Use Tabs for open models/drawings in Creo (like in ProE, IE, Firefox, Chrome, FoxIt pdf viewer, etc)?

LawrenceS · ‎Jan 09, 2013

Please vote if you want to have an option where Creo CAD objects could be easily displayed and manipulated in tabs like in web browsers, FoxIt, & WF4:

More Details:

ProE could display Tabs for all open objects, very similar to what Firefox and all web browsers do (and FoxIt pdf viewer). This way the user can see all objects open and click any one to activate. You could put tabs above (like in IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc) or to the left/right.

Although a bit rough around the edges, ProE WF4 could do this yet Creo cannot.

Reference Poll for more information:

http://communities.ptc.com/polls/1252

Related Discussion:

http://communities.ptc.com/thread/39944

(if links do not work, manually copy/paste them to address bar)

LawrenceS · ‎Jan 10, 2013

Also Note that the way ProE did the tabs, the user could still view multiple objects simultaneously in order to compare opened objects.

Creo would have to maintain this flexibility in order for the tabbed interface to be useful (Foxit and IE do not do this, but I have heard that Chrome can break tabs out of the Single interface into a separate window whenever the user needs to view multiple webpages simultaneously.

Easily viewing multiple Creo Objects simultaneously is indispensable for Creo and the tabbed interface should maintain this flexibility (as it did in ProE WF4).

dgschaefer · ‎May 10, 2013

Yes, you can simply drag a tab in Chrome out of the amin window into its own window.

I'd agree that tabebd windows should not mean a single window. Solid Works uses a single window and you cannot break parts out without opening another session. There fore there is no way to compare parts side by side on two monitors.

LawrenceS · ‎May 10, 2013

Thank you for reenforcing this with an excellent example of the good and the bad implementation.

Wow! That sure was short sighted of the makers of SolidWorks! Again, I hope PTC doesn't impliment this same limitation because it would turn a great feature into a nearly usefless one. Model comparisons are essential.

LawrenceS · ‎Aug 14, 2013

This Idea has recieved quite a few votes. I wonder why a PTC rep has not chimed in yet...? Are you looking into implementing this feature in Creo?

llie · ‎Jan 20, 2014

I am on some of the PTC TC's that meet twice a year. I have been asking for this in WF5, Creo 1 and Creo 2 at all the TC meetings and PTC Conferences meet the expert sessions.

Our users love having the tabs in WF4.

LawrenceS · ‎Jan 20, 2014

I am very glad to hear that your users like it as much as ours and that you are trying to promote it so strongly. How does PTC reply when you bring it up? Have they told you of plans to re-implement this?

I cannot tell if you voted for not for this. If not, vote and tell everyone you know who likes it to vote also (for us only a few of our 60+ users have accounts online where they could vote so each vote really represents a lot of users). Last I checked this is within the top 5 ideas for having the most positive votes so hopefully this gets to the right person(s) at PTC for them to realize that this is a very desired feature and that they should reimplement this as soon as tehy can stably do so!.

SteveFowler · ‎Jan 20, 2014

It is available in WF5 model not drawing. A little clunky as it spills my session onto my other screen if I have move than about 6 open and they go away if you pick a drawing till you go to the Window dropdown and select a model window again.

LawrenceS · ‎Jan 21, 2014

If I understand you right it did that for me when I had it displayed at the top of the ProE screen (like every other program does tabs). Although I normally like tabs here, because of that bug where the window spillsover past the normal screen width when enough drawings are open (or long drawing names) I put it on my left side and it is more predictable and more stable. That being said, some of my coworkers still like it at the top of the window and others on the right side. People really like this feature and it is discouraging for them to go to Creo because Creo Removed this feature.

Its funny (sad) that the PTC sales rep who visted us numbered the 100's of enhancements and then said didn't take away one feature. He either doesn't use the programs and believes what he is told or was lying and I don't know how he kept a straight face. I have only been testing Creo and although there are some pretty nice new features, PTC certainly removed other features...such as this one. The sooner PTC brings tabs back to Creo, the better and faster we will be and work. PTC, if you need some encouragement...You can do it! Ra Ra Ra! If you can do it no one can (or SWs will ).

LawrenceS · ‎Mar 14, 2014

ptc-408694, (name?)

You mentioned that you have requested this at the TC, has it been well recieved, shrugged off, or complexity in implementing?

We just switched to Creo from wf4 and many of our users miss this feature and adds to frustration with the software.

PaulSagar · ‎Jul 30, 2014

I would like to get some further insight into the reasoning and usecases for this capability.

In Creo today you have the dropdoen in the Quick access toolbar to easily switch between open objects. In Creo 3 we now have automatic activation as well, so you no longer need to switch and then activate you object. In addition to that the windows task bar also shows all open objects and therefore is another way to quickly switch. Therefore what would the benefits be to using tabs - bearing in mind that they would take up more screen space, making your view screen smaller

Thanks in advance

Paul Sagar

Director of Creo Product Management

LawrenceS · ‎Jul 31, 2014

Paul,

Thank you for commenting and inquiring as to how this will benefit users. I hope other user give feedback in addition to mine.

In Creo2 and in WF, using the drop down menu has always automatically activated the CAD object when it is selected. I am eager to try Creo3 and see how the auto activation works, although I am cautiously concerned how the automatic activation will work when the user is creating a feature and wants to look at another model/dwg for reference without canceling the feature.

The easiest way to answer your question, is to just look at the web browser you are using. To those who use CAD extensively, I would say working with it is comparable to working in IE (or pick your favorite browser). As you read this I would bet that you probably have at least 2 browser tabs open (if you don’t others around you certainly do). Why would you do this when you could choose to open every website in a separate window, and then just depend on the Windows taskbar to display the name? I don’t know anyone under 70 who would willingly give up the use of tabs while browsing. They are simple, compact, efficient when multitasking and cleanly displayed with minimal eye and mouse motion to view or switch to them. Also, if you have a certain number of programs open Windows starts to group them so then you cannot see the names without cycling through them (or expanding your taskbar, which takes up more monitor space). I have my task bar set up to display 2 lines to help with this, but it can still get loaded up depending on what I am working on.

Taking up screen display is always a concern and for that reason it should have the option to have it, or not, and have the option of where it should be displayed (both as PTC did in WF). Some of my coworkers liked it across the top of their screen as in a web browser, others (like myself) liked it across the left side of the screen. This depended on both the monitor type (many widescreen monitors have an excess of horizontal space, especially considering the ribbon takes up a large percent of vertical space on these monitors) but especially the user preference. I think the user should be able to choose the location in all 4 sides of the screen with a 5^th option to be either above or below the ribbon.

It is interesting to note that more and more programs are implementing this, even though Windows displays separate windows in the taskbar. Besides all web browsers and Foxit (this is currently the only reason I use it over adobe), I have noticed other software doing this including some office suites such as Kingsoft Office, and even Windows Explorer in Win8 (It may have been an add on) can do it too! All of these softwares had ‘automatic’ ‘activation’ when clicking on them, and displayed in the taskbar, YET users still find it easier and more efficient to use tabs.

Also, take note though that the way this was done in pre-WF5 is that the tabs do not prevent the user from looking at two or more objects in session side by side. I don’t think anyone would want to lose that ability. But you have already successfully done this before in ProE, and am hopefully you will carry it over into Creo.

STEVEG · ‎Feb 27, 2015

I guess Paul's silence either means they are considering adding it or that they don't believe it's a legitimate option. I think it's the latter. Although there could be a third option. He just forgot about this topic. But I doubt it.

LawrenceS · ‎Jun 16, 2015

Perhaps he is waiting for other people's inputs. Maybe I was too comprehensive in my reply to Paul Sagar and because of it other users felt there was nothing more that needed adding...Silence is a tricky thing to try to interpret because there is only ubiquitous evidence!

Paul Sagar, perhaps you could let us know if you are wanting more people to reply, or if you are looking for something else?

llie · ‎Jun 16, 2015

All,

Sadly they still missed the boat. Tabs were always well accepted by the members of the TC's. We are hoping that there will be tabs in Creo 4.

Here is the run down in Creo 3.

Quick access toolbar dropdown to change windows and be automatically activated

Same functionality in the View tab

Opening a model from the assembly tree opens and is automatically activated

Missed functionality

With one open file (part, asm, or drawing) and then opening a new file from your embedded browser workspace, window IS NOT automatically actived

- this is very annoying

hheinze · ‎Sep 02, 2016

Good Idea!

I have to bump this..

And really, 3 1/2 years later, this is still a good idea.

As a side note, and thats pretty new,

you can open now more than on creo sessions and are able to have this way more construction elements open at the same time!

https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?source=subscription&n=CS234779

PTCModerator · ‎Jun 14, 2018

LawrenceS · ‎Feb 22, 2019

@hheinze, thanks for letting us know about opening more than 1 session. Since you mentioned it we started allowing more than 1 license with some nice advantages. However, unfortunately it still doesn't allow you to have more than one WS active at any given time...but this is really a different topic.

We are on Creo4 now and although the new window switching works pretty well, I would still like to be to have visible tabs at a glance to see what is open, then switch to it with one click.

Good news is that PTC has acknowledged this idea, although I am not sure what that means as far as considering and implementing. Especially since this is still one of the top 3 ideas and has been almost since its inception 6 years ago and all it is requesting is to do something that has already been done before that they removed/broke. And the top 2 ideas are good as well, although the first seems to be inevitable if it hasn't been done already. I am not sure what to make of these idea forums. Perhaps it would be great if PTC published ideas that were conceived and requested for on this forum and that PTC have implemented due to it being an idea. I'm really looking for some kind of encouragement.

LPE_EF · ‎Feb 27, 2020

Autodesk Inventor has the ability to view with tabs or drag to other windows similar to Chrome, just FYI

mneumueller · ‎Jun 23, 2020

This is not currently planned for the next release (Creo 8.0), but we will keep it under consideration for the future.

LawrenceS · ‎Jun 23, 2020

@mneumueller , Thank you for the update and the encouragement that it is being worked on! I really appreciate your efforts in helping to implement this! 😀

It is difficult for me on the outside to understand the programming/logistical challenges of bringing back something that was already there 8+ versions and 8+ years ago (and is staple technology). I sure wish this process could go faster but am glad to see that it is at least "under construction".

LawrenceS · ‎May 24, 2021

@mneumueller,

I see that I originally said this was under construction but apparently should have said under consideration.

What is the point of these idea forums? Is it so that customers feel involved but PTC still does whatever they want? I certainly hope not as that would be a colossal waste of time for both PTC and users! I have seen good discussion on the private groups so I know this is not completely true. However, how is it that this idea has been among the top 5 ideas since its inception over 8 years ago and it hasn't been put into effect?

Is it an impossible ask? It doesn't seem so since we are just asking to give back a feature that was previously already developed and implemented on the previous ProE UI.
Is it an unreasonable task? It doesn't seem like it since this has been typical functionality in other programs for many years.
Would it not be well received or desired by the Creo users? Certainly that would not be the case since it has persisted as a top idea for >8years. The only way I see this as being poorly received is if it is poorly implemented by removing other functionality or by implementing in such a repugnant way that it is not useful or counterproductive.
Are you waiting for the decade anniversary that the idea was written? Good news! You don't have to wait another 2 years. We are already past the decade anniversary of when the feature was removed from Creo (Creo1 came out in Jan. 2011)! 😉

LawrenceS · ‎May 23, 2022

@mneumueller , @PTCModerator , @PaulSagar,

Can we have an update on this? People keep voting this idea up. It is obviously a desired feature, that desire is not going away, and it doesn't seem like it is asking for something too hard to develop as it is obviously possible since it is giving back a feature that PTC took away. Also, other programs have gone more in this direction, not less in the last 10 years. Just don't do a stupid implementation that restricts us like dgschaefer mentioned SolidWorks did in the May 2013 post above.

PTC Please just implement this and move on already to other ideas.

mneumueller · ‎May 24, 2022

PTC does have this on the list, it is being tracked as a release theme, the approach is under discussion. The current plan is to include a development project for it into one of the next releases. Once the project is started, we will update the status to "Implementation Ongoing".

LawrenceS · ‎May 24, 2022

@mneumueller, Great to hear and thanks for the positive update! 😀

Please post here or PM me if I, or anyone else, can help answer any questions. As a side note I am planning on being at the PTC conference this year so would be happy to discuss in person as well.

LawrenceS · ‎Sep 25, 2023

I discussed this with the UX team and can say they were aware of this post and it was a very positive discussion. I hope this moves into 'under construction' or "Implementation ongoing" soon and that we the users can have this back again soon. Someone from PTC ( @mneumueller ) will have to post though if it is under construction and if so what the anticipated version may be.