Creo+ (new SaaS Creo)

nick_papageorge073

2min introductory video
https://youtu.be/YxFgivyuD2E

It seems PTC's other CAD product, Creo, now has a cloud based option called Creo+. I used Creo from from the late 90's through 2021, and liked it a lot. I do like OS better. A few question/comments:
-I wonder how similar or different it is to Onshape (the cloud aspect).
-I see branching and versioning in this video.
-It seems somewhat compatible with local Creo (regular) design files. I wonder how they do syncing.
-Their demo video has it running on an Apple iMac! With the logo hidden, ha ha.
-I wonder if it costs more/same/less than the regular Creo version.
-Did PTC use OS technology to build this? Or was it developed separately?
-Will the two products now compete more directly for sales? I could see a company currently using Creo and considering switching to OS now deciding to go to Creo+ instead. 

Evan_Reese

Interesting. I'm curious to see how that shakes out.

GregBrown

Creo+ is Creo at its core, with additional collaboration functionality along with branching/merging and other features. It is a superset of the functionality that Creo offers, not a partial subset. So, by definition, it is compatible with Creo design files, Windchill, and all the other products a Creo customer might use in their ecosystem.

The way this is accomplished is by using a SaaS enabling technology platform called Atlas, which is derived from Onshape technology. Indeed, Atlas is the foundation to several of the "Plus" products that have been launched in the past years such as Vuforia Expert Capture, Creo Generative Design Extension (GDX), and now Creo+. More here: https://www.ptc.com/en/about/saas-transformation

Onshape, as everyone in this forum is aware, is (and has been from day 1) a cloud-native CAD system with integrated PDM. One may even argue Onshape is a cloud-native PDM system with built-in CAD... So all the benefits that come with Onshape - no files, seamless and secure sharing, versioning, branching/merging, task management, real-time collaboration, no data loss, automatic updates (every 3 weeks!), no installs, no drivers etc. continue to exist.

There will always be overlap between the products, just like you can extrude and fillet in Creo and you can extrude and fillet in Onshape as well. And now some of the additional Onshape features have made their way over into Creo+. Onshape similarly has benefited by other Creo/PTC technology - for example the built-in Simulation and Generative Design (see post by PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann here: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/20797/liveworks-23).

At the end of the day, Onshape is forging ahead every 3 weeks with unprecedented levels of new feature development, with no glass ceiling on its capabilities. I’m excited for the future (and for the now!) and this is all good for you our customers, and PTC as a company.

bryan_lagrange

Isn’t Creo + a local install and not fully running in the cloud? Something like Fusion.

bryan_lagrange

Here is an here is an article on Creo + 

https://www.engineering.com/story/creo-gets-saasy

nick_papageorge073

Thanks for the inside info, @GregBrown. I definitely want PTC to succeed as a company, and hope all their products do great.

nick_papageorge073

@bryan_lagrange

So either the marketing video was fake (they showed it running on an iMac), or, the full browser based version is here.

For pricing, I would definitely expect it to be higher than OS. But I wonder if its priced higher than regular Creo (with the same options, of course).

robert_morris

@nick_papageorge073
I think the shot of it working on the Mac was faked. Even though it's on an iMac, if you look closely at the screen, the window controls are square buttons on the right side, like what's used by Microsoft Windows.

S1mon

I don't know the current state of Creo on MacOS, but years ago I heard that PTC had demoed a port of Pro/E on MacOS to Apple. Apple's product design team had been running Unigraphics and Pro/E on Unix boxes, but wanted to have their official CAD tool running on their own OS and own hardware. Of course NX runs on MacOS now (even if the UI is non-native).

nick_papageorge073

robert_morris said:

@nick_papageorge073
I think the shot of it working on the Mac was faked. Even though it's on an iMac, if you look closely at the screen, the window controls are square buttons on the right side, like what's used by Microsoft Windows.

Yeah, agree. I also don't think the model's mouse movements match the screen. Funny, many times over the years, Microsoft would release advertisements with their Windows OS running on a Mac;) Years before bootcamp and similar. ha ha.

nick_papageorge073

S1mon said:

I don't know the current state of Creo on MacOS, but years ago I heard that PTC had demoed a port of Pro/E on MacOS to Apple. Apple's product design team had been running Unigraphics and Pro/E on Unix boxes, but wanted to have their official CAD tool running on their own OS and own hardware. Of course NX runs on MacOS now (even if the UI is non-native).

Yeah, I heard the same. ProE was originally Unix. I think the Unix version went away completely around 2005 or so.

NX I believe had an official Mac Port around the 2010 time frame, probably explicitly for Apple's use. According to the wiki on it, it only lasted 5 or so years, and its officially dead now. I don't know if that's true.

It would be cool if Apple switched to OS. But probably too big an undertaking for them. Who knows.

billy2

I haven't used Pro/E since 1998 and have no idea what it is today. I am impressed with the breadth of PTC and the services they now offer. 

Onshape is not only a cloud app but it's a very good cloud app. They've set the bar really high for the next person trying write a cad app in the cloud.

At the heart of any cloud app is the client, the browser. Onshapes browser is better than anything we had inside windows on a desktop and a major reason we like it.

Client browser advancements bettering the desktop:
-drag n drop is more powerful and better implemented
-cut n paste works great
-selections are fast and easy to perform
-and my favorite, its asynchronous

PTC talked about, but not promised, the creo 'thin' client. This is what we need to watch for and encourage. A cloud version of creo will be a browser client hopefully written by the guys who wrote Onshape (they know how). The world can have 2 CAD clients.

Since Onshapes client:
-True script is now a standard (Onshape has been upgraded)
-tRPG is taking over sockets
-react has redefined the client's DOM
-more new magic each day

There's many new advancements in the cloud and a new client should be created. Hopefully the guys who built OS will help build the creo client. Could you build a better creo in a browser? OS has already done it once, the answer is yes.

Keep a eye open for the new creo client, that's going to make history.

billy2

Unix is an operating system owned by ATT and written in C. C was created to write Unix. Unix was very expensive, linux is free and took over the world. Unix has been replaced with linux.

I've never thought of Pro/E as a unix app. It could run on almost anywhere except windows '95.

Pro/e was written in C/C++ and probably fortran which ran under POSIX. The kernal "granite" was written in fortran which has probably been re-written in C/C++. All this works because of POSIX.

Linux, OSX & Windows all support POSIX which allowed PRO/E to run everywhere. It was a selling point back in the day that PRO/E could run on anything.

PRO/E running in windows under POSIX was so fast, 2 to 3 times faster than SW '95 but people wanted drag & drop instead. Speed was never an issue between PRO/E & SW '95. I suspect PTC has switched to C# making creo impossible to leave the windows desktop.

I think Atlas is server based and will support the server side requirements for PTC for a long time. Servers talking to servers no matter where they're located (amazon, azure, GCP).

Will creo have it's own servers talking to Atlas? Probably.

Will creo ever have a client and servers? I hope so.

Will Satya Nadella hybrid cloud survive? Probably not.