Creo 7.0 Launches with Focus on Generative and Simulation-Driven Design

PTC’s 3D CAD system gets a capabilities boost with technologies from Frustum and Ansys.

PTC has released a new version of its 3D CAD software, Creo 7.0, which boasts functionality powered by artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In addition to core product enhancements — including improvements to draft capabilities, 2D mirror functionality, and the Sketcher tool user interface — Creo 7.0 introduces new capabilities in four key areas: generative design, simulation-driven design, multibody design, and additive manufacturing.



Generative Design

With help of incorporated technology from Frustum, the generative design software company that PTC acquired in 2018, Creo 7.0 enables designers to quickly produce optimized designs that meet specific constraints, according to the company. “Generative design is a means to automatically generate your optimal designs from a set of requirements, specifying loads, constraints, materials, and manufacturing processes. Creo will then seamlessly calculate the optimal design to meet those requirements,” explained Paul Sagar, PTC’s vice-president of Creo product management, during a product launch webinar.

The new Creo Generative Topology Optimization extension is fully integrated into the Creo design environment, and includes “simple and familiar tools to set up and capture your design requirements in the form of loads, constraints, starting geometry, and areas to avoid,” Sagar said.

“Generative design can help unleash digital transformation across an entire enterprise,” Sagar continued, noting that it can help manufacturers do the following:

• Improve workforce productivity by addressing skill gaps. “As an example, an entry-level mechanical engineer can now create a part through generative design without any extensive knowledge of manufacturing processes that maybe a more senior engineer may have,” he said.
   
• Explore traditional and advanced manufacturing techniques. “Generative design really helps customers explore new design options and drive innovation,” Sagar said. “The ability to create and evaluate more options improves their confidence in the final design choice.”
   
• Deliver higher-quality, lower-cost manufacturable solutions.

Forthcoming updates of the software will take the generative design capabilities to a new level, according to Sagar. “Initially we’ll be providing support for structural optimizations, but we’ll be adding thermal and modal optimizations in a later build of Creo 7,” he explained. “Leveraging the power of the cloud, users will be able to more easily explore design options and variability, simultaneously calculating solutions with different materials, parameters, or manufacturing processes. Once calculated, users will be able to easily refine and filter the list of solutions with access to a Pareto curve to easily understand and choose the optimal design for further comparison.”

Simulation-Driven Design

Sagar pointed out that simulation is typically used as a final validation step after a design is created — a time when changes are expensive to make. “The question is,” he asked, “Why are engineers not using simulation throughout the process?” There are several answers to that question; for example, engineers may feel they need to consult an expert, or they need a simplified copy of the design model so simulation can be performed in a reasonable amount of time, he explained.

PTC would like to make simulation a force that shapes the design process from a much earlier stage. Expanding upon PTC’s strategic alliance with Ansys, Creo 7.0 introduces the following new features in Creo Simulation Live:

• Transient thermal studies. “Now you have the ability to analyze the thermal characteristics over time, enabling engineers to understand how their designs heat up and cool down.
   
• Parameter studies. “Creo Simulation Live providing real-time, constant directional feedback on the suitability of your design — just imagine what you could achieve if you were able to have the system vary your design parameters, run the simulation, and optimize your design to meet your specific goals.”
   
• Fluid flow analysis. The introduction of “Creo Simulation Live Plus” provides a comprehensive, real-time simulation solution for internal and external fluid flow. Real-time users can interact with the results as they’re produced. “Fluid simulation within Creo Simulation Live guides the engineers to make more-informed design decisions throughout their design process,” said Sagar.

Planned for the Creo 7.02 release is Creo Ansys Simulation. “Continuing our partnership with Ansys, we’re introducing Creo Ansys Simulation, leveraging the high-fidelity, trusted, and proved Ansys solvers fully integrated inside Creo,” said Sagar. “Users will now have a powerful and rich set of analyst-level tools directly at their fingertips, supporting structural, modal, and thermal physics, leveraging the powerful Ansys automeshing capabilities, simplifying the process and putting these typically complicated tools in the hands of every engineer.”

Multibody Design

Creo 7.0 introduces new multibody design workflows. “These really allow Creo users to separately manage, visualize, and design geometric volumes. These new workflows lead to more efficient and flexible part design and improved overall usability. This is particularly useful for generative design, additive manufacturing, and simulation workflows,” Sagar explained. “From a pure modeling perspective, having the ability to split your model into multiple bodies, perform operations on those individual bodies (such as regular flexible modeling), dramatically reduces the time taken to perform design changes,” he noted.

With the new set of design tools, users can separately define starting and resulting geometry for generative design, create and optimize fluid flow cavities for simulation, and build separate volumes within the design for easier lattice creation.

Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing–related enhancements include improved support for stochastic lattices — “random beam-based lattice structures, typically used to help noise suppression or vibration reduction within a design” — and custom lattices, offering designers greater flexibility when creating lattice structures.

“In Creo 6, we introduced user-defined cells, enabling users to easily define the exact lattice cell structure they needed," Sagar explained. "In Creo 7 we have expanded upon this, allowing users to create cells containing just curves. When used as a user-defined cell, the system will then automatically generate beams along each curve."

Additionally, PTC has “continued to build out our set of programming interfaces for use within additive manufacturing, allowing third-party software to more easily integrate into the additive manufacturing design chain,” Sagar said.