Cat McClintock contributes to the Creo and Mathcad blogs for PTC. She has been a writer and editor for 15+ years, working for CAD, PDM, ERP, and CRM software companies. Prior to that, she edited science journals for an academic publisher and aligned optical assemblies for a medical device manufacturer. She holds degrees in Technical Journalism, Classics, and Electro-Optics. She loves talking to PTC customers and learning about the interesting work they're doing and the innovative ways they use the software.
What if you could observe and interrogate your products after they leave the building? Not just the ones you encounter on customer visits or the ones that come back for service, but all of them. Imagine how it would impact your design if you knew first-hand how end users used, misused, or failed-to-use-at-all your products.
Now you can with Creo’s Product Insight solution. Integrated with the ThingWorx Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) platform, the new add-on to Creo brings a new dimension to the design process – the connection of real-world IoT data to your designs.
“It enables CAD users – engineers and designers – to connect Creo to ThingWorx,” says Paul Sagar, ice president of CAD product management, PTC. “ThingWorx captures the data stream coming from sensors from products in the field being used. An engineer can then get data from real products to help drive and optimize their design.”
Paul Sagar, vice president of CAD product management, PTC, explain new features of Product Insight
This gives CAD users access to new levels of product and service information that will help drive better design decisions to build smart, connected products.
Products That Check In
Notice your deadlines are getting shorter? That’s not your imagination. Clients and bosses want their products faster and manufactured for the market at blazing speeds. With real data showing how a product performs, say a race car on a track, engineers can now use that data in the design process to enhance and improve performance of products.
For example, if you’ve got a product prototype in a test lab you can put sensors on those prototypes to test and evaluate them and understand what they’re doing.
“Users can then replay all the sensor readings inside their CAD systems and the CAD systems update to the actual values, the actual use cases, and take that information and drive and even optimize the CAD model,” says Sagar.
Beyond Assuming, Finally
With the Creo Product Insight Extension, you can replace your previous assumptions in the design process with facts, bringing real-world use data back into engineering and connecting it with the original CAD model — its digital twin. It also helps designers optimize product sensor strategy and provide the secure, custom data streams needed by integrating sensors into the design process.“Users can perform analysis on models based on actual usage rather than assumed usage,” says Sagar.
And, when products are out in the field, that smart, connected product you’re working on is capturing information, providing a plethora of knowledge. Engineers can reuse and repurpose that knowledge.
"Being able to understand not just from one product but entire families of products, how they’re being used in the field and what the actual working engineering envelopes are being used, gives CAD designers the ability to make the correct engineering design decisions,” adds Sagar.
The Future Awaits!
Want more insight where CAD is headed and learn more on how IoT is disrupting your design? You’ll want to download our eBook, 10 Expert Insights: The Future of Product Design in the Age of Smart & Connected Devices. You’re in an ever-changing technology industry. Know how to stay ahead.