Creo Parametric, formerly known, together with Creo Elements/Pro, as Pro/Engineer (commonly referred to as Pro E) and Wildfire, is a
solid modeling
Solid modeling (or solid modelling) is a consistent set of principles for mathematical and computer modeling of three-dimensional shapes '' (solids)''. Solid modeling is distinguished within the broader related areas of geometric modeling and ...
or
computer-aided design
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...
(CAD),
computer-aided manufacturing
Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) also known as computer-aided modeling or computer-aided machining is the use of software to control machine tools in the manufacturing of work pieces. This is not the only definition for CAM, but it is the most ...
(CAM),
computer-aided engineering
Computer-aided engineering (CAE) is the general usage of technology to aid in tasks related to engineering analysis. Any use of technology to solve or assist engineering issues falls under this umbrella.
Overview
Following alongside the con ...
(CAE), and associative
3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based Computer representation of surfaces, representation of a surface of an object (inanimate or living) in Three-dimensional space, three dimensions vi ...
application, to run on
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
.
''Creo Parametric'' should not be confused with ''Creo Elements/Direct Modeling'', formerly CoCreate ME10 (2D) and or ME30 (3D) CAD Products. The ex-CoCreate CAD Products are now owned by PTC and renamed ''Creo Elements/Direct Drafting'' and ''Creo Elements/Direct Modeling''.
''Creo Parametric'' is an application of a
suite of 10 that provide collaborative
solid modeling
Solid modeling (or solid modelling) is a consistent set of principles for mathematical and computer modeling of three-dimensional shapes '' (solids)''. Solid modeling is distinguished within the broader related areas of geometric modeling and ...
,
assembly modelling,
2D orthographic views,
finite element analysis
Finite element method (FEM) is a popular method for numerically solving differential equations arising in engineering and mathematical models, mathematical modeling. Typical problem areas of interest include the traditional fields of structural ...
,
parametric model
In statistics, a parametric model or parametric family or finite-dimensional model is a particular class of statistical models. Specifically, a parametric model is a family of probability distributions that has a finite number of parameters.
Defi ...
ling, sub-divisional and
non-uniform rational B-spline
Non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) is a mathematical model using B-spline, basis splines (B-splines) that is commonly used in computer graphics for representing curves and Surface (mathematics), surfaces. It offers great flexibility and pr ...
(NURBS)
surface modeling,
technical drawing
Technical drawing, drafting or drawing, is the act and discipline of composing drawings that visually communicate how something functions or is constructed.
Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering. ...
(drafting), and
numerical control
Computer numerical control (CNC) or CNC machining is the automated control of machine tools by a computer. It is an evolution of numerical control (NC), where machine tools are directly managed by data storage media such as punched cards or ...
(NC) and
tooling
Tooling may refer to:
* Machine tools and the tooling, such as cutting tools, fixtures, and accessories, that is used on them
** Cutting tool (machining), any of hundreds of kinds of cutters
** Fixture (tool), a fixed workholding or support device ...
functionality for
mechanical
Mechanical may refer to:
Machine
* Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement
* Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...
designers.
Creo Parametric
Creo Parametric, formerly known, together with Creo Elements/Pro, as Pro/Engineer (commonly referred to as Pro E) and Wildfire, is a solid modeling or computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CA ...
competes directly with
CATIA
CATIA (, an acronym of computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application) is a multi-platform software suite for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), 3D modeling and product li ...
,
SolidWorks
SolidWorks (stylized as SOLIDWORKS) is a brand of software used for solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE). It was one of the first 3D CAD applications designed to run on a desktop PC.
The brand is owned ...
,
NX/
Solid Edge
Solid Edge is a 3D computer-aided design (CAD), parametric feature and synchronous technology solid modeling software. It runs on Microsoft Windows and provides solid modeling, assembly modelling and 2D orthographic view functions for mechani ...
,
Inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
/
Fusion 360
Autodesk Fusion is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE) and printed circuit board (PCB) design software application, developed by Autodesk. It is available for Windows, ...
,
IRONCAD
IRONCAD is a software product for 3D and 2D CAD ( computer-aided-design) design focused mainly on the mechanical design market that runs on Microsoft Windows. It is developed by Atlanta, GA based IronCAD LLC.
History
IRONCAD was originally develo ...
, and
Onshape
Onshape is a computer-aided design (CAD) software system, delivered over the Internet via a software as a service (SaaS) model. It makes extensive use of cloud computing, with compute-intensive processing and rendering performed on Internet-bas ...
. It was created by
Parametric Technology Corporation
PTC Inc. (formerly Parametric Technology Corporation) is an American computer software and services company founded in 1985 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was a pioneer in parametric, associative feature-based, solid com ...
(PTC) and was the first of its kind to market.
The software uses a specific file naming scheme, not allowing certain characters like ä, ö, é, ő, ł, Đ, ... (including spaces).
Overview
Creo Parametric (formerly Pro/Engineer), PTC's parametric, integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE software, is used by manufacturers for
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...
, design, and manufacturing.
Pro/Engineer was the industry's first rule-based constraint (sometimes called "parametric" or "variational")
3D CAD
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of a surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, and ...
modeling system. The
parametric modeling
Procedural modeling is an umbrella term for a number of techniques in computer graphics to create 3D models and textures from sets of rules that may be easily changed over time. L-Systems, fractals, and generative modeling are procedural modeli ...
approach uses parameters, dimensions, features, and relationships to capture intended model behavior. This design approach can be family-based or platform-driven, where the strategy is to use engineering constraints and relationships to quickly optimize the design, or where the resulting geometry may be complex or based upon equations. Creo Parametric provides a complete set of design, analysis and manufacturing abilities on one, integral, scalable platform. These required abilities include solid modeling, surfacing, rendering, data Interoperability, routed systems design, simulation, tolerance analysis,
numerical control
Computer numerical control (CNC) or CNC machining is the automated control of machine tools by a computer. It is an evolution of numerical control (NC), where machine tools are directly managed by data storage media such as punched cards or ...
(NC) and tooling design.
Creo Parametric can be used to create a complete 3D digital model of manufactured goods. The models consist of 2D and 3D solid model data which can also be used downstream in
finite element analysis
Finite element method (FEM) is a popular method for numerically solving differential equations arising in engineering and mathematical models, mathematical modeling. Typical problem areas of interest include the traditional fields of structural ...
,
rapid prototyping
Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design ( CAD) data.
Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printing ...
, tooling design, and CNC manufacturing. All data are associative and interchangeable between the CAD, CAE, and CAM modules without
data conversion
Data conversion is the conversion of computer data from one format to another. Throughout a computer environment, data is encoded in a variety of ways. For example, computer hardware is built on the basis of certain standards, which requires ...
. A product and its entire
bill of materials
A bill of materials or product structure (sometimes bill of material, BOM or associated list) is a list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, parts, and the quantities of each needed to manufacture an Prod ...
(BOM) can be modeled accurately with fully associative
engineering drawing
An engineering drawing is a type of technical drawing that is used to convey information about an object. A common use is to specify the geometry necessary for the construction of a component and is called a detail drawing. Usually, a number of ...
s, and revision control information. The associativity functionality in Creo Parametric enables users to make changes in the design at any time during the product development process and automatically update the end products. This ability enables
concurrent engineering
Concurrent engineering (CE) or concurrent design and manufacturing is a work methodology emphasizing the parallelization of tasks (i.e. performing tasks concurrently), which is sometimes called simultaneous engineering or integrated product develo ...
– design, analysis and manufacturing engineers working in parallel – and streamlines product development processes.
Summary of abilities
Creo Parametric is a software application within the CAID/CAD/CAM/CAE category.
Creo Parametric is a parametric, feature-based modeling architecture incorporated into a single database philosophy with rule-based design abilities. It provides in-depth control of complex geometry. The abilities of the product can be split into the three main headings of Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing. This data is then documented in a standard 2D
production drawing
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
or the 3D drawing standard
ASME Y14.41-2003
ASME Y14.41 is a standard published by American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) which establishes requirements and reference documents applicable to the preparation and revision
of digital product definition data (also known as model-based ...
.
Product design
Creo Parametric offers a range of tools to enable the generation of a complete digital representation of the product being designed. In addition to the general geometry tools there is also the ability to generate geometry of other integrated design disciplines such as industrial and standard pipe work and complete wiring definitions. Tools are also available to support collaborative development.
A number of concept design tools that provide up-front Industrial Design concepts can then be used in the downstream process of engineering the product. These range from conceptual Industrial design sketches, reverse engineering with point cloud data and comprehensive free-form surface.
Analysis
Creo Parametric has numerous analysis tools available and covers thermal, static, dynamic and fatigue finite element analysis along with other tools all designed to help with the development of the product. These tools include human factors, manufacturing tolerance, mould flow and design optimization. The design optimization can be used at a geometry level to obtain the optimum design dimensions and in conjunction with the finite element analysis.
Surface modeling
Creo Parametric has good surface modeling abilities, using commands like Boundary blend and Sweep. Advanced options like Style (Interactive Surface Design Extension - ISDX) and Freestyle provide more abilities to create complex models easily.
Manufacturing
By using the fundamental abilities of the software with regards to the single data source principle, it provides a rich set of tools in the manufacturing environment in the form of tooling design and simulated CNC machining and output.
Tooling options cover specialty tools for molding, die-casting and progressive tooling design.
Release history
The
UNIX
Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...
version was discontinued after 4.0, except
x86-64
x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit extension of the x86 instruction set architecture, instruction set. It was announced in 1999 and first available in the AMD Opteron family in 2003. It introduces two new ope ...
Unix on
Solaris
Solaris is the Latin word for sun.
It may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film
* ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem
** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg
** ''Sol ...
. It was renamed Creo 1.0 after Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5.0 (rebranded PTC Creo Elements/Pro),
occurred on October 28, 2010, which coincided with PTC's announcement of
Creo, a new design software application suite.
For the first 10 years, PTC generally released 2 versions per year, with some exceptions. The initial release (Rev 1) was in 1988.
See also
*
Comparison of computer-aided design software
The table below provides an overview of notable computer-aided design (CAD) software. It does not judge power, ease of use, or other user-experience aspects. The table does not include software that is still in development (beta software). For al ...
*
Creo
*
Creo Elements/View
*
Pro/DESKTOP
;Comparable software
*
Inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
*
CATIA
CATIA (, an acronym of computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application) is a multi-platform software suite for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), 3D modeling and product li ...
*
Cimatron
*
Siemens NX
NX, formerly known as "Unigraphics", is CAD/CAM/ CAE software, which has been owned since 2007 by Siemens Digital Industries Software. In 2000, Unigraphics purchased SDRC I-DEAS and began an effort to integrate aspects of both software packages ...
*
Solid Edge
Solid Edge is a 3D computer-aided design (CAD), parametric feature and synchronous technology solid modeling software. It runs on Microsoft Windows and provides solid modeling, assembly modelling and 2D orthographic view functions for mechani ...
*
SolidWorks
SolidWorks (stylized as SOLIDWORKS) is a brand of software used for solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE). It was one of the first 3D CAD applications designed to run on a desktop PC.
The brand is owned ...
*
IRONCAD
IRONCAD is a software product for 3D and 2D CAD ( computer-aided-design) design focused mainly on the mechanical design market that runs on Microsoft Windows. It is developed by Atlanta, GA based IronCAD LLC.
History
IRONCAD was originally develo ...
*
Onshape
Onshape is a computer-aided design (CAD) software system, delivered over the Internet via a software as a service (SaaS) model. It makes extensive use of cloud computing, with compute-intensive processing and rendering performed on Internet-bas ...
*
KeyCreator
KeyCreator is a commercial software application for 2D and 3D computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting available since 2004.
History
KeyCreator is a non-parametric, non-history based, "direct" 2D/3D solid modeling CAD program. Originally kno ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Computer-aided design software
Computer-aided manufacturing software
Computer-aided engineering software
1987 software