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Many of us are now using Creo.
How many Administrators are taking the time to teach your users the correct lingo?
What I have been doing is trying to educate my users on the new lingo and avoid confusion moving forward.
My users are always saying things like "I have a question on Creo" or "Can you show me how to do something on Creo"
We have to learn the new lingo of the Creo platform.
The most common mistake I hear is that my users think they are running Creo now instead of Pro/ENGINEER. You are actually running Creo Parametric and not Creo. This is when my users say "What?"
Creo is a platform and it includes serveral apps that make up the platform. Pro/E is now Creo Parametric. Mechanica is now Creo Simulate, Product View is now Creo View, etc.
I took the time to explain the difference to my users and make sure they all understand the new lingo and prevent any confusion.
If you say "I need help with a feature in Creo", you are not telling me what app you are having issues with. It's natural for users to call "Creo Parametric" just Creo because we never had a platform that our apps where built on. So most of my users assume that Pro/E is now Creo and this is not the case. It's Creo Parametric.
Creo is a platform just like Microsoft Office.
MS Office is made up of several apps that are part of that platform or suite.
Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Outlook
Access
Publisher
Creo is a platform with several apps
Creo Parametric
Creo Direct
Creo Options Modeler
Creo Sketch
Creo Layout
Creo Schematics
Creo Simulate
Creo Illustrate
and several more.
So when you say "I need help with Creo" it's the same thing as saying I need help with Microsoft Office. Does not tell me much. If you say "I need help with Creo Parametric" it's the same as saying I need help my Excel.
Am I alone in explaining this to my users?
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I completely understand. I have been using Pro/E for 18 years or so.
The first challenge is to get everyone to quit saying Pro/E. The next challenge is to get everyone to say Creo Parametric and not just Creo. 🙂
The Microsoft analogy helped some of my users understand. I use the iPhone analogy for me tech. savy users and tell them that Creo is the iPhone and Creo Parametric is the app that runs on the iPhone for 3D Design. 🙂
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Mike,
People can choose to say what they like. In an environment were many Creo apps are being used, it's just not as clear when you refer to a particular app by the name of the platform. Most of my users are now aware of this because I simply took the time to explain it and it's not a big deal. It will still take time to stop saying Pro/E but if they need to break that habit, I might as well teach them the proper name to switch too.
If you want your users to call Creo Parametric just Creo, then it's perfectly fine. It get's a little confusing when you have multiple Creo apps and a mixture of how people refer to them. To keep things consistent and simple, I simply explained it to my users and we are all saying the same things.
I was just trying to get a feel for how many Administrators have taken the time to explain the new lingo. Once you do, it's much easier for them to understand it and in turn use the correct names for the apps they are using.
Damian, I can relate to your concerns over terminology.
I've had an ordeal with an employee that started when he was hired. The question posed by the manager was something like "Do you have experience with Creo". The response was something like "...X number of years on Creo". (No, this manager did not consult me and there were no reviews of this users's capabilities".
Turns out, this user was on CoCreate before and has no experience with Pro/E, Wildfire, Creo Parametric or even Creo Direct.
I struggled for probably 6 months trying to get him to understand the difference between Creo Direct and Creo Elements Direct.
Now you throw Creo Elements / Pro 5.0 into the mix and you really get a mass of confusion.
So yes, I totally agree with you on proper terminology as well as the mention of how important it is for managers to understand it.
Joshua Houser
(have I talked to you about FIRST robotics yet?)
Pelco by Schneider Electric
Methods & Tools Sr. Engineer
I personally feel that PTC cause much of this confusion. If they would have allowed Pro/ENGINEER to retire gracefully and not change the name of Wildfire 5 mid way through it's life by calling it Creo Elements/Pro, there would be less confusion today.
Creo as a platform is easy to understand, but then Creo Direct is not a full replacement for Co/Create. So there is confusion with that particular app.
If PTC would have left the Pro/E name alone, it would be much easier today for people to use the correct naming of the apps. The only thing we would need to really explain is the difference between Co/Create and Creo Direct. Creo Direct will eventually replace Co/Create but it currently only has limited functionality in comparison.
Missed opertunity to launch a new brand correctly.
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