Creo Parametric Reviews & Product Details

My favorite thing about Creo Parametric is the speed at which it handles large assemblies and smoothness of mechanism motions. Large assemblies can be rotated, moved, and operated on systems that are not extremely powerful. Many of our assemblies are 100s of parts and they are never hard to manage in Creo Parametric.

The main thing I dislike about Creo is the WIndchill system used to handle/store all of the parts and drawings. Windchill is great for storing part and drawing files and finding parts and relations inside assemblies, but that is only if you attribute and describe your parts correctly. The attribute fields and naming/copying/saving workflow is confusing sometimes and can be a difficult for people who are not used to fully describing parts or saving/editing parts in a system like Creo Parametric's Windchill.

Creo Parametric is super simple, user-friendly, well supported, and extremely powerful. The new versions have really great search functions for sorting through vast part libraries to find what you need. Definitely try Creo Parametric!

We draw all of our products, machine parts, and assemblies in Creo Parametric. This lets us all be on the same page with the latest revision of all drawings and make changes while keeping old revisions and relations intact. We can find machine assemblies quickly and print drawings for sub-parts way faster with Creo Parametric than with any other software I have used.

The Creo Parametric software is very much user friendly and easy to understand as it uses the parameters to define the object. It has many work benches like Part modelling, Drafting, Assembly, Surface Modelling and many more, which helps to meet the business requirements. It is the Auto contrainst.

Creating animations using Creo Parametric is a bit difficult which takes some time for the new users to understand. The auto explode option used for exploding the views is not good.

Creo provides Auto Dimensioning and Auto contraints which helps to perform the tasks quickly. It has many work benches which helps the user to explore more and learn the new things.

We use Creo Parametric for Part modelling and Drafting, where we create some parts and majorly do the drafting as requested from the customer. The creo being auto constraint and auto dimensioning provides us performing the task with in specified time.

Mold split interface is very in depth and detailed, with all of the features it should have. Surfacing and radii creation are a step above most software I've dealt with, especially Solidworks. Layers and other display features are very easy to use and add a lot of flexibility. Table and point patterns are the best I've experienced in a CAD software. Assembly functions and constraints are powerful and very customizable. Wireframe view and colors are the cleanest I've experienced which is very helpful in dealing with large, complex assemblies or parts to check interference and clearance.

Some of the user interface can be challenging for new users, especially the failure mode (yet it is very important to have it the way it is once you get used to it. It may be a hardware issue but it doesn't seem to handle very large assemblies very well.

Customize your ribbons as much as possible and adapt to the concept. For Wildfire 5 and previous release users this may be a challenge.

Creo has a great surfacing interface along with the best calculation for fillets (radii) of any software package I've used which really comes in handy for both part and tool design. These tools greatly increase your ability to deal with imported geometry that is often times not clean. . Complicated surfacing issues that CATIA can't handle. It is my preferred CAD software over any of the 4 I've had some level of experience with.

- Creo is quite use friendly and menu based software. Good in handling assembly features and that's why its used in most of the engineering companies who are in the field of design, assembly and manufacturing.

I have been using since last 13 years. No complain so far. Though I feel that the pro/mechanism is an area where improvements would be welcome. Its not that much user friendly I feel. IN today's world we have to simulate/visualize the mechanism/joints and it would be better if its improved.

- Flexible tool

- Easy to use

- Good in handling assembly features

I am working as a user for creo and utilize this tool to work on day-to-day design activities. Top down assembly approach is the biggest benefits of Creo as compared to other design tools.

Assembly management is very much user friendly. We can make different representation based on our product variants. For ex..top level assembly will have all the options and based on premium service offerings, we could make different representation to select different attachements.

Parametric phenomina, user interface, continuous upgradation..

too much steps to perform a command, Lengthy workflow as compare to other softwares, Problem to rename file..

Creo parametric is best softwares for those engineers who are dealing with Mechanical design, It is less useful for asthetic designs like automobiles, hardwares etc.. It is best for heavy assembly products, if your requirments are non asthetic products you can simply go through this software..

I have solved so many business problems like Concept modeling, assembly modeling, 2d drafting, simulation, assembly drawing etc. with creo parametric, I have realized that it benefits to change model dimension via changing of 2d drafting dimension called parametric technology, no other software can do this..

I've used Creo/ProE for about 10 years now. Over all that time I haven't found a good thing about using it.

It's all around inefficient.

My grip list:

1.) The interface sucks, while the ribbon in MS office (and every other program that uses it) is implemented correctly the one in Creo blows. The drafting ribbons are the worst.

2.) WTF is the purpose of the activate button? NO software requires you to activate the window after you click on it, that's in the action of switching windows. This is an outdated feature and shows PTC's unwillingness to move on.

3.) When closing a window you're never asked to save, but Creo still stores the file in session. When I close the part and it's not opened in an assembly get rid of it, in this day an age I see little to no benefit to keeping an unopened part in memory.

4.) Drawing mode makes me want to punch a baby. The interface is terrible it has always been terrible when you take crap and put a ribbon on it, it is still crap...but with a pretty ribbon.

5.) Assembly mode sucks, it's much better than ProE but still sucks.

6.) The Esc key is not consistent, when I press it I want to "escape" out of the damn function I'm in. I can't even say this works half the time.

7.) Collection windows don't collect automatically, what's the point of the collection window if I still have to hold down Ctrl key?

8.) The mirror command often fails after an update and regen. (at least for me, I have to delete the mirror and do it again).

9.) If the feature in the part fails to regen I see that, I don't need an inescapable info window telling me on the opposite side of the screen.

10.) Draft function is lacking, I often have to leave all the drafts out and let my supplier add them.

11.) I don't understand why there is still history based modelling in an assembly model. Load the parts, and then the constraints... oh wait it's so you can keep selling Mechanism isnt' it?

12.) No reload from source file button. (if this exists I have no idea where it is) instead I have suppress the file everywhere it's used, clear session memory, delete from workspace and then reopen the part and regen.

13.) Working directories are locked, this is the 21st people I think we can do better than this.

14.) I hate the layers interface, I just hate it, it's clunky and I have to click a lot also they are becoming an obsolete feature.

15.) Why is the accept button the middle mouse wheel button? I loath this feature, especially in assembly mode.

16.) The show/hide datums is terrible. Why do I have to create a datum in the model just to use it in the drawing?

17.) No 3D sketches, this is a 3D modeling program and I can't make a sketch in 3D? Instead I have to use a series of sketches, projected curves and datum curves to create something rather simple in other CAD programs.

18.) The piping interface needs improvement...lots of improvement. The workflow is so batty I avoid using it.

19.) While in "Insert" mode and you resume the last feature it doesn't resume the previous features. (an action outside the insert should automatically cancel insert mode.)

20.) I hate the sketcher, the interface is clunky and doesn't by default lock a dimension when you set it.

21.) Still no mouse gestures in modeling or sketcher. Instead I have to looooong right click (stupid) and select what looks like a checkbox for a line/circle wtf was the thought processes on this?

22.) Why the hell do I have to long right click something? I just don't see the purpose since the short right-click does nothing.

23.) When creating a new sketch and you have a plane selected, Creo generally assumes wrong 98% of the time. Just pull to the nearest normal to view.

24.) While inside a sketch you can't hide/unhide features.

25.) The "undo" button is nothing more than false hope. If you're going to have it make it more useful than what it is. See gripe 12

26.) Copy/Paste feature is lame, I can't preview my sketch plane before I place the internal sketch.

27.) While in assembly mode you can't easily hide a part or change/remove cross-sections.

28.) No box selection or lasso selection tool. I know there is something like this in the sketcher, but it would be nice to have this everywhere.

29.) No multi-monitor support, I have three monitors but Creo can only work in one at a time.

30.) The help key doesn't pull up help to the function I'm working in by default.

31.) No option that I can see to create a drawing from the file... instead I have to click new-->drawing-->template and enter the part number in the file name box...again (not efficient)

32.) The sheetmetal tools are clunky at best, and when you do a "Save As" it doesn't change the family table name to the new file.

33.) No keyboard shortcuts for views. Instead I have to use mapkeys so it's really not a shortcut.

34.) Maybe it's just me, but I'm not a fan of how Creo loads assemblies. It should load all the parts first and then apply the constraints in my opinion. See gripe 11.

35.) While in sketcher, there is no way to dissove a point to make two line sigments one.

36.) When you have a sheetmetal part and you do a "Save A Copy" and rename the part, the family table doesn't change and the drawing doesn't refrence the new part number.

37.) It is unclear whether you select the feature in the model tree or in the 3D view on some tools, ex in Pipe info you have to select the segment in the view not the model tree.

38.) This error: Group member feature must be younger than group head feature. By far one of the dumbest errors I've come across. I despise using groups for this stupid issue. See gripe 11 and 34

39.) I have to click a 10-25 times to select something WHY?!

40.) When a feature fails I get the info box, but what the is the point of an "Ok/Cancel" confirmation box after I click Ok or Cancel in the info box? Seriously the person that thought that should be kicked in the balls.

41.) Failures have no description of the failure, it never tells you what exactly is causing the failure.

None, wastes a lot of my time.

Creo 4.0 brings in some significant advances. The most useful for the company I work for is enabling minimizing material usage when creating 3D Printed parts. Creo 4.0 has the ability to "hollow out and automatically add lattice structure" to the inside of a solid model. This money-saving technique is necessary, and Creo's built-in functionality to do it for you is a huge time-saver!

MBD, or model-based definition, the latest attempt to leave 2D drawings behind, looks like it actually works this time - at least you can see the design intent applied by the user - but it still remains to be seen if suppliers outside our corporation will buy into the investment needed for their programmers/inspectors/operators to be able to view the 3D models with 3D-annotated tolerances and geometric tolerances. They all will need access and expertise to the 3D part files, whereas a 2D paper drawing still stands alone with no additional PCs or training required

Creo 4.0 has cut away much of the density of menus, overall a good thing - but getting used to the on-the-fly on-screen function buttons and difficulty of finding what you want quickly is, like all change to a learned UI, a challenge and at times frustrating!

Stick with it! It requires diligence and perseverance, but the payoff is there!

I am designing and/or modeling many small steel components for test lab setup needs. Most of these are one-offs, so the 3D printing functionality built in to 4.0 pays off time and again.

What I like about Creo is that it inherited and maintains most of the capabilities of Pro/Engineer.

I especially like the ease of creating detail drawings and visualizations, how easy it is to create top down relational designs, section an assembly without concern for what module you're in etc... I like how easy it is to perform analysis and get information.

At the part design level, Creo and CATIA are much the same. But a CATIA skillset takes much longer to develop then with Creo, requiring many more classes, dozens to get to the expert level.

But with design automation, Creo really outshines CATIA, as it uses a much more robust API and can be easily accessed and interfaced by outside applications and webpages, whereas with CATIA you're stuck with limited Visual Basic, which really sucks!

So Creo is really great software, but not any better then Pro/E was, and the PTC developers truly should all be tarred and feathered. They're probably already planning to repackage Creo again, or going to change the terminology... again, back to protrusion from extrusion maybe? Who at PTC approved terminology changes anyways?

I'm no longer a fan of CAD program interface changes. When you're first learning it's not a big deal, but for long time users we kind of get on auto-pilot, and when you make unnecessary changes to the GUI and repackage commands it really slows us down. Non-value added activity!

My biggest complaints about PTC Pro/ENGINEER and/or Creo would be with the software developers changing things. I've hated when they changed things... the mouse to conform Windows compliant or the attempts to reduce mouse clicks and eliminate nestled menus. ~Nonsense.

I'd also like for PTC to develop composites functionality into Creo SImulate, i.e. ply stack, fiber orientation, stiffness matrix, and virtual crack growth (VCCT) capability.

PTC product managers and developers are complete %@#! for making unnecessary changes, but Creo is still much better than Catia.

Having reached high levels of proficiency using both Pro/E (Creo) and CATIA-V5, I'll admit that I prefer Creo for the ease of getting work done.

It's easier in Creo to create assembly automation, knowledge based product configurators (KBC). It's also easier to perform analysis and get accurate results using the analysis tools.

Allows import and translation of almost any file type. Can modify the imported part using the Flexible modeling features.

User interface and commands are not user friendly. Having to hold down a key and click with the mouse to take a measurement is an example of the unfriendly user interface. Configuration editor menu is difficult to find the options that you are looking to change. File management portion of software is unusable without having a PDM software. Versions of files are saved and end up with a different file name every time you save which creates clutter with the folder. So many files with similar names makes it very difficult to use windows explorer to search for and open files. Changing a file name will prevent an assembly from opening. Organization to the online user support is terrible. Have had more luck with youtube searches than the actual PTC support website. Have to be set up with additional support package to be able to read some of the how to articles from PTC.

If you have the opportunity look at other software with a friendlier user interface. Leverage the support from the reseller, they will be able to help you with tips and tricks for getting around within the software.

It is the same software that most of our customers use and the other division of our company.

There really isn't too much that i like about Creo. I prefer any cad software over creo and in fact, have turned down multiple job offers now because the companies use creo, and it is one of the major reasons i want to leave my current job

Coming from SolidWorks, I can't stand using Creo! Some things work similarly, but a lot of little things drive me insane! Everything is more difficult and requires more clicks to do what I want to do. I've worked with some other CAD programs before, such as SolidWorks, Unigraphics, and AutoCAD...all of those were much easier to learn and use because their controls were more intuitive (well unigraphics is pretty dimilar to solidworks, but autocad's quite different but still much more intuitive i managed to learn it myself in about an hour).

I constantly have problems checking in and out in creo, and it constantly freezes on me

Stay away from it, unless it's the first CAD program you're learning. Otherwise, it sucks. All other 3d cad softwares are better

My company is one of the largest office furniture companies in North America. The division I work in utilizes creo to make sheet metal parts. Some people mention that handling family tables is easier than other softwares, but I personally do not find that. Personally, i do not see any benefits in using Creo

Robust handling of large assemblies.

Best-in-class feature solver.

Highly-disciplined constraint management.

Application stability.

Memory management.

Inability to choose geometric/feature references after initiating an operation.

Limited picker filtering.

Number of clicks/operations to accomplish many tasks.

Over-reliance on proprietary UI operations, where common, well-known Windows UI methods (keyboard shortcuts, mouse actions) already exist. Limited File Explorer feature support: right-clicking in file browsing windows in Windows 7 feels more like Windows 95.

Sparse dimension formatting options (would like to be able to color-code dimension text/background for routine inspection, FAI inspection, etc.).

Expensive add-ons; Creo ECAD costs as much as a core license, for example.

Inflexible file naming conventions - seems to only handle UNIX syntax.

Reliance on archaic DOS cmd operations to manage license sessions and file cleanup.

Consider in advance what add-ons you will be needing in the future.

Consider the size of assemblies that you will be handling.

Large assembly modeling.

Thermal analysis.

Creo Parametric is mostly used by the Aerospace industries as it is Auto contrainst and Auto Dimensioning. It is very much user friendly and can be used for sheet metals. The best part of it is top down approach.

The main drawback is, installation process is difficult. It does not contain more modules where we can explore things.

Assembly Drawings is very comfortable. Auto contrainst option provides you the flexibility to do the modelling. It is user friendly.

We use Creo Parametric, to do the sheet metal work and Assembly Drawings where the drafting and balloons are very easy to define.

Creo is easy to use and seems to repair existing models easier than solidworks. I do find that this platform is harder to learn and get confident with. That may be just me however, as i am use to another platform.

You can only use certain file types in Creo, but i suppose that could be said for any CAD platform. It seems a bit hard to learn and develop a good workflow.

Weigh your options for CAD programs, there be another out there that suits your needs better.

Design and 3D printing purporses. We do alot of repairing via CREO

One of the most powerful 3D CAD packages available. Does an excellent job with large assemblies and complicated models (surfaces, sheet metal, etc.). Very good integration with many add-in options (ANSYS, PDM, Keyshot, etc.). The ribbon interface is vastly improved over prior versions. Drawing mode has been greatly improved over prior versions: it no longer feels like an afterthought. There are plenty of options for file interchange and conversion.

The interface is still a mixed bag of the terribly outdated and ineffective menu manager and the new ribbon menu interface. Selection filter still has a mind of its own: defaults to selecting an edge or point deeper in the part instead of the front surface that you are hovering on. Some features could be incredibly useful if they were not glitchy: pattern by points frequently exhibits odd behavior with extrude directions that usually renders it unusable.

Creo is the best choice for 3D modeling in a large corporation with experiences users. There are other options for beginning CAD users that would likely be easier to learn, but I do not know of a program that has the complete package of operation that Creo has.

As a product development engineer, Creo constitutes a majority of my job. My work is in high speed backplane connectors and test fixturing, tooling, etc. related to these products. Using Creo allows me to master one CAD package that can handle all of these different specialties.

From what I hear, the FEA module is pretty good, and from what I have used it for it has worked good. But that is about it.

It is slow, error prone, and the user interface is not intuitive and restricting to the designer. It prevents the user from doing things the way they want by pigeon holing them into a single way to operate with 30 more button clicks than solidworks, all in the name that it will "make you a better engineer", when in reality PTC programmers just appear to be to lazy to make their ui function like an engineer would want it to function.

Don't buy it. It is not worth the headaches to your design engineers.

We use Creo and Windchill at work for large machine tool assemblies and we are migrating to it for our BOM control.

We can model a product in creo and can check how does it look like in wire frame model and various configurations

Also, the assembly modeling became easy with all the constraint methods used

Bill of materials can be created easily with few number of steps

It's not at all user -friendly unless we had some gud amount of experience in it, we can't use it with ease and sometimes we don't know where the problem even occurred

If you know the commands correctly and updated with all the changes imbibed in the versions, then creo is an icing on cake

Generation of 3D models, drafting and with creo 4.0, many features have been came into utmost importance .

With the usage of colours, we can distinguish the parts in an assembly model

I like Creo Parametric because it suits my capability. It has so many functions, where each is vital and so imperative to a good schematic of a given product. When the product is needing improvement, Creo refines the search, and makes the necessary change.

I dislike the parallelism with other computer software systems. The system of Creo is large and widespread - through simulation to analysis. Not many programs can do what Creo does, and Creo does not do everything.

Make best use of the product by assigning each discipline to a task, and giving each discipline the ability to oversee the final product through it's stages of development.

I will be solving a deficit in Engineering directly through the use of Creo. I have seen how it can perform more efficiently task-wise, and can also be used in a breadth of quick manipulations, as well as perform on the more specific regimes which are not always accessible without a bundled product (that is it has many modules).

I've used Creo (Pro/E) since the mid 90's. It's a great program. It's more powerful than the competition, more stable, and laid out more logically. I've used the competing programs, and they just don't compare.

Unfortunately, their marketing is terrible. They don't know how to promote their software, they want to charge you extra for every little add on, and their current pricing scheme is completely impractical for small businesses. I've fought hard for them at my previous and current employers, but it's reaching a point (because of their pricing) that I just can't defend them anymore.

It's a great program for 3D solid modeling.

Not having it on my laptop anymore. It really sucks in comparison to every other 3D modeling software.

The modeling system is crude and difficult to use, switching units is overly complicated, maneuvering the model is anti-ergonomic, orbiting the model is borderline impossible. This is the mindset of creo: "We will charge you a lot of money for a software you can get a better version of for free from companies like autodesk (that is, if you are a startup company) Oh, and if you use a laptop for your 3D CAD design, then screw you and your future technology touch pads, because we love our old technology and require actual mice with scrollwheels for basically everything, so you can't use your more powerful little laptops because we at PTC we are pretentious and conservative and resistant to change. have a nice day!" The user interface looks like something I haven't seen since the 90s and it has less functionality than freakin SketchUp! I did exact measurement models on my iPad Pro that came out better than models on creo. How are you still charging people for this stuff? My friend who likes this software told me that each 3D modeling system is different like coding languages. As a master of almost every 3D modeling system on the market, I can say that if that is true, then this is freaking FORTRAN!

Don't do it. If you are a student, you can get Autodesk software for free for three years. If you are a startup company, you can get autodesk software for free indefinitely as long as your company makes less than $100,000 a year. This software is not worth the storage on your computer let alone the cost.

Your software really needs an upgrade. Join the rest of the industry in this century before you will be left behind.

Powerful, top down design, engineering drawings, free form, CAD, CAE and CAM all together. Try it! the interface is improving a lot in the last years since Pro/Engineer Wildfire, is easier now and is very stable with large assemblies, include a very well end rendering extension called Creo ARX, good to give a first impression of your projects.

The online community is great there are people 24 hours supporting you, a lot of learning materials with video tutorials and help guide, you can find many 3d models in internet for you to start and use in your designs.

The best thing is to know that no matter if your are just modeling one part or a hundred pieces assembly the software will keep up and running not like other CAD software that cant support that amount of components.

Difficult to use parameters, many steps to accomplish some features like helical sweep, freeform feature is awesome but it needs more functions, fortunately you can mix them with the solid features so you can compensate most of the things.

Try it the interface is improving a lot in the last years since Pro/Engineer Wildfire, is easier now and is very stable with large assemblies, include a very well end rendering extension called Creo ARX, good to give a first impression of your projects.

Design challenges, large assemblies products, engineering R&D and manufacturing simulations. It has been very useful for developing broad range challenges since i started to use it in college, from bicycles to bikes, to toys, household and pool products.

It becomes more intuitive as you use it. The search bar is extremely useful for beginners. I mostly use sheet metal and cabling applications and have no issues.

There a times where the program will freeze up and have a "fatal error" in which you cannot get what you haven't saved. It should have an auto-save feature to a restore feature to times that it crashes.

Powerful tool for electrical and hydraulic line designing. Can be very CPU intensive and crash when overloaded. We use lightweight tessellated models in TeamCenter when needing to view large amounts of integrated systems.

Using it to do complex modeling of electrical lines and sheet metal components. It benefits us to be able to integrate multiple systems and use the different applications available to design those systems all in the same system.

I was a previous user of Pro/E Wildfire 4, so it isn't difficult for me to find things in Creo Parametric.

Things change so drastically from one iteration of the software to the next. Many common commands that should be easy to find are buried so deep in menus that it is near impossible to find them. Shortcuts get broken going from one iteration of the software to the next. Changing the options is tedious.

I would recommend trying out different modeling packages to find one that has the features you really need, but is easy to use.

Creo is sufficient for 3D modeling.

We teach STEM with 5th graders, and we have been able to make templates for students to learn basic CAD concepts and use 3d printing at my work.

Some settings are a little confusing, but I also just probably need to be better trained on the topics.

Ability to create what we need with 3D modeling!

Hugely powerful program which allows you to create products with pin point accuracy. The best thing about Creo is the ability to make changes to your product and if done correctly, updates all features which correlate to the changed part. This makes product modification entirely doable late in the development phase when designing.

Creo is difficult to learn. It is not intuitive and the interface demands attention. The problem is that Creo has so many tools and functions within the program, that learning to a high level takes a long time compared to Solidworks for example. This would be ok, but due to the layout and difficult-to-learn features, it compounds the difficulty. If the basics are not grasped, there is no use for all the powerfult tools and features which Creo is capable of doing.

If new to this type of software, consider a learning course aimed at new users. This will help provide you with the training required to start exploring and playing around with it in your own time.

I use Creo to help develop new products in R&D. the parametric feature is what makes it unique and the benefits are huge. Due to the parametric linking, you save massive amounts of time because you can make iteration after iteration without having to explode or deconstruct your model before making changes.

I love working on Creo especially when it comes to managing massive assemblies, a point where a lot of other software fail. It gets a lot better and controllable in the case of top-down designing. If you use PTC Windchill for analysis purpose, coordinating between the two software is really easy and is a real time-saver.

This is not the easiest software to learn in comparison to other CAD software like SolidWorks. The UI is slightly different and takes time to get used to. Plus, it's expensive!

Make sure you understand your requirements before switching to PTC Creo Parametric. If you want to manage large assemblies, go for it. For simpler designs, several other software are available which are easier to use and lower in cost.

Product design, large assemblies

The best of all is software flexibility and agility in working with massive assembly in 3D as well as in 2D.

Drafting is so easy for everyday use and so flexible with changing and updating features, instant access to annotations and notes.

Feature That I like the most is Cut Out, which is very useful when I have to deal with complex geometry in assembly, for example tools for pressing plastic parts, or molds, things like that.

Other cool and useful feature that I use everyday is right click with mouse button, it is so nice, I'm very grateful for this please don;t remove this option :)

In newer version of PTC Creo Parametric the worst thing ever is mandatory usage of CTRL button for dimensions inside draft module, This is so irritating. PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP.

For every day engineering it is a must have software.

If you need a software for 3D modeling,perfect assembly user interface, really good drafting, perfect sheet metal and surface features, than this is a software for you.

I have a possibility to model, draft, calculate and render under one surrounding.

Also very easy for me to generate and distribute BOM, Drawings and technical illustrations, this saves me some time and eventually money.

For every day engineering it is a must have software.

Compared to previous versions, the Creo Parametric 3.0 definitely got better. The layout definitely is better to see, and they fixed some issues regarding error boxes encountered during opening. Creo is very easy to use for simple designs that it offers. However, when creating your own design, there are several points you have to learn from other instructional sites.

Whenever you save a file, a new file is created, which is helpful if you have to go back to redo areas. But, makes managing several files for 1 file very cumbersome.

You can't open files of Pro-E or Creo Parametric 2.0 in the 3.0 version. Also, the 3-D printers in my school only allows files from Pro-E, so you have to check the compatibility of your place.

Also, the program can be very laggy sometimes for unknown issues. There also is always some disturbances while opening up the software, such as working paths, error boxes and weird internet browser.

It is a very good CAD for beginners and light users. However to extensive users, I believe that there are easier software out there.

I do lots of designing models and products. Moreover, you can do stress analysis, although are not exact.

The parametric properties of the design are unmatched.

Not so user friendly until you are used to it

All types of design requirements. It also works well with Windchill.

The software really has all sorts of possible functions and makes a point to be very in depth so that any shape is possible to make in a defined manner.

Sometimes there is not enough description when hovering over functions; their name alone is not enough to tell what the functions does as well as its limitations. This requires going to external tutorials to fully understand; it is not intuitive.

Definitely learn this; it is powerful but will also make other CAD systems easier from what I hear.

Creo allows us to do advanced surfacing and modeling for a plastic molding company for consumer products.

CREO is more powerful than many of the other comparable software products. Also, at our company we link it with PTC Windchill, which allows for seamless communication.

It can be a little slow depending on the machine that it is being used on. This is because it requires a lot of computing power. I doubt it is more than other similar products are using though, other than products that are significantly less powerful.

Creo is a great product that integrates and communicates seamlessly with Windchill.

We use CREO for all of our product design. It works seamlessly with Windchill as a one stop stop solution.

Part modeling interface is very good i loved it, No need to search for commands

Felt difficulty while doing sheet metal modeling and surface modeling

Want to do part design then switch to Creo parametric and save the time asa well as enjoy the ease

Part design and surface modeling in transportation department

Little if any thing is the best about PTC Creo

Have used many different CAD packages over the span of my 25+ years as a mechanical engineer and this software is a relic of the 90's. It has not kept up with the times and the ever changing environment of CAD design, the best days of PTC are far behind them.

Some glaring issues:

* Without training and mentoring the s/w is next to impossible to learn, it required at least 2 weeks of professional train and 6-9 months to master. Without this, engineering companies should expect a 75% drop in productivity from their staffing in the first few months

* the basic structure of the program does not follow other easy to use CAD packages ( SolidWorks, Inventor, Solid Edge) as such, people familiar with any of these program will find that Creo does not follow the basic command structure, which will result in a steep learning curve.

* The UI is terrible no ease of use. UNIX based legacy data management.

* Drafting module is very unintuitive,

* standard library files do not exist.

* Wind chill PDM is difficult to learn

In general, PTC has lost market share to other companies, I live and work in the same located as PTC corporate, and in general most companies use Solidworks..

I would not recommend this s/w or a person to work for a company that is still using it.

Don't purchase this product, unless you are willing to put every user thru 2 weeks of training and expect a 6 month learning curve and productivity drop. better CAD s/w is out there

engineering design

Does everything I need for my job. It becomes more intuitive over time, especially with the basic functions like solid part creation, extruding, sketching, etc.

I find that the program has a lot of "fatal errors" and crashes. I'm not sure if it's just maxing out my memory or what is causing it, but if I haven't saved recently enough, I'll lose all that work.

Creation of sheet metal parts and/or mock-ups for 3D printing of test parts. I've gained a lot of modeling skills that can carry over to other programs. This was the first and only modeling program I've used extensively.

We can do robust & complex modeling with Creo. Most of the leading MFG industries rely their design & data on PTC. If it maintains the quality and also if it continuously improve the user friendliness, it can become the sole leader in PLM management software across multiple industries.

It is very much flexible than most other similar 3D modeling softwares in the industry

Its is very expensive tool which definitely need to be looked upon so that it can be also purchased and used in mid and small industries.

Absolutely. All sized companies should start using as it is the best PTC Creo Parametric as it is the most powerful, flexible 3D modeling software in the industry.

All CAD related works. Support Auto and offroad clients consulting on design and simulation projects.

It has many functions to use that are similar to other cad programs

You cannot sketch directly into drawings

If users have previously used another CAD program that should probably try to stick with that one.

Designing mechanical solutions. The benefits I have realized are that I can create complex models that look realistic.

Been using ProENGINEER for more than 15 years and regardless of what name it's called now, from my perspective and the type of work done in the Aerospace industry, it is the best. Had the opportunity to experience all the other competitors for support purposes including CATIA, SolidWorks, NX, AutoCAD, etc. However when it comes to the full lifecycle, the PTC family of products is the most complete suite of tools for large scale operations. Key word here large scale: If you're building a ship, an airplane, any kind of large and complex machines, that's were ProE is king. Smaller products, consumer products, etc you're probably better off with SolidWorks, but if what you're going to build is large and involve dozens if not thousands of Engineers and drafters, look no further that the PTC family of products. Finally their technical support has proven to be superior to all other competitors in different ways.

The lost of focus PTC had for the last several years with their core ProE product line. They have put so much effort on Windchill that it feels like they have forgotten their roots with the ProE line. Their marketing department constantly changing products names adds no value, in fact creates confusion about their product line. Don't care if you call Wildfire, CREO or whatever foolish name they come with later. It's ProE or ProENGINEER period. Finally cost: This is a very expensive tool not for the faint of heart or with small pockets. You need good, experienced, multidisciplinary people to fully support the whole environment. However you get what pay for and then some as it is superior in every possible way.

It is a big product, hence you need a really good bunch of guys with a certain expertise to fully support it. However, I have found PTC's support second to none and vastly superior to all of their competitors so it's worth its price.

Core benefit is full product lifecycle support of extremely large assemblies, products and models of the outmost complexity possible. This is not the kind of product you have only one seat of. Also you have to look beyond modeling or drafting, it is a big set of tools and options that will provide you with the capability to deal with any complex level of situations by bringing a superior set of tools.

The modelling of the software is always top notch.

The complexity of the animation. The software should be more graphic oriented so that it can possess new designing/animation techniques.

The problems that i have solved included the Bill of Materials and the reverse modelling of the product. The process for going through is very simple.

Customization and complex modeling are Creo's bread & butter. There's a reason a lot of Fortune 500 companies trust their engineering data to PTC. I first messed with Pro-E back in college nearly 15 years ago in the early Wildfire days and have just come around to using it again for work. It has the same guts but has smoothed over some of it's rougher edges. I think that it has the potential to be the premiere CAD software if they keep heading in the direction of a clean-focused UI paired with the most robust modeling technology in the business.

The UI in Creo is much-improved but there are still some annoyances with view creation, component/feature selection, etc. On-boarding new users to Creo is also still a pain. Coming from the quick-startup world of Autodesk, the learning curve seems much longer with Creo.

Creo is trying to get more user friendly but the truth is, it's not much of an entry-level CAD software package. Look to Inventor or Solidworks if you're just starting out. However, if you're looking for something a little more robust (and you have the $$ to pull it off), Creo is a top-of-the-line 3D Modeling platform, and it's only getting better.

We are currently using Creo with Windchill and are moving much of our engineering data over to the PTC PLM platform. This has introduced some issues (especially when dealing with older automation programs) but overall seems to be improving the workflow. We're also working to get more engineers aligned on the same CAD platform and realize that Creo/Windchill is going to be the best bet for collaboration.

The advantage of this CAD are parametric modelling features and tools, when everything can be changed and rebuilt at any stage of modelling. This CAD is not much demanding to hardware, and doesn't require much computational resources compared to other CADs. Other advantages are good integration of add-ons for structural FE-analysis and for kinematic analysis. Creo Parametric is also quite stable in work with big assemblies. It has a good set of tools for surface modelling. Its strongest feature is an access to any parameter and ability to relate it to any other parameter. Tools for direct modelling are also quite developed.

Personally I don't find the interface of Creo Parametric as user-friendly. It has a convenient ribbon-type command manager, but not all tools are easy to find. Creo still has too much features inherited directly from Pro/Engineer without much changes. Many tools have been modified for their convenience. But it is still not easy to understand the problem and fix it, when something goes wrong. Help system is also not much helpful.

Creo Parametric is a good advanced CAD product. However, it is not easy to get on with it and reach an expert level, since the structure of this CAD is not so clear as one would expect.

In my engineering practice, Creo Parametric is mostly used for educational purposes as a CAD product for the beginners. The main purpose is geometrical preprocessor for models intended for structural FE-analysis. One the real benefits of Creo is that it has a quite good add-on for FEA, which is called Creo Simulate. The strongest feature of this application is a structural optimisation tool, which is capable of using any geometrical parameters. It usually converges to an optimal design configuration with a minimum time.

It is very intelligent in handling geometry, and is very understandable. It definitely has its quirks, and wants to be used a certain way, but if you use it well, it makes modeling much easier. You can easily change one entity, and watch the changes ripple through your design in a predicted way.

I will also admit that I work for a reseller of PTC products, (Creo Parametric included), so I speak from having used it a lot, and trained over a hundred other Creo users, some of them prior users of other competitive CAD software).

It is not as easy to use as its counterparts - i will admit. On the other hand, it is easier to create messy geometry with its counterparts than it is to do with Creo.

Take time to learn the software, Dont open it and try to run with it without seeking out good learning resources first. Understanding the software well will help you use it better.

Consulting on design and simulation projects with customers. High quality geometry and results that I can present to customers and deliver on the project.

The best part about designing in a parametric world is the parent/child relationships which makes modifications a breeze. Make a change to a hole position in an assembly and that will automatically update individual components and their related drawings. It really takes a lot of human error factor out of the process.

If users aren't well trained in the parametric concept then making a mod to a component can cause major headaches in the upper-level assemblies. If something gets changed on a down-level part that affects a constraint in an assembly then models will fail.

Model driven dimensioning is great, but the process of bringing model dimensions into the drawing needs some work.

Take the time to get properly trained to avoid frustration and headaches. Parametrics isn't something you can just learn on the fly.

We can easily get our Bills Of Material from Creo to our purchasing dept. and manufacturing facilities with ease. And we know that every bolt and nut is accounted for.

Once loaded, even with big assemblies, everything runs smoothly.

File management can be tricky with having all the sub-assemblies needling to be located in the right place and directories.

WinChill makes it easier to manage the sub-files and assemblies but comes at an additional cost.

Modeling of 3D parts before molding or machining. Enables accurate modeling and rendering.

- Intuitive user interface, ease of use

- Strong Assembly performance and data sharing tools

- Robust solid/ surface modelling capabilities including freestyle surfacing

- Variant management

- Tweaking geometry (molding preparation)

The Drawing interface has some functional gaps

In a context of of a 3D Master/ drawingless strategy this is going to weigh less in the future.

Creo Parametric offers a vast set of tools for very complex modeling tasks including surfaces, all in the same touch and feel and work environment.

This software can be recommended for users dealing with moulded/ machined parts, large assemblies, part/ assembly variants.

If looking mainly for easy drawing creation, then this might not be your first choice.

Closing gaps down the development, QA and manufacturing chain.

Creo Parametric offers a powerful tool for CAD modeling, especially for complex assemblies which would make other software's struggle under the amount of parameters. Creo has handled all of my needs thus far perfectly and after learning how to use the software I find it very useful.

No particular dislikes about the software. It does take some time to get used to and learn the semantics.

Take some time to learn the basics of sketching and modeling for this software since there are key differences from standard CAD software.

I have not used this software in a business setting thus far.