Editor’s Pick: CoCreate Integrates with PTC Product Development System

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Right about this time a couple of years ago PTC announced that it planned to acquire CoCreate. Smart guys everywhere wondered what PTC was up to. But, you know people have consistently misunderestimated PTC. With the announcement of CoCreate 16.5, it’s becoming clear that not only will PTC continue to support and enhance CoCreate but PTC intends to offer manufacturers a full plate of tacos.

A key innovation in version 16.5 is integration between the CoCreate family and major applications in PTC’s Product Development System (PDS) like ProductView, Arbortext, and Mathcad as well as Pro/ENGINEER. A key addition to the family is CoCreate Advanced Mechanica, which offers much higher level simulation capabilities than does CoCreate FE Analysis.

ProductView allows viewing, visualization, markup, and interaction with CoCreate data by anyone in your workgroup. Arbortext lets you create and update technical illustrations and animations directly from CoCreate models, while Mathcad helps you create, document, and capture your engineering calculations. You can also use Pro/ENGINEER NC to create complex machining toolpaths from your CoCreate part data. And you can publish your models from CoCreate Modeling 16.5 to Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 or later.

So, what you have here from PTC are three options for the manufacturing enterprise. You can have a process based off Pro/ENGINEER, a parametric feature-based modeling system that is the heart of an integrated CAD/CAM/CAE solution. Or you can have a process the leverages the CoCreate family of design products, which is based off an easy to use explicit modeler that makes creating and modifying 3D designs fast and flexible. Third, you can have a design and engineering environment that combines the two, giving you the maximum power of Pro/ENGINEER and the maximum flexibility of CoCreate.

But, what of Advanced Mechanica for CoCreate, where does that fit in? Again, let’s not misunderestimate PTC. CoCreate may be fast and flexible, and it is easier to use by more engineers than Pro/ENGINEER. That doesn’t mean that its lacking any power. The CoCreate family is serious business. PTC knows that. So, by offering a higher level analysis package and integration with major applications in PDS, PTC is enabling manufacturers to design and optimize their product development processes in a manner and with the tools that work best for them.

That’s good stuff. You can learn more about CoCreate 16.5 and all its integrations with PTC’s PDS applications in today’s Pick of the Week write-up. Make sure to hit the link to the CoCreate web page. Check out the videos – no registration required – to see what CoCreate 16.5 is all about and where CoCreate is headed.

Thanks, pal.—Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

Read today’s Pick of the Week write-up.