Creo Parametric Ideas

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo Parametric 7.0.11.0 2. What is the problem? The popup mini toolbar often gets in the way.  The mini toolbar does not time out and disappear on its own.  It only disappears if the mouse is moved halfway across the screen or a different selection is made.  It also will sometimes remain as you perform an operation such as dragging the end of a witness line. See attached video of today's frustration.  The mini toolbar covers the end of the witness line that I need to adjust. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. No work around other than a lot of mouse movement. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. I would like to see the mini toolbar time out and disappear after a short time (a config setting to adjust the length of time would be great).  It should also disappear when an operation is performed on the selected object. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) The current mini toolbar behavior causes a lot of extra mouse movement, extra clicks and frustration. ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo 7.0.x.0 untill Creo 10.0.x.0, and Creo+ 2. What is the problem? If you enter something in the Search-box in the File Open dialog and then change the selected File Type (eg. Creo Files to STEP) , the displayed (filtered) result list is reset according to the chosen File Type but you have to re-enter the information for which you were looking for in the Search-box. A (simplified) demonstration of this issue can be seen in the video below: I am looking for parts that only have the word "part" in. If I enter the information in the File Name box and change the Type, the entered keyword is erased. When I search for 'part' using the Search-box and then change the Type, all files that belong to the selected File Type are shown but the list isn't filtered anymore based on the information entered in the Search-box - even though the entered keyword is still shown in the Search-box afterwards 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. N/A 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. Most companies use long filenames, so if an engineer is looking for a specific assembly/part by entering a keyword in the search box then he/she could change the file type to narrow down the results which will make retrieving a specific item much faster,  5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) Increased productivity ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo 7.0.8.0 2. What is the problem? Annotation text is only useable in the view it was added in, therefore when viewing the model from any other orientation, the annotation is unreadable: Correctly placed annotation- readable Back view- unreadable   It should be able to keep the annotation text fixed in terms of orientation to the screen. Our inspection software can. This is especially useful for Datums which might be used on multiple combined states- we're the viewing orientation might not be the same.   Even better would be able to set what orientation you want per combined state- this would help with exporting of QIF/Step AP242. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. No, If the orientation of the annotation is changed in one combined state- it affects it in the other 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. Ease of use of MBD 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) It's just annoying such a complex CAD tool, has such limited functionality  ... View more

CS74368 Would it be possible to implement a configuration option that makes it possible to name detail views from Z to A? Like default_detail_view_name_style letter "reverse"? ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo 7.0.10., soon 9.0.7. 2. What is the problem? Some of our drawings consist of 50-80 views on up to 7-8 sheets. They cover assembiles with a high amount of layers in their components. Different drw views require different layer visibility settings. As a result of this complexity layer handling becomes very difficult and time consuming. It would be great to get a small overhaul of layer management, dedicated to selected drawing views. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. At the moment, we have to set layer visibility for each view manually. In some cases, we can copy them from another view. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. A soloution like pictured in the attachment would enable us to work much faster and also improve an overview of visibilities in each view. Our approach is a matrix styled table beneath the layer list. So, any layer could be set blanked or shown by a single click for each view on the current sheet. by changing the background color for each layer/view, its visibility would be noticable in layer tree as well. The picture should be comprehensive, but in case of any doubts or questions, please don´t  hesitate to ask. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) Time consuming actions in addition to time loss by updating the views are a big problem for all users. We are approx. 500 design engineers plus partner companies / suppliers working with us. ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo Parametric 9.0.6.0 2. What is the problem? When editing hatching in a drawing, for areas (like an ECAD Keep-Out), it uses the old menu manager system and not the newer ribbon in Creo 9 method that is used for section hatches. This is confusing our users who are expecting a consistent process for managing hatches. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. No 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. The hatching mechanism and process would be consistent for all use-cases within Creo 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) This is causing slow down, confusion and some users are not even attempting to edit the hatching for areas as it is difficult.  All of our products have PCBs, which use ECAD features. Now our users need to juggle these inconsistent processes. When the new functionality was rolled out in Creo 9, it should have been done to all hatching workflows.  Users ~100 Hours ~Hard to quantify as this also impacts the overall impression of the tool and this feeds fuel to the users who don't have a lot of nice things to say about Creo. ... View more

  Very confusing interface. Needs lot of learning and practice to use. Improvement needed is : It should be as simple as Excel or equivalent. 1. What product and version are you running? I use Creo 9 and Creo 10 both. Have used all ProE and Creo versions starting from ProE WF-3 2. What is the problem? Creating and editing BOM Table takes lot of time. Being an old Pro user, we can manage it. But new Users does not like the old school method of adding and editing tables in Creo.   New Users are more familiar with the new intuitive UI based and dropdown based editing rather than selecting options through Menu manager. They always compare it with Solidworks BOM table. Even Autocad now has improved the table creation.   In Creo it is still the same older method and no improvement after this many years.   BOM is something where engineers spend most of their time and it should be easy and fast, mostly for new beginners. Because Pro-users are not  immortal 😁. They will be replaced with new users and they will require GenZ approach of managing all things. So improve and enhance what is important.   3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. We are managing and training new people to accept it and forcing them to become use to. Because, i don't think PTC product development team is interested to improve it. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation.   As i said in my problem statement, this improvement is required since long and no action is taken till now. I am also surprised that no idea is still submitted in community. This will be really helpful for new users to accept the product. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.)   Being a PTC Partner, we are getting lot of support calls on this from our customers. They are always complaining about the product improvements. This affects mostly to the new Creo Users, as they have the reference of other tools where it is done easily. Many small customers are creating BOM from standard table formats available in CREO and using it to just export BOM to CSV and then editing BOM in Excel file. They are not able to use it extensively with all functions because of tedious workflow.   With all such small improvements, which are not addressed, PTC Creo is loosing its edge against competition. ... View more

1. What product and version are you running? We are currently working with Creo Parametric 7.0.11.0 and Windchill 12.0.2.11. 2. What is the problem? In addition to our own requirements, this idea also results from the PTC article CS289412.   If you have already registered a Windchill server in Creo Parametric and logged in there, there is no way to adopt this login credentials in a Toolkit app and access Windchill data using the REST API. The workaround described below must be used for each additional Toolkit app. After a password change, which must be done every few months by all users in our company, this means that the new login credentials must be entered several times after the Creo start. This is very inconvenient and cumbersome for the users and does not meet with their understanding.   In addition, extreme care must be taken when programming a login data query and saving the login credentials to ensure that no mistakes are made in terms of security.   It would therefore be a great advantage if you could easily adopt the Windchill login credentials of an already authenticated Creo session into your Toolkit app and use them for Windchill access via the REST API. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. The current workaround is that the Toolkit app requests the login credentials at startup. This data is then stored in encrypted form on the computer in a file or SQLite database. The next time Creo is restarted, the login credentials can then be read and decrypted again. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. For example, just as there is a ProServerActiveGet() function to get the alias of the currently active server, a ProServerActiveCredentialsGet() function could be provided to return the username and password of the currently active Windchill session. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) I support about 300 Creo Parametric users that work with Windchill. The loss of productivity is less of a problem here: every few months, after the password change required by IT security, users spend 5 minutes entering the new password when starting Creo. On the one hand, this is more about the acceptance problem among users, who wonder why the hell they have to enter the same password several times in succession. On the other hand, life could be made much easier for the Toolkit developers if they no longer have to worry about getting and saving the Windchill login credentials. ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo Parametric 8.0.8.0 2. What is the problem? Reference:  Case: 15985425 SPR: 13172667  Article: 351209   When we convert a model from one unit to another, any regular "Real Number with units" parameter gets updated properly. Both the unit and the value changes. However, the mass properties units only get updated, the number stays the same as the old unit. For instance, if the value for PRO_MP_VOLUME is 1in^3 and then the model gets converted to metric, the parameter will now show 1mm^3. The value should be updated WITH the unit automatically, like a regular parameter. Having mismatched data like this, can cause serious issues downstream. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. We need to regenerate the model after the update, before we get the correct values. However, until a manual regeneration is done, there is a significant error in the parameters. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. We use mass properties and there is a risk that the incorrect data could be sent to Windchill due to this issue. The idea is simple. When the model unit is converted, the mass properties value should be updated with the unit. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) Incorrect data in Windchill can cause countless downstream errors, including supply chain, legal, purchasing, etc. Hundreds of users, and hours could be affected. In addition, there could be contractual issues where we assume a certain amount of material is being procured, but the truth is very different. ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo Parametric 8.0.8.0 2. What is the problem? Reference:  Case - 16406179 SPR - 13945104 Article - 373237   If we are working in design exploration, and update objects in our workspace that are in the current checkpoint, a new checkpoint is created which flags those items as modified. If you are not in session, updates to the workspace do not cause this problem. However, once the problem occurs, there is no way to undo it. This was noticed too late by our users and now when they try to push a checkpoint out, it includes hundreds of instances from family tables that are also getting pushed out.... because they were in the DEX modified session. Cleaning up these issues are very difficult. Please enhance this capability, as we can't use DEX if it has such large gaps in workflow. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. No. We have stopped using DEX. In theory it is a great tool. In practice, it needs much improvement, specifically regarding Windchill. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. Idea: Any time an object is updated in the workspace, while DEX is opened, it loads the object and does NOT flag it as modified. Maybe even a prompt asking the user whether they want it modified is sufficient. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) ~50 users. HUNDREDS of hours. Maybe thousands. We were trying to use DEX as a way to jump-start designs, but we can't jump start designs if workspaces can't be managed with thousands of hardware parts (screws...) getting pushed out from DEX that shouldn't be. ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo 10, Windchill 11 2. What is the problem? Unable to automatically create a parameter with units using modelcheck in creo parametric. Refer to article CS211487 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. Manually open each file and run a mapkey to assign units to relevant parameters before being able to check the files in to Windchill 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. Migrating legacy data into Windchill, we use modelcheck to create and designate the parameters in creo. Due to the fact that parameters like mass and surface area are defined in Windchill as "Real number with units", we are unable to check in files where modelcheck has added the correct parameters because modelcheck is unable to create a parameter with units.  5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) Batch prosessing and migration of legacy data is impossible on a large scale with current functionality. This necessitates us to manually open each file and run a mapkey, which takes significant amount of time ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? CCX in all Creo version 2. What is the problem? with SAX it was possible to set a CTI value using Material Parameter. We lost this capability in CCX. it was very useful to standardize and automatically apply a CTI to a model.. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. no workaround, we need to specify CTI parameter manualy at each model. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. the Idea is to implement a lost feature. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) that affect all CCX users; they loose time and standarization   ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo 8 and Creo 9 2. What is the problem? The "References" menu needs additional control options to enable efficient workflows.  "Remove" and "Remove All" do not provide enough capability for large "reference sets" 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. The only workaround is to do lots and lots of clicking. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. One example is if an annotation has references which get altered.  Especially in an environment where semantic references are defined.  Then is no way to only remove the failed references.  The user can only remove ALL the references, or go through the list one by one.     This issue applies within many contexts of Creo Parametric.    Another example is if a large round set is messed up 50% of they way, then the user has to choose, do I redo 50% of the original work, or do I individually remove 50% of my references?   The References interface should also support: The screen area selection capability of Creo Parametric. Bulk selection of references in the list using the common "Ctrl+LMB" and "Shift+LMB" practices. "Select All Failed References" might be better then "Delete all Failed References" Sorting the list by status A nice stretch goal would be the ability to "Copy and Paste" references between annotations.  I could image a case in a semantically referenced model where some kind of important overlap might exist between surfaces.   (Surface Finish vs Anodize where is might be handy to not have to "reclick" a bunch of surfaces again, or maybe a similar note needs applied to a very similar copied model.) 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.)  It wastes a substantial amount of time which would not be needed with some minor software improvements. ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo Parametric 8.0.8.0 2. What is the problem? Reference: Case: 16812905 SPR: 14566231   Most of our products we design include PCBs. Therefore, ECAD MCAD Collaboration standards are critical for us to work efficiently and quickly. When the PCB team revises a design (like removing or swapping a component), the mechanical engineer needs to evaluate it and make sure there are no interferences with the mechanical design. Since the assembly is getting revised in our ERP, the assembly in Windchill is getting revised. However, there are many times when the raw board itself is not getting modified. Therefore, in Windchill, it is still released. If we update the assembly with the new EMN file from the PCB team, Creo will flag the raw board part file as modified. It shouldn't! There is no feature or functionality that requires the part to be modified.  For customers that use Windchill, this because a problem. Creo wants to check-out the part and now Creo has pop-ups and notifications that the user needs to manage. Please have this fixed where the part is not modified and does not require the user to manage these warnings, errors, regenerations, etc... 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. We need to set the board part as locked in our workspace. However, this includes additional warnings and popups in Creo each time. We have teams that go through this process multiple times a day. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. As a PCB is getting revised, our mechanical team needs to check changes by importing the EMN file from the PCB team to the creo assembly. The changes would be specific to the assembly itself (that is getting revised). It wouldn't impact the PCB, which is released in Windchill and should not be getting modified. The assembly would import the EMN and when the user saves it, only the assembly would be modified. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) Approximately 50 users. This could end up creating a few hundred hours of lost work a year and a lot of negativity towards Creo and PTC. ... View more

desired effect I would like to achieve effect as on attached printscreen: bom balloons with multiple leaders. I read article which is accesed by: https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS21564?_gl=1*y5o0rg*_ga*MTA2NTg4NDgzMC4xNjgwMjU4NDQ2*_ga_1QBT6P6HR1*MTY5NTcyOTY0My4yMzMuMS4xNjk1NzM2MDg2LjkuMC4w*_ga_7NMP2MSYPM*MTY5NTcyOTY0My4xNDcuMS4xNjk1NzM2MDkxLjQuMC4w    Described there solutions are unacceptable in my opinion. I would like to have possibility to add another reference when Edit References of bom balloon leader.  ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running?Creo  Creo 9.0.5.0 2. What is the problem? The lack of ability to strike through text in a note because Creo doesn't have a strike through font. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. Creating text and then putting a line on top of it that doesn't move with the text as necessary. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. When you want to keep a note reference on a drawing, but eliminate it by using strike through text. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) Extra work in adding the line and then maintianing the line through the remaining life of the drawing.   ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo Parametric 9.0.6.0 2. What is the problem? Reference ticket: 17094872 We are trying to move beyond the IDF standard of ECAD MCAD collaboration to the IDX standard. However, we are seeing some major gaps that need to be resolved before we can fully use the module. The items below are specifically related to BOARD_DATUMS group. We need the ability to add more datums (we include an axis as part of our current ECAD datum setup for regular parts). The ability should allow a user to add/remove datums from this group as needed. The origin created should be using the name from ecad_board_csys_def_name config option.  Allow the datums to be in the model tree without a PCB shape, so we can use it as a start part, with the correct names We need the ability to move the datums to the FOOTER. I've worked with ECAD collaboration for over 10 years and I believe this is critical. A PCB design, whether the shape of the board, the component placement, etc... should not be based on the origin. It should always be created using proper design intent. The origin is only used by the standards as a way to create a fixed point of reference to be used for collaboration. In many projects I have been involved in, the location of the origin is sometimes up for debate between the mechanical, electrical and PCB teams. The origin needs to be flexible enough to be moved at any point before collaboration begins. Many times this is a hole on the PCB. Currently, we can not change the reference to any feature below the first board shape The mechanical engineer could be weeks or months in development and shouldn't be editing the PCB outline to change the origin. Therefore, the origin needs to be able to be moved at any time and should always be at the bottom of the model tree (footer).  3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. We are currently not using this module as it has too many gaps. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. Engineers would be able to manipulate the origin location and the datums much easier. The admins would be able to create a more effective start part. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) Over 100 users affected. We are still using the EMN standard due to these limitations. We could easily be more effective by hundreds of hours a year if we were able to get the IDX standard moving. ... View more

1. What product and version are you running? Creo Parametric 7 and newer. (currently up to 10) 2. What is the problem? Inconsistency in available Simplified representation options in the modeltree compared to the Right Mousebutton menu. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. The workaround is to rightclick on the item and do to representations. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. It would save an additional set of clicks and better integrate the user-defined option as it might now be overlooked. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) Little impact on productivity, but could be a nice little improvement to take on in a newer version. Please notice that a prior idea like this was archived for another user. ... View more

Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video. 1. What product and version are you running? Creo 8, but I've checked the Creo 10 help and it appears to be the same 2. What is the problem? You can only replace a model in a drawing with a family member, simplified rep or reference model. It would save time to be able to replace it with any model. 3. Are you using a workaround? If yes, please describe it. None that are time efficient. Currently I recreate the drawing or delete the new model and save as the drawing and model together then update the new model. The other option is to back up outside of windchill and rename then continue and overwrite on check-in but this is not suitable for widespread use due to the complexity. 4. What is the use case for your organization? Describe how your idea would work in context or how it would apply to a practical situation. We often might make several protypes that are slightly different so there is significant time saving of we can copy the drawings rather than reproducing them. We could use family tables, but this is often an unwanted complication with windchill as in the end only one part will go into production and the others will be obsoleted. 5. What impact does this problem currently have on your organization? (Number of users affected, hours of lost productivity, etc.) This effects all of our uses Creo as it is a workflow to save time that we cannot use and would benefited a large number of users in the wider community. I would estimate the time saving at between 30 and 120 minutes per drawing depending on the complexity. ... View more