We concluded the first ROBOTALK session on Creo Parametric last night just in time for the presidential debates. There were a host of attendees that joined us and stayed right to the end. In fact some of the teams asked if we could continue ROBOTALK so they wouldn't have to go watch the debates. Mark Fischer gave those teams some homework and told them to go to the following site and download the Creo Parametric Primer and then complete it during the debates. Here is the link to the primer:
http://www.ptc.com/company/community/schools/projects.htm#creo
I think that doing the Creo Parametric Primer during the debates would be like jogging with weights on your hands and legs or dribbling a basketball with your eyes closed. You might end up extruding the candidates or revolving their arguments, or maybe even assembling a resonable strategy for solving the deficit. If you were with us last night, you learned about EXTRUSIONS, REVOLVES, and ASSEMBLIES.
The webinar began as they usually do with a short video explaining the theory behind solid modeling and showing how Creo Parametric implements solid modeling through simple examples. The video also gave some basic coverage on how to open part files, how to move between Sketch mode and 3D Modeling mode, and how to create volumes and how to order them to build the geometry of a part. Here is the video:
Video Link : 3396
Following the video, Mark FIscher, Senior Director of Education and Support at PTC joined me in discussing good modeling practices. We covered topics about setting the units of a parts file, selecting the material properties, developing a plan for a part model before beginning to model it, and learned that the defualt density of parts is 1 or about the same density as water. (No wonder those robot models were so heavy!!!)
Mark spent some time talking about the difference between "bottums-up" design and "top-down" design. He showed an example where he created a bracket using geometric references from neighboring parts to identify the envelope within which he then created the bracket that not only fit exactly but could be updated automatically if changes occured to the overall design.
We finished by showing teams where to go to find the links for registering for the FREE license of Creo Parametric. Mark explained that the Academic version which is available to FIRST teams has the full functionality of the commercial version of Creo Parametric and that the Academic version can open commercial files. This is very important because if you want to download commercially avaialble files of parts, the Academic version will open those files. However the commercial version of Creo cannot open files saved in the Academic version. The link for registering for the FREE Academic version of Creo Parametric is here:
http://www.ptc.com/company/community/first/teams.htm
Please join us next week for ROBOTALK where we will talk about using Creo Parametric for creating quick conceptual models rather than 2X4s and duck tape. This webinar will help reduce smashed fingers, broken saws, and team deficits (wish we could get the presidential candidates to watch as well!). Oh and don't worry, the Vice-Presidential debates are on Thursday, hopefully we won't run so long that we collide with those debates. Here's a link to register for next weeks webinar:
October 10
Week 2: Using Creo Parametric to build conceptual models (Throw away the 2x4s and hinges)
I'll have to catch the next one!
