Creo model orientation capability

[kamleshjoshi]

1. Describe your environment: What is your industry? What is your role in your organization? Describe your stakeholders.
Hello I am Kamlesh Kailas Joshi from GMMSPL (one of the value added reseller of PTC)

2. What version of Creo Parametric are you currently running?
I ma currently using the Creo 8.0.3.0

3. Describe the problem you are trying to solve. Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video.

Is there any scope in the Creo where model orientation like (front back top bottom left-right) need not be created separately, it should automatically create by using the csys available in any file like step iges parasolid?

and addition to that I am seeking for the solution where I can activate the csys so that my model orientation should behave as per the activated csys. (I have seen this behavior in Cimatron software which is tooling software.

4. What is the use case for your organization?
It will help the designer to visualise the model more freely as per the csys they want

5. What business value would your suggestion represent for your organization?
after the addition of this it will reduce the time to create the new view (I know that we can create the views automatically using modelcheck. but only few designers aware about this.

[olivierlp]

Hello, 

Thank you for your idea and the information you provided.

[S_Edgenear]

Yes, we also think this is very useful.

We have to create mapkeys to have the possibility to have even the standard view orientation, which I think no other CAD package lacks this funcionality out of the box. It's annoying to sometimes have to recreate the mapkeys whenever we transition to a new version of Creo, and the old mapkeys no longer function.

And I also like the fact that we should have the option to relate the standard views to a specific user selected Coordsys. Not always do we want to have the standard view  orietation associated with the default coordsys, because sometimes a prismatic part designed in context ma be slanted in relation to the default coordinate system.

Also, it's not easy to create a standard view when we have only cyllindrical parts, since there are no two ortogonal faces to make normal views perpendicular to. And it's also diifcult and time consuming (wihtout mapkeys) to have the 4 or 8 isometric view orientations.

So, the best way to have the flexibility of having stanrdadd 6 direction ortohonal views (based on the cube faces) and additional 8 isometric views, is to allow the user to select only a coordsys to be the default view orientation source, and Creo automatically allow the user to select any of the standard view orientations.

Also, we should have a config pro option to be able to select if we counsider the Z+ as the top view, or Y+, since some people and CAD packages default to considering the Y as TOP, while others prefer to consider the Z as TOP. 

[BenLoosli]

I always set the Z+ view as being top in my start parts. 

Doesn't your start part template control these things?

[S_Edgenear]

Hi @BenLoosli ,

In out case, we do prefer to have always the Z+ view as the Top plane, and that's what we have in our start part templates.

Ben when importing parts from other CAD packages, namely, Solidworks, most of the parts we import are constructed with the Y+ as the implicit TOP view.

This manifests mostly when we stich from a Front to a Right View. If Z is TOP, we get the expected Right view. If Y is TOP, our Right view ill be (in 2D plane) rotated 90 degrees. So, the config option would be to allow an easy way to specify behaviour to seect the orientation of the LEFT and RIGHT view of the cube.

[BenLoosli]

Are you importing the models into one of your parts (created from your start template, either empty or an existing part) or opening the SolidWorks file directly in Creo?

[S_Edgenear]

Importing into one oof our parts or assemblies. We don't receive the files directly in soldiworks, we get them in STEP or XT, but if we open the files in a text editor, we can verify what the source CAD package was.

[S_Edgenear]

@BenLoosli ,

To better explain what I mean, without resorting to send several images, consider the following:

If we model a screw, we can choose as the revolving axis the X, Y, or Z.

Most cylindrical parts are either modelled with the revolve axis aligned with Z or Y, rarely the X is choosen.

The advantage of selecting the Z (as I prefer), is that if want to assemble a part aligned with a CSYS, and doing patterns of CSYS in a sketch, the axis become aligned, since in a 2D sketch we can only specify the X/Z orientation, and the Z axis is perpendicular to the sketch plane. So, I don't see an advantage to have the screw modeled aligned with the 3D Y axis, but several CAD packages incentivize the users to model that way.

So, when we try to obatain the 2D views, we choose the first or third angle projection, and consider the 6 faces of a cube around the part. 4 faces are projected side by side, as if unwrapping the 4 faces of the cube, and the two additional views, the "capped" portions, are added aftetwards. So, the 4 faces of the cube in the 2D drawing, can be thought out as a 90 degree rotation around a primary axis, and the two additional views (FRONT; RIGHT; BACK; LEFT), TOP and BOTTOM are considered as perpendicular to the primary axis. This primary axis is what I meant to be specified for the derivation of the views based on a Coordsys, either Y or Z.

In the case of a screw modeled with the primary axis aligned with Z, the Right View can be a screw with the revolve axis as a vertical line (if the view primary axis is also Z), or it can be a horizontal line, and the screw drawn sideways (if the view primary axis is Y instead of Z).

In summary, to be able to derive the view orientations around an CSYS, besides specifying the primary axis we also need to specify the projection angle (1st or 3rd, depending on the standards ISO or ANSIS, or user preference).

[kdirth]

I would suggest adding an "orientation" CSYS to attach the import to so that you can spin it to the desired orientation.

[S_Edgenear]

@kdirth 

We already use an "orientation" CSYS in our template start parts. We have a first feature which is a default CSYS, and after another CSYS that we can move or orient in relation to the first, and then the 3 datum planes with 0 offser from each of the axis of the second orientable CSYS. This works for imported parts, and also for in-context parts where we might want to have the 3 main orthogonal planes having any angle orientation in 3D space.

This need for having 2 CSYS features to have this flexibility, means that instead of having two distinct features, "default csys" and "regular csys", it would have been better to only have one kind of feature, "regular csys", that with a click option would allow it to behave as a offset from an implicitit default origin and default axis orientation. Anyway, it's too late for PTC to "delete" the "Default CSYS" feature, or the "Default datum planes" feature.