Creo Elements/Pro, a product formerly known as
Pro/ENGINEER is a parametric, integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution created by
Parametric Technology CorporationParametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
(PTC). It was the first to market with parametric, feature-based, associative
solid modelingSolid modeling is a consistent set of principles for mathematical and computer modeling of three dimensional solids. Solid modeling is distinguished from related areas of Geometric modeling and Computer graphics by its emphasis on physical fidelity...
software. The application runs on
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
platforms, and provides
solid modelingSolid modeling is a consistent set of principles for mathematical and computer modeling of three dimensional solids. Solid modeling is distinguished from related areas of Geometric modeling and Computer graphics by its emphasis on physical fidelity...
,
assembly modellingAssembly modelling is technology and methods used by computer-aided design and product visualization computer software systems to handle multiple files that represent components within a product. The components within an assembly are represented as solid or surface models.The designer generally has...
and
draftingTechnical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
, finite element analysis, and NC and tooling functionality for mechanical engineers. The Pro/ENGINEER name was changed to Creo Elements/Pro on October 28, 2010, coinciding with PTC’s announcement of Creo, a new design software solution.
Overview
Creo Elements/Pro (formerly Pro/ENGINEER),
PTC'sParametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
parametric, integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution, is used by discrete manufacturers for
mechanical engineeringMechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
, design and manufacturing.
Created by Dr. Samuel P. Geisberg in the mid-1980s, Pro/ENGINEER was the industry's first successful rule-based constraint (sometimes called "parametric" or "variational") 3D CAD modeling system. The parametric modeling approach uses parameters, dimensions, features, and relationships to capture intended product behavior and create a recipe which enables design automation and the optimization of design and product development processes. This design approach is used by companies whose product strategy is family-based or platform-driven, where a prescriptive design strategy is fundamental to the success of the design process by embedding engineering constraints and relationships to quickly optimize the design, or where the resulting geometry may be complex or based upon equations. Creo Elements/Pro provides a complete set of design, analysis and manufacturing capabilities on one, integral, scalable platform. These required capabilities include Solid Modeling, Surfacing, Rendering, Data Interoperability, Routed Systems Design, Simulation, Tolerance Analysis, and NC and Tooling Design.
Companies use Creo Elements/Pro to create a complete 3D digital model of their products. The models consist of 2D and 3D solid model data which can also be used downstream in finite element analysis,
rapid prototypingRapid prototyping is the automatic construction of physical objects using additive manufacturing technology. The first techniques for rapid prototyping became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce models and prototype parts. Today, they are used for a much wider range of applications...
, tooling design, and CNC manufacturing. All data is associative and interchangeable between the CAD, CAE and CAM modules without
conversionData 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 that data contains, for example, parity bit checks....
. A product and its entire
bill of materialsA bill of materials is a list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, components, parts and the quantities of each needed to manufacture an end product...
(BOM) can be modeled accurately with fully associative
engineering drawingAn engineering drawing, a type of technical drawing, is used to fully and clearly define requirements for engineered items.Engineering drawing produces engineering drawings . More than just the drawing of pictures, it is also a language—a graphical language that communicates ideas and information...
s, and revision control information. The associativity functionality in Creo Elements/Pro enables users to make changes in the design at any time during the product development process and automatically update downstream deliverables. This capability enables
concurrent engineeringConcurrent engineering is a work methodology based on the parallelization of tasks . It refers to an approach used in product development in which functions of design engineering, manufacturing engineering and other functions are integrated to reduce the elapsed time required to bring a new product...
— design, analysis and manufacturing engineers working in parallel — and streamlines product development processes.
Creo Elements/Pro is part of a broader product development system developed by PTC. It connects to PTC’s other solutions that aid product development, including Windchill, ProductView,
MathcadMathcad is computer software primarily intended for the verification, validation, documentation and re-use of engineering calculations. First introduced in 1986 on DOS, it was the first to introduce live editing of typeset mathematical notation, combined with its automatic computations...
and Arbortext.
Summary of capabilities
Like any software it is continually being developed to include new functionality. The details below aim to outline the scope of capabilities to give an overview rather than giving specific details on the individual functionality of the product.
Creo Elements/Pro is a software application within the CAID/CAD/CAM/CAE category, along with other similar products currently on the market.
Creo Elements/Pro is a parametric, feature-based modeling architecture incorporated into a single database philosophy with advanced rule-based design capabilities. The capabilities of the product can be split into the three main heading of Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing. This data is then documented in a standard 2D production drawing or the 3D drawing standard ASME Y14.41-2003.
Engineering Design
Creo Elements/Pro 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 tools.
Analysis
Creo Elements/Pro 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.
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
| Name/Version | Build Number | Date |
| Pro/ENGINEER (Autofact 1987 premier) |
R 1.0 |
1987 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 8.0 |
1991 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 9.0 |
1992 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 10.0 |
1993 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 11.0 |
1993 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 12.0 |
1993 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 13.0 |
1994 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 14.0 |
1994 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 15.0 |
1995 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 16.0 |
1996 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 17.0 |
1997 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 18.0 |
1997 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 19.0 |
1998 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 20.0 |
1998 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 2000i |
1999 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 2000i2 |
2000 |
| Pro/ENGINEER |
R 2001 |
2001 |
| Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire |
R 1.0 |
2002 |
| Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire |
R 2.0 |
2004 |
| Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire |
R 3.0 |
2006 |
| Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire |
R 4.0 |
2008 |
| Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire |
R 5.0 |
2009 |
| Creo Elements/Pro |
R 5.0 (as of M065) |
2010 |
See also
- Parametric Technology Corporation
Parametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
- Pro/DESKTOP
Pro/DESKTOP was a Computer-aided design program from Parametric Technology Corporation , that allowed users to design and model in 3D and create 2D drawings. It can transfer a 3D design into a 2D engineering drawing format and also create photo-realistic views using Album Views...
- Comparison of CAD editors for AEC
- Associative engine
An associative engine in CAD/solid modelling software is the component which maintains the associative relationships between the collection of geometric entities. The associative relationships are basically LISP expressions which describe the orientation and placement of two or more geometric...
External links