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.
Martin Neumueller recently delivered a presentation highlighting several new Creo Parametric capabilities and enhancements that are included in the Creo 4.0.
A few weeks ago, we launched Creo 4.0. This latest update to our flagship 3D CAD software includes hundreds of core enhancements, not to mention breakthrough capabilities in additive manufacturing, model based definition (MBD), and smart connected design. All of these improvements mean you can be even more productive while designing excellent products.
But with the release came an interesting question from our social media community. “Just out of curiosity, what is THE new enhancement in Creo 4.0? What do you think?”
It’s a fair question. In Creo 3.0, Unite technology clearly stood out from the pack. For the first time, CAD users could directly open SolidWorks, CATIA, and NX files in their Creo software.
But the answer isn’t as straightforward with this newest release. So, I asked Martin Neumueller, Product Management Senior Director, to name just the top three enhancements. He named four (I told you it was difficult):
The Context-Sensitive Mini Toolbar
To make it so your eyes never leave your design, we introduced a new interaction paradigm. What does that mean? Throughout Creo Parametric you’ll find a new intelligent mini-toolbar. It puts context-sensitive commands right at your fingertips—no need to go to the model tree or ribbon to find a command.
The new mini-toolbar gives you access to relevant options while also keeping your focus on the graphics area.
Menus You Can Customize
New customization options make it easier and more streamlined for you to tailor the tool for optimal productivity.
Let’s say your workflow has you adding die forms to your models regularly. Each time you add one, you spend a few seconds locating the Form > Die Form option on the Model tab. You can now add those seconds back into your day by customizing Creo to show the option where you want to see it.
You can customize options on ribbons, shortcut menus, and mini toolbars. Keyboard shortcuts can also be configured. Even better, we’ve streamlined the process for setting up these customizations. Plus, you can easily propagate customizations to other nodes (stay tuned to this blog to find out how).
Flexible Modeling for Sheet Metal
One of Creo’s most powerful capabilities, flexible modeling, now extends to sheet metal. Edit sheet metal bends, bend reliefs, corner reliefs, corner seams, and forms. And quickly change design intent characteristics individually or globally. Working with sheet metal has never been easier.
New flexible modeling sheet metal enhancements make it simple to edit this bend and relief.
This functionality makes it so late-stage design changes are quicker and easier to complete, editing imported data is effortless, and simplifying designs for downstream analysis takes just minutes.
More Control Over Geometry When Manipulating Sketch-Based Features
For those working with sketch-based features, you’ll notice that it’s faster and easier to manipulate geometry. Neumueller demonstrates in the video below:
The Creo 4.0 release includes major enhancements related to extrude/revolve functionality:
- Side 2 access: You have access to side 2 options directly from the graphics window when you right-click on a feature. This means you don’t have to navigate to the option panel on the dashboard each time.
- Negative direction: With the Extrude and Revolve tools, you can now specify negative direction values for one side, so that material operation is inverted. This makes it simple to define geometry that has an offset.
- Extrude with offset: An option has been added to the Extrude tab to either offset or transform the surface reference, To Selected. You won’t need to create intermediate construction features, which were previously required.
These enhancements give you more precision over the geometry and a more predictable regeneration of Extrude and Revolve features.
One Manager’s Opinion
Of course, this is all just Martin’s opinion. We suspect our manufacturing expert might choose three other features entirely. And what would our visualization guy say? What about the product manager who focused on model based definition for the past year? We’ll ask them and many other product managers for their picks in coming weeks. Meanwhile…
Be More Productive and Meet Your Next Deadline!
Ready to get your core modeling work done faster and easier? Creo 4.0 is now available for download. Visit the Creo 4.0 page to find out more about this exciting new release and start using it today.