PTC announced CAD for the masses

Creo suite enables non-technical users to contribute to product development process

Creo enters beta testing early next year

BOSTON: Product development software specialist PTC has announced a new family of products dubbed Creo that is designed to open up the design and development process to non-specialist users, thereby "unleashing creativity, facilitating teamwork, increasing efficiency and ultimately realizing value".

“This is an enterprise CAD [computer-aided design] tool for the first time ever,” said Jim Heppelman, president and CEO of PTC.

Traditionally, CAD software has been too technical for non-specialist users, he said. However, it is sometimes necessary for marketing departments or sales staff to access information regarding designs.

“The difficulties that end-users face is primarily to do with ease of use. You need to have a lot of experience to use even a single CAD system, and so training takes up a lot of time and energy in resources,” said Sanjeev Pal, industry analyst for IDC.

Creo is designed to strip out non-essential technical data while still providing casual users with valuable insight. For example, a design manager may wish to preview a product without being confused by parametric or analytical tools, Heppelman said.

The suite also aims to increase interoperability by making data transferrable between different modeling programmes.

According to PTC, innovation is being stifled because companies are often daunted by the difficulties of migrating away from old technologies.

Creo aims to solve this by enabling a 2D design to be moved to a 3D parametric model without the integrity of the data being lost.

“I see this as a development platform for very specific applications,” said Marc DeFrancesco, director of development for Motorola’s Wireline Access Group.

“I’d like to see a community of developers, similar to that of Apple’s App Store, where apps are created that cater to the specifics of individual industries.”

The new suite includes AnyMode Modelling, AnyData Adoption and AnyRole apps. Creo will undergo beta testing in the first quarter of 2011, with general release expected in the summer.