NEWS NEWS

PTC LAUNCHES CREO 7 WITH MULTIBODY MODELLING, GENERATIVE DESIGN AND MORE » PTC looks to core modelling fundamentals to enable greater mixing of geometric forms alongside a cohesive set of simulation tools that share the same data backbone

TC has announced the launch the form of multibody modelling, added of Creo 7, the latest release to Creo for the first time. This will allow of its flagship product design users more flexibility when modelling and engineering system. complex forms and adds new tools This new version sees a required to fully support the generative Pmajor focus on simulation, in both its design and optimisation capabilities traditional and GPU-driven, real-time added in this release. forms, as well as on computational Visualisation also gets a look-in, with fluid dynamics (CFD) studies. an update to the Creo Visualize module. Readers may remember that Creo 6 This is based on Luxion’s KeyShot, directly saw the introduction of Creo Simulation integrated into the Creo user interface. Live, based on Ansys’ real-time simulation Reaction from long-term Creo technology. Creo 7 builds on this, adding customers given early access to the fluid flow to the module, along with release has been positive. This will see Creo’s generative design greater integration with behavioural “Creo has helped us revolutionise the tools take to the cloud, to enable much modelling. This means that parametric way we develop, produce, and maintain broader experimentation and optimisation design studies and optimisation runs can our motorcycles,” said Adrian Marshall, of design challenges. be conducted in far shorter timeframes manager of computer-aided design in “Creo 7.0 is one of our most innovation- than were previously possible. product development at motorcycle rich releases yet, allowing customers to Alongside real-time simulation, Creo manufacturer Royal Enfield, the cover star leverage Frustum’s amazing generative Top: Creo 7 covers 7 also sees the introduction of a new of our April 2020 issue. design technology and an enhanced simulation, module that integrates Ansys’ Workbench “We are sure that Creo will continue to Ansys-powered Creo Simulation Live with optimisation and technology directly into the Creo interface, benefit our design process and enable real-time fluid-flow analysis,” said Brian core design tools, as to support more traditional forms of us to deliver the best possible customer Thompson, divisional vice president and well as visualisation with Creo Visualise structural stress analysis. ownership experience,” he continued. general manager of CAD at PTC. (Image courtesy of In addition, this latest version also marks While press announcements surrounding “Creo 7.0 makes emerging technology Royal Enfield) the first time that PTC has integrated Creo 7 have made much of the addition a part of our customers’ everyday design Above: Multibody technology acquired in its 2018 purchase of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, workflows,” he added. modelling is now a of Frustum. This provides the basis for further investigation reveals that these Creo 7 is available now for existing core part of Creo and, the first generation of Creo’s integrated will not be available at launch, but customers. For further details on this while this capability has come a little late, generative design capabilities. incorporated into an update later in this release, see our full review on p48. it offers a robust and More big news for this release comes in release cycle. ptc.com inventive solution

8 MAY/JUNE 2020 DEVELOP3D.COM

p08_D3D_MAYJUN20-NEWS.indd 8 01/06/2020 17:49 REVIEWS

1 PTC Creo 7 With Creo 7, PTC demonstrates its skills at adding compelling new features and functions to an already robust toolset and making smart partnerships to extend its capabilities even further. Al Dean takes a look on what’s on offer in this release

f you’ve been involved with 3D » Product: Creo 7 robust toolset and make smart partnerships modelling techniques. Multibody is not a design and engineering software at » Supplier: PTC (with companies such as Ansys and Luxion), new approach. It’s as old as the hills. Some any point in the last twenty years, rather than attempting to reinvent the newer systems, in fact, rely on it: Fusion 360 Price: On Application you’ll probably know that PTC is wheel. and Onshape spring to mind. Ithe company that kicked off the whole ptc.com That work has paid off. Creo is a system But in case you’re not familiar with mainstream market for parametric 3D. that is experiencing a rebirth. We’ve seen the technology and technique, the term PTC took high-cost, specialist software users from among our own readership ‘multibody modelling’ describes the ability and made it easier to use. It introduced either readopt it or use it to replace to have more than one solid body contained the idea that we should be able to mainstream offerings that they have in a single ‘part’ file. parametrically edit our models and outgrown. In many cases, it’s proven more This isn’t a question of part versus incorporate our engineering knowledge into suited to their current work, due to product assembly. Instead, it’s about explicit and our engineering data, as it was built. complexity, organisational complexity, or individual chunks of geometry, embodied in Since it launched Pro/Engineer, the a combination of the two. Long-term Creo a single part. company’s toolset has evolved. At one stalwarts, meanwhile, remain committed If you can achieve this, then it’s then stage, it looked like PTC’s best years might to the system and are enthusiastically possible to do some very interesting things. be behind it, thanks to an explosion of lower adopting its newer offerings. So shall we You can, for example, use a master model cost systems such as Solidworks, Inventor dive in and take a look at what PTC is now approach to build the exterior A surfaces of et al. But PTC rallied, launching a rebranded providing in Creo 7? a product in one lump. set of tools as Creo back in 2010. Then, when the time comes, you can Creo brought together the core of Pro/ MULTIBODY MODELLING split them out into separate part files for Engineer with some smart tools from The first area of Creo I want to cover is not a further engineering. It’s also possible to use CoCreate (namely, direct modelling). It flashy new optimisation tool, nor an additive those ‘bodies’ for other functions – such as offered a redesigned user experience and ●1 Now that Creo has manufacturing-related update, nor some modelling up a negative space and removing an openness to third-party tools that could proper multibody new cloud offering. Instead, it’s the system’s it from a whole, which might prove easier supplement its own internal technologies. modelling tools, multibody capabilities. than trying to model the cavity. note how the system Fast-forward a decade and we now have manages the feature If you’ve ever used Creo (or before Given the potential value here, non-Creo Creo 7 – a system that amply demonstrates associate in the part that, Pro/Engineer), you’ll know it has users might now be wondering why it has how a company can continue to mature a history tree never previously supported multibody taken so long for PTC to incorporate these

DEVELOP3D.COM MAY/JUNE 2020 39

p39_40_41_42_43_D3D_MAYJUN_Creo7.indd 39 01/06/2020 17:53 types of tools in Creo. The reality is that users could previously achieve 70% of the results they needed with workarounds and fudges using surfaces and other techniques – but the extra 30% that Creo 7 now gives users is really worth the wait. Naturally, Creo’s multibody modelling tools do all of the things you’d expect. You can start with your first feature as per normal, then create a second, and Creo enables you to define whether new features are modifying the existing body or creating a new one. If you then have multiple bodies, you can define whether subsequent operations apply to them all, or just select bodies as you go. As build-up operations, each body is managed in the feature tree in terms of visibility. While this is by no means uncharted 2 territory for CAD users, it’s impressive that these capabilities have been so smoothly introduced into a system after nearly 30 Of course, a core update to underlying ADL, first seen in Creo 6, saw PTC integrate ●2 Behavioral years of development – and PTC has gone architecture like this is going to show up in the static stress, steady-state thermal Modeling and Creo the extra mile to make its approach really a bunch of other updates to a 3D modelling and modal portions of ADL with the Creo Simulation Live are used to vary design unique, in several respects. system, so let’s now have a look at what else interface and workflow. parameters to achieve The first is that any body can be defined Creo 7 has to offer users. This has now been enhanced for the Creo optimised goals as a ‘construction’ body. Construction 7 release. In the first instance, you now bodies are excluded from mass property SIMULATION: QUICK & DIRTY have transient thermal simulation, which calculations and BOM information on VERSUS OLD-SCHOOL simulates the thermal performance of drawings and the user can choose whether PTC has a long track record of providing a product over a defined period of time, to export the construction body or not when simulation tools inside of Creo and its rather than at a specific moment. exporting to other formats. predecessors. Long-term users might You can apply your starting initial To my mind, every vendor that uses a recall Pro/Mechanica, which was ahead of temperature and gauge performance as multibody approach should immediately the CAD-integrated simulation trend by a time progresses, and handily, you can toggle steal this idea, as it’s brilliant and solves substantial distance, while newer Creo users between steady-state and transient thermal one of the big headaches of multibody will know that Creo/Simulate has been an simulation at any time. modelling. offering for a while now. This release also brings both internal Another is that different bodies can be Alongside its home-brewed simulation and external fluid flow simulation from assigned with different material definitions. tools, PTC has also partnered in recent Discovery Live into the Creo interface. The Not only can you visualise them more releases with Ansys, to provide a more set-up and solve is exactly as you would easily (which in itself is not particularly modern set of tools based on Ansys’s expect. You take your assembly and work unique), but you can also achieve more Discovery Live (ADL) simulation technology. through the process, with the results accurate mass calculations. This is going This, if you’ve not come across it before, is streaming into the interface. to be incredibly useful for those working a simulation solver that takes advantage Compared to traditional CFD work, with master model approaches and for of some new methods, along with today’s these types of tools strip hours out of the those developing multi-material parts. (I’m ultra-efficient GPU computation capabilities, workflow. Again, the results are live, so the thinking here of over-moulded or two-shot to deliver simulation results faster than resultant flow characteristics are available moulded parts and inserts, rather than we’ve ever seen before. In other words, as soon as you finish a design edit. additively manufactured multi-material it might not be exactly ‘real-time’, but it’s Another update for Creo Simulate Live parts.) pretty damned close. is that there’s been a lot of work done The benefits will also be felt when you With ADL, Ansys covers not only static to integrate this ultra-efficient, modern then follow up with documenting individual stress, but also internal and external fluid simulation technology with a technology set ‘parts’ in BOMs and drawings (where flow, as well as static and transient thermal that’s been part of the Creo playbook – and hatching differentiates separate bodies). studies. The Creo-integrated version of its predecessors – for two decades now.

WORKFLOW: FROM MULTIBODY ASSEMBLY MODEL TO...

●1 The first step is to set up the optimisation ●2 You can then review the process of the ●3 Review converged solutions based on ●4 Leverage validation tools to interrogate study by defining the design space, physics, optimisation dynamically on the screen until the optimisation definition, which includes the optimised shape by displaying stress loads and constraints, goals, manufacturing a converged solution is reached and you are a summary panel listing material used and and deformation fringe plots and querying process and materials ready to proceed final mass the models

40 MAY/JUNE 2020 DEVELOP3D.COM

p39_40_41_42_43_D3D_MAYJUN_Creo7.indd 40 01/06/2020 17:53 in assemblies (with automation where applicable), and supports similar design of experiments to run parametric studies. There is support, too, for more complex forms, such as beams, shells, springs and remote masses – and all using the robust and industry-proven solver technology for which Ansys is highly regarded. For the Creo 7 release, Creo Ansys Simulation is being offered as an alternative to Creo Simulate.

THE G WORD: GENERATIVE Now, let’s recap what we’ve talked about so far. There’s the ability to handle multiple bodies in a single part; the use of more efficient simulation technologies that take advantage of the GPU; and the enhancements around more traditional simulation tools for validation of parts. 3 As you may have guessed, it’s all leading to a discussion of ‘the G word’: Generative. Regular PTC watchers will recall that the in ●3 Creo Ansys The Behavioural Modelling Extension (or use the output from Creo Simulate Live as late 2018, the company acquired generative Simulation brings BMx for short) is a set of tools that allow you the basis for experimentation, factoring in design start-up Frustrum. Its main focus the power of Ansys to take a parametric model and use it as the stress, deformation, maximum temperature, was the all-too-familiar problem of using Workbench directly into the Creo basis for experimentation. We’re not talking heat flux, velocity and pressure. topology optimisation to solve engineering environment about topology optimisation here. Instead, This is achieved by placing a probe and an challenges, but ending up instead with a we’re referring to a much cleaner and more associated measurement in the study, which mess of mesh-based geometry. predictable process, which uses a number can then be used to define its goals. Frustrum’s proposed solution was to of different methods to vary parameters It’s worth noting here that Creo Simulation allow the user to define a study based on to reach an optimised state and meet a Live is being sold as a complete solution, required geometry, keep-out zones and so required goal. so there’s no splitting out of structural, on, add multiple load cases, and then have That process might be an optimisation, thermal, fluid flow studies and so on. The the system calculate an optimised form where you vary parameters within specified BMx tools are a prerequisite, of course, according to the shape controls applied. limits in order to achieve a target, such as and if you’re not using those already It would then return a nicely smoothed-out minimised mass; or it might be a feasibility (attachment rates are around 25%), it’s an form that could be used to progress further. study, where you vary parameters to additional cost. It also had a prototype geometry engine achieve a particular property. That that took in new field-driven methods of property, meanwhile, could be a specific SIMULATION FOR GROWN-UPS geometry design for better handling of interior volume (in CPG packaging, for Alongside the Creo Simulation Live updates, lattices and more. example, or fuel delivery in automotive) or traditional simulation capability has also This acquired technology has now started an optimum centre of gravity for product been a focus for this release. to appear inside Creo. In Creo 7, it follows stability. Here, we see PTC start to move away a familiar workflow. First, you define your As many will know, BMx has been available from its own Pro/Mechanica technology, in optimisation domain in terms of geometry for decades, so why bring it up now? The favour of delivering a set of CAD-integrated for a starting shape, forms that need answer is that PTC has worked with Ansys to tools based on Ansys’s platform. This to be retained and those to be avoided. build a connection between Creo Simulate follows the same pattern seen with the Creo You’ll also need to add in constraints Live and BMx. Simulation Live toolset; in other words, it’s and loading conditions, both in terms of That’s important, because traditionally, based on using that platform directly within forces, pressures and torques, as well as BMx has focused on the power of parametric Creo, rather than a connection to Ansys manufacturing-related shape controls. modelling to achieve a design goal that’s Workbench. This is all pretty standard for topology readily measurable from your CAD model The new module, Creo Ansys Simulation, optimisation. What happens next, however, (such as centre of gravity, mass, volume offers static structural, thermal and modal is absolutely not. and so on) – and that’s very useful. But with simulation capabilities. It handles meshing Frustum’s technology is highly suited this new integration, you can extend this to (using Ansys’ meshing tools) and contact to computation on the GPU and takes

... GENERATIVELY OPTIMISED PARTS IN CREO 7.0

●5 Output the resulting optimisation into ●6 You can now easily modify the design ●7 In this step, you can quickly recompute ●8 From here, you can continue to a rich B-rep model through powerful by editing the parametric parameters of the optimisation, based on various design seamlessly update your design, based on reconstruction technology, maintaining the the original geometry or, alternatively, the changes to produce an updated shape that any design changes and new optimisation original analytical geometry optimisation set-up more accurately reflects your design intent preferences

DEVELOP3D.COM MAY/JUNE 2020 41

p39_40_41_42_43_D3D_MAYJUN_Creo7.indd 41 01/06/2020 17:53 advantage of those processing resources to achieve something pretty spectacular. If you’ve got a suitable Nvidia GPU in your workstation (a modern Quadro card supporting CUDA 3.5), you’ll see the optimisation start to resolve in real-time in the Creo window. (If you don’t have an suitable card available, it will use the CPU, but will be significantly slower.) You’re not relying on the cloud, nor tying up your workstation’s processor(s) for hours on end. It all happens in real time. As you make edits to any of the conditions – for example, loads/constraints or geometry factors – you’ll see the results start to update in real time, too. Once you have the result you want and everything has converged, you can use a facetted model of the results, or more usefully, you can create a smoothed-out 4 CAD model with a network of surfaces that can be used in downstream modelling. Of course, there are several caveats here. Results can be highly organic and your production processes might prefer something more prismatic, or you might prefer to use the results as the basis for more traditional modelling. That organic nature might also cause issues during meshing using more traditional simulation tools.

HOLISTIC WORKFLOW Here’s perhaps the most impressive aspect of all of this: everything is built on a common data platform - and that means everything you define can be reused in subsequent operations and workflows. For example, if you start with generative design boundary conditions, the boundary condition already added can be used directly in Creo Simulation live 5 and Creo Ansys Simulation for running further simulation and validation studies. The potential for some really interesting realm of actual generative design. together larger experimental sets, the data ●4 Topology workflows to emerge from this set of The difference between topology you need to compute, then filter through, optimisation works in real time, using the tools is huge. optimisation and generative design is grows massively. compute power of However, template-driven design - that the former focuses on reaching a Given this, it’s no surprise that PTC is your GPU (assuming where an old master defines the rules and single, optimum design. The latter focuses already talking about the use of artificial it’s an Nvidia) new staff create variants - comes with on giving you options - or optima, if you intelligence (AI) in its marketing messaging ●5 Once you’ve got its own challenges. Perhaps the biggest will. Give generative design technology around generative design, proposing that your optimised result, of these is error propagation; if you get a set of boundary conditions, load cases, AI will filter out those studies that aren’t you can then use built- loading conditions wrong (or just poorly material options and manufacturing-related needed or won’t work. in simulation tools to validate them defined) at an early stage, those errors geometry control, and it will create a set of According to PTC, “The cloud will will quickly creep into the rest of the results that solve the engineering challenge, eventually leverage AI in the form of genetic workflow, resulting in a poorly designed/ enabling you to evaluate, inspect, reject algorithms and machine learning to identify optimised part. where appropriate and thus progress. which possible solutions to calculate and Partway through the Creo release, PTC is then further iterate. This will help to reduce TRUE GENERATIVE DESIGN looking to introduce a cloud-based offering the huge number of potential solutions IS COMING that does all of this. The claim is that it’ll being calculated to a more manageable The majority of tools we’ve covered so far allow you more freedom to explore a design number.” are coming in the first release of Creo 7, challenge. As with other vendors making but several are billed to appear further similar promises (Autodesk being the prime VISUALISATION & AR down the line, in subsequent updates. example), this is going to be a chargeable Visualisation and collaboration are two One of these is the traditional Creo Ansys offering, but no further details are currently more areas of enhancement and focus for Simulation module, billed for Creo 7.0.2 (due available. Creo 7 that I want to cover here. some time in around October 2020 Another The front end, as it stands, looks in line On the visualisation front, recent Creo is an extension of the generative design with what you’d expect, including graphing releases have seen a number of additions tools. While the tools we’ve discussed so far and charting tools that are vital to filtering for both traditional visualisation and fall fairly and squarely into the ‘enhanced down larger datasets. On the subject of augmented reality (AR). Dealing with topology optimisation’ category, this newer larger datasets, one of the issues with this traditional visualisation first, Creo Render set of tools will definitely take PTC into the type of work is that once you start to put Studio was introduced in Creo 5 and is built

42 MAY/JUNE 2020 DEVELOP3D.COM

p39_40_41_42_43_D3D_MAYJUN_Creo7.indd 42 01/06/2020 17:53 on Luxion’s rendering technology, as seen in its KeyShot product. This enables Creo users to very quickly get an idea, directly in the Creo interface, of how their product will look, with physically based materials and realistic lighting conditions applied. For this latest release, users can now customise the floor position in the Creo window, so that shadows and reflections can be adjusted. Plus, if you’re using Creo Manikin, which gives your model human factors (with a full range of anthropometric data), you can now use the ‘vision window’ to render out what the manikin sees using Render Studio. This saves you having to fake it with a camera or other workarounds. As we’ve already discussed GPU use, it’s worth noting that current plans are for Creo 7 to gain GPU support in Creo Render Studio in the 7.0.2 release around October. 6 Lastly on the viz front and looking at augmented reality, PTC introduced the AR Design Share tools some time ago and have getting a third party to integrate directly aerospace and defence. Wherever there’s ●6 Users can easily updated these pretty consistently over each inside the Creo additive workflow tools. a need to fully document a part according visualise toolpaths in release. The most recent updates move to its manufacturing and inspection graphics area during synchronization step, away from a printed ‘ThingMark’ target, to ADDITIONAL UPDATES requirements, drawings are not always the which is handy for an automatic location technology, which To round things out, let’s take a look at ideal method to convey information. working with multi- identifies a flat surface on which to place some smaller updates in Creo 7. These Creo’s MDB toolset is well advanced, but axis and multi-spindle your AR object. might not get much attention, but are just Creo 7 brings support for updated standards mill/turns and Swiss- From Creo 7 onwards, the user will be as important to users who go deep into (ISO 1101:2017 and Y14.2-2018) and new style lathes able to publish combination states as particular areas of the system. leader types for tangency, as well as a part of an AR experience. If you’re not A prime example is work done on the syntax checker that will not only ensure familiar with Combination States, these are sketcher, one of the most frequently used you’re able to conform to those standards, adapted views of your product model that areas of any 3D modelling system. While the but also help ensure they are used correctly. could feature an exploded view, simplified functionality available in Creo’s sketcher representations, cross sections, zone has not changed a great deal (apart from IN CONCLUSION clippings and the like, to help communicate the ability to mirror across any linear This, if I’m honest, is one of the most your data more effectively. geometry), the amount of visual feedback impressive releases of a 3D design and you get has really come on. This shows you engineering system that I’ve seen in a good MACHINING AND ADDITIVE relationships between selected parts much few years. There’s a solid mix here of brand- For almost all of its life, Creo has been more clearly. Select a line or arc, and it’ll new functionality, integrated with existing a manufacturing-focused system. That show you the constraints that apply to it and technologies, and some bold thinking means there’s a substantial set of users any inter-geometry relationships, such as around revisiting core concepts in complex out there who have been using this set of parallelism and perpendicularity. product design. tools for decades and are sticking with it, Another interesting update is seen in the The addition of multibody modelling to for 2.5-axis through to 3-axis work, high- Freestyle toolset. This is Creo’s take on a system with a three-decade history may speed machining and into the realms of sub-divisional modelling; introduced quite confuse a few folks, but its implementation 5-axis work. But that’s not to say that there a while back, it’s seen fairly widespread here looks pretty damned good. The isn’t room for some smart thinking every adoption. A Creo 7 update to Freestyle tools are well thought out and introduce now and again. For example, Creo 7 brings relates to aligning surfaces with other some really novel concepts. The idea greater support for complex multi-spindle geometry. In addition to existing options for of construction bodies, in particular, is swiss-type lathes. positional, tangency and curvature control, outstanding. Of course, the manufacturing world you can now align a surface to another edge The integration of Frustrum’s technology has also grown in recent years to include or curve using a specified angle of draft. For is excellent. Topology optimisation is additive manufacturing. While Creo has those working with complex moulded parts something many folks are interested in, but had a few updates that focus on this, the or perhaps complex castings, this is going to only a small percentage are actively using it. majority of tools are centred on the creation prove very useful indeed in terms of cutting There’s a rich opportunity here for users to of lattice structures – and while these aren’t down on workarounds. explore what it can do for them. restricted to being additively manufactured, Other updates worth highlighting are the Collaborative efforts with partners such chances are that they will be in future, ability to more easily edit draft angles on as Ansys and Luxion bring best-in-class particularly as you move down in scale. imported geometry. Previously, this was a technology not just to the Creo interface, Creo 6 got a good chunk of lattice design pretty convoluted workaround that required but also its underlying data platform and tools built into it, so Creo 7 really just additional geometry to be built. Now, you users’ workflows. This makes enormous expands that a little to include stochastic can use the existing draft tools, select your sense - even if it means your licence lattices that follow the edges of the body reference geometry and make your edits. configuration is likely to swell. you are filling and you now support for The operation respects any associated and There’s much to dig into within Creo 7 Delauney lattices). You can now add curves connected geometry, such as fillets, where and more to come as the release cycle and surfaces to your own custom lattice possible. progresses. If you’re an existing user, it’s cell designs and there’s also an API-level The final update we’re going to cover is time to start planning your adoption of new integration to Additive Works’ Amyphon in the area of model-based design (MBD). features and functions. If you’re not, now system for powder-bed fusion build This is a growing trend, particularly at might be a very good time to take a look. simulation – this is the first example of PTC organisations working in automotive, ptc.com

DEVELOP3D.COM MAY/JUNE 2020 43

p39_40_41_42_43_D3D_MAYJUN_Creo7.indd 43 01/06/2020 17:53