Watching Lightning Event - Creo

[pwyndham]

So far so good.

Creo - is the new name.

Latin for Create - also means - I Think, I Create, I Believe

New focus is simple to use, very powerful and able to work in a multiCAD environment.

[pwyndham]

http://creo.ptc.com

Release date: Summer 2011. My engineers want it now.

Creo is created off the elements of Pro/E, CoCreate and ProductView.

Pro/E will be knowns as: Creo elements/pro

CoCreate is: Creo elements/direct

ProductView is: Creo elements/View

Sounds like there will be a direct upgrade path.

[DanMarotta]

Paul, I moved your discussion into the new creo community along with your Project Lightning posts. This new community will be a destination for members to discuss the strategy and vision of creo and it's suite of products.

[pwyndham]

Cool a new community.

I wish the event would have showed model creation and workflow. It kind of left us hanging.

Can we get a copy of the video?

How does WindChill ProductPoint fit into the Creo scheme of things?

[DamianCastillo]

First let me say that I was actually impressed with CREO.

I wish they would come out and clearly explain if my Maintenance will automatically move me over to CREO 1.0 without additional cost. It sure sounded like it's the case with the re-branding of Pro/ENGINEER to CORE elements/pro but they never specifically said it.

What are your thoughts?

[DamianCastillo]

I don't think my initial statement really said it, so I am saying it again.

I was REALLY Impressed with CREO. If CREO delivers what PTC says it will, I can get behind their statement that it will change CAD for the next 20 years.

It seems the Apps are like Modules. If I have a Surfacing Module, it will now be an CREO app. This means that you pay for what you need like the old model. Nothing wrong with that, but the way CREO is going to live on one unified structure is what I find so impressive.

The ability to use any CAD data

The ability to create real 2D Drawings that are not tied to the model if I choose

The ability to make quick changes with Direct Modeling and have them translate into Parametric environment is amazing.

I did not see any Kool-Aid, but I think I drank a Pitcher.

I still want to see how things work out gearing toward CREO 1.0 but I must admit that I went into the presentation with a negative mindset based on what I have seen in the last 2 to 3 years with the CAD direction PTC was taking. Now I am excited and hope CREO delivers on the promise.

[pwyndham]

I think you summarized many of my thoughts. But the biggest one I have is that I don't want to think about Creo for a year to get used to the idea. I want it now. Release Creo 1.0 tomorrow and let us use it.

It is cool that it is all based on the same kernel, so no matter what you do you have it all in the same model.

[DanMarotta]

Paul, a recording of the video will be available shortly. I will most certainly share the link with you.

-Dan

[pwyndham]

Thank you Dan

[DanMarotta]

Link to the Creo event replay - http://bit.ly/cjTnHl

[STEVEG]

But will it actually work decently? When they asked what was my greatest frustration, my answer was that it is not stable enough and that there are too many bugs. We get crashes here too often. I don't want to turn this into a "Well you should understand how hard it is to program". I know. I understand. The standard saying around here is "In each build they fix 1 bug but break 1 or 2 others".

And now they have this horrible Ribbon in WF5.

[pwyndham]

I don't think stability is limited to PTC products, I have used several different CAD tools and have stability issues with all of them. I don't think we really have any room to talk badly about stability at this point. Nobody has the opportunity to play with Creo in the real world yet. So, lets focus this discussion on what PTC has shown. Do you like the AnyRole Apps idea?

You mention the ribbon. I happen to like the ribbon. Yes, sometimes I think that the workflow they put in the ribbon is not the way I would like it. Like trying to modify a dimension in a drawing while in the view placement ribbon mode. But, I think there are a lot of benefits to the ribbon that in the end out weight the negatives. Of course that is my oppinion. It would be nice if you could customize the ribbon with the modes and functions you want.

I want to understand the workflow between apps better.

[STEVEG]

I understand what you are saying Paul. I know that all software have there problems and bugs too. But I have been frustrated with Pro/E's bugs since I started using it at rev 11. And some of the bugs stay there for many revisions.

I have used Office 2007 since December of last year and I still hate it. I will admit that we haven't switched to WF5 yet but I will not make our users go to it if I have any say. And I do. I have used it for testing purposes. I know at some point we will have to go to a newer version but we will definitely be skipping WF5. Then maybe PTC will fix it up enough so the ribbon is not as bad.

Forgive me for the somewhat tangent topics but I am very skeptical.

[gsmyth]

Stephen - you bring up a good point about bugs. You fix one thing and introduce two others etc. As someone pointed out, all CAD suffers this problem - the reason for this is because of how the CAD industry evolved where, with each release, new functionality is continually added as the CAD tool attempts to cover more and more roles in product development. In one single, massive, mega-application, you could have concept design tools, 2D drafting, 3D part modeling, assembly, manufacturing, simulation, etc. The footprint of the installation on your hard drive is huge as the code has got bigger and bigger - so bugs are inevitable. I don't think Creo can eliminate bugs, but it will certainly solve the problem where applications become smaller and more bite-size - the right app for the right role - and these smaller apps are by nature easier to control quality.

[egifford]

Paul,

Like you wrote, my biggest questions revolve around the workflow and retention of design intent (yeah, I've been using Pro/E a long time) when going between the "Pro" and "Direct" modes. If PTC can really pull this off as smoothly as they seem to have demonstrated and implied this morning, they'll have a winner. We've been looking at CoCreate and SpaceClaim as an add-on to Pro/E for certain areas in our design process and if Creo really comes through as promised, we'll have a best fit solution.

As for the ribbon interface, it took me a while to get used to it in MS Office, now I like it. Not sure how well it really applies to CAD apps, but it may all be in how well you execute it.

We couldn't actually connect to the webinar this morning, so I'm hoping the promised replay will be available soon. Some actual meaningful information (screenshots, videos of it in use, functionality maps etc) on the creo.ptc.com web page would be nice. Right now it seems to be a lot of disjointed marketing fluff that's relatively meaningless to the people who will actually use the software.

Erik

[DamianCastillo]

Between WF 2.0 and WF 3.0, my opinion of PTC is that they lost focus on CAD.

Maybe this is because they where using their resourced on CREO and we did not know it. Not sure, but I want to think this is true.

The Ribbon Interface is the way applications are going and I actually like them. What I hate about WF5.0 is that they change the Drawing to a Ribbon Interface and left the modeling in the broken Dashboard UI. Now my users get two different looking applications when switching between Drawing and Model.

Wildfire is so broken that it frustrated me to no end. PTC NEEDED something like CREO in order to keep our business. We lost faith in PTC during the Wildfire era. and I am glad to see their new direction.