Basic Creo Enhancements

[eSheldon]

I keep thinking some basic features that are lacking, missing, or unfriendly to the user  will be fixed or improved with every Creo update, but that hasn't been the case. 

Where is the best place to request these Fixes or Enhancements?

Thanks,

[StephenW]

The official enhancement request (product idea) is right here in the community.

It's only avaible to those who have active maintenance.

[TomU]

This is tricky because you said "best place".  Stephen is right, creating ideas here in the PTC Community is the officially sanctioned place, but unfortunately it's far from the best place.  There are thousands of existing product ideas that have been open for years, the vast majority of them with no planned implementation or even response from PTC.

If you really want to see something change you need to find a way to convince the PTC product manager overseeing that particular area that its worth devoting their limited development resources to.  This goes way beyond creating an idea to also building use cases, gathering support from other companies, and showing comparable functionality in competitor's products.  Until recently I would have said that the best place to do this was through the PTC Technical Committees, but PTC recently killed those.

Is this the "best place"?  Probably not.  For the time being though, it's the only place. 

[StephenW]

Ouch...I considered adding an off the wall comment about it also being the place where ideas go to die but thought that might be a little harsh.

Did they really disband the TC's?

[TomU]

I'm really not trying to be harsh or critical, rather just stating how things are (or at least how I see them.)  I've been saying the same thing to all levels of management at PTC for over a year now.  The conversion from the old enhancement request system to the current PTC Community Ideas process has not succeeded in improving management communication with the broader community.  The tool itself works fine, but very few managers are actually using it to communicate with customers.

In 2011, PTC recognized that the process that was in place for handling enhancement requests should be re-evaluated for customer satisfaction. The conclusion of the investigation was that the current tool was not allowing Product Management to easily view or communicate with customers regarding their requests and that a new tool and or process should be put in place.

(Idea Submission Process)

On the other hand, the number of product managers involved in the Creo 4 sneak peek community is very encouraging.  There is a ton of dialog taking place between management and the customers on all different aspects of the software.  I can only hope that this will extend out into the broader community when the sneak peek is finished.

As far as the TC's, yes, they have been eliminated in the sense that PTC will no longer host, fund, or sponsor them.  Their replacement is "working groups".  These will be much smaller groups with a very narrow focus and pre-determined duration.  This new process is supposed to be open to the broader PTC Community, but I'm not sure when it will officially begin.

[eSheldon]

On that note, I actually saw an Enhancements request Thread from Last year: January 2015 TC Meetings: Enhancement Requests for Creo

Do we know when the next will be?

[TomU]

The most recent, and last one ever was held following LiveWorks in Boston this past June.

[StephenW]

Sometimes it's good to shake up the status quo. Hopefully this isn't just an elimination of those pesky TC meetings because they were bothersome.