 

yeah i am sad to have to do with creo drawing.