Design Smarter, Search Less with Creo AI Assistant Advise

Introducing the Creo AI Assistant: Advise

Even experienced CAD users encounter unfamiliar tasks, infrequent workflows, or unexpected errors that can interrupt the design process and slow productivity. In traditional CAD systems, finding an answer often requires engineers to leave their workflow to search for documentation, support content, or other external resources before work can continue. Creo AI Assistant Advise provides guidance directly within the Creo environment, enabling users of Creo 13, Creo+, and later versions to ask natural language questions and receive clear, actionable engineering and Creo-related guidance without leaving their workflow.

Advise can help engineers by:

Identifying relevant tools: Direct engineers to the appropriate functionality within Creo based on what they want to accomplish.

Explaining available options: Clarifies different settings or methods so engineers can determine the right approach for their task.

Recommending established workflows: Connects engineers to accurate Creo processes and product best practices.

Retrieving trusted information: Draws from Creo Help documentation and PTC knowledge base content to provide Creo-specific guidance.

Supporting follow-up questions: Allows engineers to begin with a broad objective and refine the conversation to explore specific selections, settings, or methods.

How does Advise generate relevant responses?

Advise uses a large language model (LLM) to interpret questions asked in natural language and provide a conversational user experience. An LLM is a type of AI trained to understand and generate human language, allowing engineers to interact with Advise by asking questions as they naturally would. While traditional AI Assistants often rely primarily on an LLM to generate responses, Advise differs by using a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture. Because accurate and relevant responses are critical in engineering environments, RAG helps distinguish Advise from traditional LLM-based systems. Hallucinations are a risk with any AI model. With a RAG architecture though, Creo's AI responses are based on trusted Creo resources ensuring it is as accurate as possible.

Why is in-workflow AI guidance important?

Engineers often know what they want to accomplish without knowing the exact command or terminology needed to find the answer. New users may need support learning a workflow, while experienced users may need a reminder about an operation they do not perform frequently. Modeling failures or error messages can also require additional investigation before work can continue.

Finding this information can require engineers to pause their task and search across documentation, support content, or other resources. Advise makes relevant Creo product information easily accessible within the design environment, helping engineers stay focused on their work while reducing the time required to locate an answer.

Key benefits include:

Less time spent searching: Engineers can efficiently access relevant information.

Greater Productivity: In-workflow support reduces interruptions and helps engineers maintain momentum.

Faster skill development: New users can build their Creo knowledge.

Reduced friction for experienced users: Quick support for infrequently used operations.

More confident problem-solving: Clear guidance helps engineers work through unfamiliar tasks and errors with a stronger understanding of next steps.

The goal is not to replace engineering expertise, but to make information easier to access. By reducing time spent searching for answers, Advise allows engineers to focus more of their effort on innovation and solving complex challenges.

What can Creo AI Advise do?

General modeling guidance:

Engineers can describe their intended outcome without knowing the exact command required. For example, a user may ask how to modify a round to achieve a better corner transition. Advise can point to relevant Creo tools, explain applicable options, and recommend a practical approach.

Access to Creo Help and product knowledge

Advise draws from Creo Help documentation and PTC knowledge base content to connect questions with relevant product information. This allows engineers to find workflow instructions and supporting guidance even when they do not know the precise Creo terminology to search.

For example, a user can simply ask, "How do I set up a CFA simulation?" and receive step-by-step guidance directly within the Creo environment. As shown below, Advise outlines the complete Creo Flow Analysis setup process in natural language, including project creation, physics configuration, boundary conditions, mesh generation, and post-processing steps, eliminating the need to search through multiple help documents.

Onboarding and skill development

For new Creo users Advise serves as an interactive learning companion, making it easier to build CAD skills without having to search through documentation or training materials. Users can start with a broad question, such as “How can I start an extrude in Creo?”, and receive clear, step-by-step guidance tailored to the task at hand.

As shown below, Advise outlines four common ways to start an extrude, providing detailed instructions for each approach. By breaking down workflows into actionable steps, Advise helps users learn core Creo capabilities, build confidence, and become productive more quickly. Follow-up questions can be asked naturally within the same conversation, creating a guided learning experience that supports ongoing skill development.

Troubleshooting modeling errors:

Advise can help users better understand modeling and regeneration errors by explaining what a message means and suggesting potential paths to resolution.

In the example below, a user asks about a circular reference error. Advise explains the meaning of the error, describes how circular references can occur when features depend on one another in a loop, and provides recommended troubleshooting steps, such as reviewing feature dependencies or adjusting references and feature order. By helping users understand the cause of common modeling issues and pointing them toward corrective actions, Advise makes troubleshooting more efficient and helps users get back to their work more quickly.

Support for uncommon workflows:

Experienced engineers may need to revisit commands or operations they do not use regularly. Advise can help refresh their knowledge of the relevant methods, options, and best practices without requiring them to relearn the entire workflow.

What is next for AI in Creo?

Advise is the first tier of Creo AI Assistant, providing model-agnostic guidance based on trusted Creo resources. Advise establishes the foundation for future capabilities that expand beyond guidance to understanding product data and performing engineering tasks.

Assist: Model-aware intelligence

Assist works in the context of a user’s 3D design. It can extract insights from product data, support troubleshooting, and validate that model inputs are as expected. These capabilities are intended to accelerate model interactions and data gathering while helping users maintain consistency across their designs.

Automate: Engineering intelligence

Automate advances the Assistant from interpreting model information to performing design activities. It can create sophisticated geometry and conduct analysis before sending an optimized design to the engineer for approval. Work is completed in a sandbox environment, ensuring that changes are not applied to the model without the user’s knowledge.

Together, the three tiers showcase the innovation of Creo AI Assistant , advancing from product guidance with Advise, to model-aware insights with Assist, to intelligent design and analysis with Automate, all while keeping the engineer informed and in control.