“Creo Tutoring: Shaping Success One Student at a Time”

One of the reasons why Creo Parametric has grown in popularity among engineers is due to the software’s vast array of functionality. In this blog, we will be going through ten of the most useful features that not many Creo users are aware of.

1.) Shortcut Keys

Knowing your shortcut keys is one of the most effective ways to speed up your product design process. Creo parametric has a large set of predefined shortcut keys that can be used to your advantage. Some notable predefined shortcut keys are displayed below:

Shortcut Keys

Another useful feature that Creo parametric offers is the ability for you to define your own shortcut keys. This level of customization allows you to avoid breaking any habits that you may have when using previous design software.

2.) Work with Creo Full Screen

A convenient configuration for smaller screens is the ability to open Creo on a full screen. By setting the config option ‘open_window_maximized = yes’ Creo will open in full screen without the gap on the right-hand side.

Creo Fullscreen

3.) Intent Selection

Intent selection is where you can select geometry created in a feature, for example selecting all the side edges of an extrude feature.

Creo - Intent Selection

This is both quicker and can also make your model more reliable. In this example, if a round is added to the edges and the shape changes in the future from rectangle to triangle, the round will not fail.

To make an intent selection, put your cursor over one of the edges or surfaces and query select (tap your right-hand mouse button) until the other geometry highlights and then select with the left-hand mouse button.

4.) Add draft to surfaces containing Rounded Edges

Creo - Draft to Surface

Draft can be added to models that already contain rounded edges. This can be very useful when applying draft late in the design as existing features do not have to be redefined.

5.) Sketch Region

Sketch regions allow areas of a sketch or multiple sketches to be used for features.

Creo - Sketch Region

Put the selection filter onto ‘Sketch Region’ to allow the areas of the sketch to be selected.

6.) Re-Define Mirror Features

Mirror features can be redefined to add or remove mirrored geometry.

Creo - Re-define mirror features

Redefine the mirror feature and select ‘Reapply Mirror’ to add or remove features.

7.) Mid Planes

Datum planes can be created in the middle of a part by using the ‘Midplane’ option. These planes are driven by geometry, so if the geometry changes, the position of the plane will also change.

Creo - Mid-Planes

8.) Sweep Selection

To quickly select multiple models in an assembly, put the selection filter onto ‘Part’ and drag a box around the required components.

Creo - Sweep Selection

Dragging from left to right will select anything in the box. Dragging from right to left will select anything in and crossing the box.

9.) Automatic Reps

Use ‘Automatic’ reps to speed performance when loading large assemblies.

Creo - Automatic Reps

This can be selected from the ‘Open’ pulldown in the ‘File Open’ dialogue.

Automatic reps allow you to select geometry and assemble it, but they do not load the full model feature information. When you activate a model, the full information is loaded into Creo memory.

10.) Model Tree Search

Use the search tool in the model tree to find components within your designs.

Creo - Model Tree Search

Conveniently, any displayed columns can also be searched instantly.

Reach out and talk to one of our experts!

What the Millennium Falcon Can Teach You About Top-Down Design

Written by:

FORTRESS INSTITUTE OF TRAINING SOLUTIONS PVT LTD
Screenshot of Star Wars Millennium Falcon.

[Editor’s note. We don’t know whether the Millennium Falcon was created using top-down design, but it should have been. Here’s why.]

Imagine you’re a chief engineer at the Corellian Engineering Corporation and you’ve just received a new assignment. You are to design a successor to the YT-1000 transport ship, and your customers want a larger vehicle with more modular options.

You realize a few things about the assignment:

  • You’ll be able to reuse a lot of existing components.
  • You have to design for modularity.
  • This is an incredibly complex design with numerous interdependencies between systems.

Here’s why you would need a top-down design methodology to get the right balance of creativity, control, and speed.

Start with the Engineering Notebook

Notebooks are a great way to use rough sketches, dimensions, parameters, tables, and notes to capture design intent and lay out the most important information that affects multiple systems and components.

We can also use them to document requirements, to source control data, and for any other information that we want to capture and control at the top level.

Here is our initial Notebook for the YT-1300F in Creo Parametric:

Notebook view of ship.

Define the Product Structure

Let’s create our top-level assembly, subassemblies, subassemblies within subassemblies, and individual parts. At this point, we aren’t building any geometry. We are simply laying out our product structure so we can figure out what components we need to make, buy, and manage. We can also leverage existing models that we want to reuse. By setting up our product structure early, we’ll be able to farm out design work among our team members and partners.

Here you can see a sample initial product structure for our freighter. Note that we’re also using configurable products and configurable modules since our vehicle will be modular and our customers can configure the cockpit, weapons, and engines.

Product structure of ship.

Initial product structure for the ship in Creo Parametric

Create Skeletons

We use special part models called skeletons to capture important geometry that affects multiple components. For example, here is a skeleton we use to define the outer mold line (OML) of the vehicle:

Skeleton view of ship.
Image source: Joshua Maruska, GrabCAD.com

Skeletons can also be used to define structures, interfaces, space claims, mechanisms (like quad laser turrets and landing gear), and envelopes for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components like our hyperdrive and sublight engines. Skeletons would also be used for routing the cable harnesses and piping for the hydraulics, fuel, water, air, and other systems. We might even have multiple skeletons at various levels to keep our models organized.

Communicate Design Information

Now that our notebook contains our most important parameters, and our skeleton model consolidates critical geometry, it’s time to share that information with our parts and assemblies.

By declaring our models to the notebook, all the notebook parameters are available to be used to drive feature dimensions. We write relations to drive feature dimensions from the notebook parameters.

We use data-sharing features like Copy GeometryShrinkwrapMergeInheritance, and Publish Geometry to communicate geometry from higher-level skeletons to lower-level skeletons and to individual parts.

Populate Your Model

With our distributed information, we can perform detailed design to create the necessary features and geometry in our parts. We can also continue placing any other components, like parts we’re reusing from earlier product lines, other COTS parts, and hardware (fasteners).

By using top-down design tools like notebooks, skeletons, and data-sharing features, we can design and control complex products. Now you’ve got a vehicle that a scruffy-looking nerf herder and a walking carpet can use to transport droids, fly the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, or help take down a Death Star.
(Note: The technical specs used in this article come from Star Wars: Millennium Falcon: Owners’ Workshop Manual.)Tags:CADRetail and Consumer ProductsConnected Devices

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ain5ZX89BWzqyHGv9

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Review Your Cart
0
Add Coupon Code
Subtotal

 
Scroll to Top