What Exactly Is Creo? – Part 6

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Hermecondesign wrote:

So how will Creo read cad data from other programs. Are we talking about the same cad translator/converters again…….

As far as I can see, the interoperability problem that PTC claims to have solved with Creo is their own. The one involving Pro/ENGINEER and CoCreate. Now that the two applications have been merged into Creo Elements and they share a common data model (or file format) that problem dissapears. Internally, I believe the CoCreate part of Creo still uses its own modeling kernel. Just that it uses Pro/ENGINEER’s Granite to help with the conversion of one representation to another.

As far as reading and writing file formats of other CAD systems is concerned PTC has ProductView which is now Creo Elements/View. I don’t believe much has changed there. Except that now users can use the direct modeling tools in Creo Elements/Direct to edit and models imported by Creo Elements/View. If there is something more than that then I’m interested. Otherwise its the same old story.

Now what I really want to know is whether the common file format of Creo is open or a proprietary file format. If it is open or PTC gives other CAD vendors the SDK to read and write it then they are really doing their part to solve the CAD software industry’s interoperability problem. But if it is a proprietary file format that others need to reverse engineer then I would consider this talk about “solving of the industry’s interoperability problem” as some kind of a sick joke. Because that would mean that for the interoperability problem to really go away everyone in the world should be using Creo and nothing else.

Part 7 >>