Still Not Using Creo 8? Here’s What You’re Missing

We all need better products faster. That’s why PTC updates its Creo CAD software every year—so you can keep up with technology and remain competitive as ever.

And note that it’s not just the attention-getting extensions (think generative design and Creo Ansys Simulation) that get rolled out with each annual release. Many of the most helpful improvements—the ones that design engineers use every day—take place in the core product.

Whether you’re an established CAD user who’s been working with Creo for years, or just thinking about trying it out, here are six places the core product improved in Creo 8 that analysts and users are raving about:

Dashboards, Displays & Controls

The first thing people notice is the modernized datum display. Models have improved visibility with shaded planes, along with transparency settings for solid bodies and tessellated geometry. If you want to detach several panels from the dashboard and display, you now can.


Image: Shaded plane in Creo 8.

Model Tree Enhancements

Documenting and understanding design intent is vital not only for design, but also product quality and customer service. That’s why we added new capabilities such as quilt nodes, custom groups, and side-by-side model trees to make your communication clearer and more easily understood.

Snapshot Preview

Not to brag, but we won an award for this one. D3D said our technology “actually surpasses the state of the art.” What did we change? The new Show Snapshot command shows a snapshot preview of a selected quilt or body geometry from the moment it is regenerated, allowing faster analysis and understanding of the design.

Image: Snapshot results shown in Creo 8

Hole Features

Newly supported standards include NPT, NPTF, and ISO-7, which allow for straight drilled holes combined with tapped and tapered hole sections. Thread depth control options are more flexible with the inclusion of Through Thread, Blind, and To Reference. And where previously drilling three holes was three separate features, they can now be created in a single feature.

Sheet Metal

When designing sheet metal, you can now select multiple straight edges as references to create multiple walls within a single “Flat” (wall) feature. Creo 8 is smarter, faster, and creates miter for 3-bend corners and corner reliefs much faster than previous versions.

Routing

With Creo 8, you can use the new Branch Tape feature to make visual representations of electrical tape wrapped around wires, cable, bundles, and more. Tape color, width, and thickness are all customizable. And you can specify the overlap factor that defines width percentage for each wrap of the tape.

Image: Cabling assembly with branch tape in Creo 8

Let the Experts Show You What You're Missing

Martin Neumueller (PTC) and Dave Martin (MCAE Consulting) recently demonstrated these capabilities, using real-world models, during a Creo 8 conference session. They also covered new enhancements to assemblies, rendering speed, and multi-monitor setups. Plus, they answered some interesting questions at the end.

If you missed the conference, the good news is that you can still listen to the “Usability and Productivity” session replay (it’s about 25 minutes long) by clicking on the link below. Technology moves fast in the product development world. Make sure you’ve got everything you need to keep up. Listen to the session today!