The PTC Creo 5.0 release is jam packed with new features, Topology optimization studies, built in flow analysis, new rendering engine powered by Luxion Keyshot, further improved 3D printing support. In between the constant buzz about IoT, AR and Digital Twins over the past year, PTC also managed to release a new version of Creo Parametric.
PTC has announced that a new version will be released every year and in-between these major releases. Maintenance updates will follow in a greater amount than earlier. The new release schedule follows the ones seen at other great software companies that follow the software as a service licensing model and the sprint development methodology. This results in shipping smaller but more continuous updates to the users.
PTCs marketing department does a fine job to highlight these major improvements, so I would like to use this post to also shed a light on the smaller improvements. Perhaps the ones that make your daily tasks run a little smoother and saving you time.
User interface and experience
I am pleased to see that PTC has continued to work on the user experience with this release. For one, the mini toolbar introduced in 4.0 is added to more modes. Just as the name implies, it is a small toolbar that is displayed near your mouse pointer, only displaying possible actions based on what you have selected in your model. It´s very simple to customize so you can easily present just the actions you need at any given time.
The feedback messages that has previously been displayed in the lower left part of the application window are now also displayed as a tooltip. It will give you a short description of actions, step by step instructions and other useful information to guide you in your work.
A more dynamic filter/search tool is also introduced in the model tree. Start typing a search string and features or models highlight as the string starts to match.
Easily toggle the search string into a filter to only display the resulting objects in the tree.
Sketch Region
A new selection filter is introduced. Sketch regions displays possible regions of a sketch for further actions. For example, if two circles in a sketch intersect, the intersected area or the individual areas can be used for an extrude action without the need of any trimming in the sketch.
Drafts and mirror feature are improved
Drafts and mirror feature are improvedApplying a draft to a volume containing rounds and chamfers has in previous releases forced you to rearrange the model tree or removing the rounds and chamfers to reapply them after the draft. This can be a real headache when you prepare your model for manufacturing. If you give yourself the same exercise in Creo 5.0 you will create that draft without even thinking about what features you applied earlier. The improved draft tool does all the work for you.
In the same sense the mirror feature in part mode has been overlooked and now supports adding and removing features to it.
Improved large assembly performance
In short you will be able to open your drawings faster than before without doing anything. Sounds great right!? The improvement surrounds a classic computer graphics problem dated back to the dawn of CAD. When opening a drawing that has views representing an opaque object as a line drawing. CAD software must be able to decide which edges or which parts of the edges are hidden by an object itself or by other objects. This problem is known as hidden line removal.
PTC’s R&D department has overlooked how Creo Parametric handles this problem and allowed its algorithm to use multi-threading to improve the time to render the views. For drawings created in Creo 4.0 or Creo 5.0 this is activated automatically.
Drawings from older versions can use a drawing option named – hlr_multithreading – to activate the functionality. The improved opening times of drawings correlates highly to the specifications of your client machines. We have made simple tests on Dell Precision 5520 clients with Intel Quad Core i7, 2.9GHz processors. That gave us around 15% faster opening times. For the most accurate test, download Creo 5.0 and try for yourself.
New Volume helical sweep tool
New Volume helical sweep toolA new sweep tool is introduced that creates accurate 3D geometric representations for parts machined with cutting tools instead of 2D sweep approximations.
Topology Optimization Extension
Creo Topology Optimization Extension uses VR&D (Vanderplaats Research & Development, Inc.) technology to create topology optimization studies. This optimizes your 3D model geometry to meet design goals such as reducing mass, minimizing stress, or minimizing displacement. The resulting futuristic geometries goes well in your additive manufacturing workflow.
Example of a resulting object from a Topology Optimization study
The extension is available in a free BETA version in the 5.0.0.0 release for you to try out!
Video:Topology Optimization Tutorial
Creo Flow Analysis
Creo Flow Analysis is fully integrated into Creo Parametric. It brings a cheap and easy CFD solution to perform internal and external flow analysis and animate flow results in real-time at an early stage of the design process. The solution supports heat, gas, liquid, radiation, particles and more.
Summary
I hope you have found this brief summary of the news in Creo 5.0 interesting. I am glad to see that PTC is working on improving the user experience and traditional features as well as introducing cutting edge technology. For a full overview please visit the official Creo 5.0 homepage.
Since we are already in December, we can start to look forward to the release of Creo 6.0 in March 2019 and what that has to offer. Sneak peaks tells us that it will for one feature AI technology from newly acquired Frustum.
Thanks for reading!
Great Regards,
Nils Persson
