Creo Customer: Designing the Signature Sound of Car Exhaust

by Lindsey Christensen

With its resonant rumble and sleek lines, you may have noticed a Corvette next to you at a stoplight. At the stoplight may be the last time you see it. Especially if it’s a Callaway-prepared Corvette that delivers 580 bhp, 510lb-ft torque, and can hit 60mph in just 3.3 seconds.

A full Callaway build-out includes intake, exhaust, shifters, wheels, suspension, brakes, and carbon fiber polymers (don’t forget the hand-stitched seats and floor mats).

As a member of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), Callaway has exclusive access to SEMA’s OEM CAD database (over 38,000 OEM CAD data files from Chrysler, Ford, GM and Scion). SEMA’s contribution of the manufacturer’s original design files (i.e., suspension, power train, drive train, body panels, chassis, frame, interior and wheels) are integral in helping Callaway bring their products to market faster.

When you don’t have to recreate the wheel, you can keep up with design changes and edit the part right in the assembly.

Callaway engineers use Creo Parametric to design and produce their performance-enhancing upgrades and work out design challenges in a virtual space before testing and fitting actual parts in the shop. Creo Parametric goes beyond the import/export provided by other 3D CAD systems and can actually clean incoming and outgoing data to minimize or eliminate the loss of data in translation.

As Mike Mello from Auto Savant illustrates, “Imagine opening a file for a vehicle’s exhaust manifold that you were going to re-engineer and being met with a drawing full of gaps and other geometric problems.” At this point, Creo Parametric steps in to save time and make necessary repairs.

In the end, some of the hottest cars in the world inevitably end up being created by world-class design software, Creo Parametric. Check out this episode where Vince and Allison dive into Callaway’s exhaust systems that deliver that authentic Callaway sound.

Watch the video

Creo Customer: Building Design that Pushes Engineering Limits

by Lindsey Christensen

We’ve explored how Creo created a few architectural marvels in the past, but an architectural canopy we haven’t “covered” yet. When the Francis Gregory Library began plans for a new modern library design, the engineers at CST were hired to create a large overhanging canopy to extend above the main glass structure, create the image of an outdoor pavilion while still providing shade and protection from rain, snow, and ice.

Since 1893, CST Industries has been creating storage tanks and aluminum covers for thousands of industries. With their history and knowledge of aluminum and truss design, architecture was intrinsic to their passion. CST’s proprietary Omni*Hub system and semi-stand truss designs give stability to an architect’s concept.

But achieving simplicity requires intense planning.

Although the canopy looks effortless and strong in the end, the real precision came in the design, where CST engineers accommodated weight and breadth requirements as well as budget and timeline needs.

The architects initially planned the structure as a single-welded structure, but this would be too costly and take too long. Using a hub and tube technique, CST created the design concept and incorporated the subtle curves and weather requirements for the canopy.

The roof canopy is also equipped with a louver system, so staff can adjust fan blades to allow more or less natural sunlight to penetrate through the ceiling, depending on the preferred temperature and time of year, much like the roof of the Verizon Center. Given the incredible amount of precipitation dumped on D.C. last winter, engineers were forced to tweak the angle of the roof to make sure accumulated snow and ice loads could slide safely off.

The process wasn’t simple, but using Creo Parametric, the CST engineers overcame many design challenges to make the canopy true to customer requirements. Vince and Alison share more about this extremely complex model, the theoretical twist of each tube, and how CST created uniformity in the bolt pattern of each tube and hub connection.

Watch the video

Creo Customer: Trips to Mars are Just a Rocket Away

by Lindsey Christensen

With the National Space Symposium going on this week in Colorado Springs, we wanted to highlight a current NASA project that engineers used Creo Parametric to design.

It’s been more than four decades since NASA commissioned a human-rated rocket engine. The last rocket engine (J2, Apollo) put Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969 (› Play Audio).  Now NASA has created the J2X engine.

If NASA could go to the moon over 40 years ago, where in the universe can NASA take a human being now?

Maybe Mars. When NASA began work on the J-2X engine in 2010, it was designed by Pratt & Whitney (using Creo Parametric) and developed along with 362 different suppliers and vendors in 35 states and five countries.

Just two years later, the engine is now built and well into its testing phase. The first unmanned flight is set for 2014.

J-2X will be the first human-rated NASA rocket engine since 1975 and will go farther than any engine that has carried human yet. At 15 feet, the J-2X is four-feet taller than its predecessor (Apollo) and weighs in at 5,450 pounds. In the photos, check out not only the engineering invested but the assembly required building this intricate machine.

Walt Janowski, J-2X program manager, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, says, “we are confident the J-2X will be ready to power humans to destinations in space never before visited, including asteroids and Mars. We look forward to working with NASA on the future of human spaceflight.”

Want to learn more about the J-2X or teach your kids a few things about rockets? The J-2X blog us not only informative, but the author, Bill Greene, makes rocket science easy to understand and fun to read about.

Creo Customer: BaByliss Adopts PTC Creo

by Stefanie Liu

BaByliss, created in Paris in 1961, joined the Conair Group in 1995. The notoriety and know-how of this international company rests on nearly 50 years of innovations and product launches, which in the course of time, contributed to revolutionize the world of hairstyle and beauty.

Leader in hairstyle, depilation and beauty markets, BaByliss has R&D units in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The Design Department develops new concepts and renews the existing product portfolio. In this department, ideas are brought to life and devices are designed in accordance with consumers’ needs. Concept design through the study of forms, structures, and colors enables BaByliss to offer products with constant innovation. BaByliss, who already use Pro/ENGINEER in the group in the United States and for production in Asia, recently adopted and deployed Creo Parametric in collaboration with our VAR Prodware Innovation & Design. For Nicolas Colin, Designer at BaByliss France, Creo Parametric “is a fantastic and essential solution which is adapted to all, for simple needs as well as complex needs. Functionality range is so rich that it allows all the tasks and fits the needs of  the experienced and inexperienced users”. Creo helps designers, modelers and engineer teams work hand-in-hand as the project evolves, in particular during change and modification implementation phases. It enables the company to capitalize on individual technical and artistic know-how. Click through to watch the interview (in French)

PTCLive TechForum in Milan on June, 14th – A Great Success!!

by Francesca Frattini 

The PTCLive TechForum 2012 in Italy was a great success with approx. 300 attendees coming from 170 companies and a split between 63% Channel customers and 37% Direct customers. We also had 6 journalists attending.

Here are some key highlights of the event:

Elica, a leading company in cooker hood manufacturing and also the first PTC customer worldwide to implement Windchill MPMLink, explained how they effectively integrated R&D and Manufacturing.

Oerlikon Graziano, a worldwide leader in components for power transmission, presented the benefits of an integrate use of CAD and PLM in gears modelling.

Sergio Terzi, Academic speaker from the Polytechnic of Milan – the most important Italian Engineering University with a strong reputation in PLM, gave an overview of the CAD and PLM scenario in the Italian manufacturing companies.

Our local iCenter team delivered an exciting Creo 2.0 + Windhcill 10.1 + Windchill Mobile App demo show.

The 3 PTC University free sessions on Creo 2.0 and Windchill 10.1 collected over 60 participants.

You can find all the available presentations from the event here.

The feedback collected from customers is extremely good, so thank you very much to all those who actively contributed to the success of the event.

Creo Customer: Building Design that Pushes Engineering Limits

By Lindsey Christensen | Published: Apr 4, 2012

We’ve explored how Creo created a few architectural marvels in the past, but an architectural canopy is something we haven’t “covered” yet. When the Francis Gregory Library began plans for a new modern library design, the engineers at CST were hired to create a large overhanging canopy to extend above the main glass structure- to create the image of an outdoor pavilion while still providing shade and protection from rain, snow, and ice.
Since 1893, CST Industries has been creating storage tanks and aluminum covers for thousands of industries. With their history and knowledge of aluminum and truss design, architecture was intrinsic to their passion. CST’s proprietary Omni*Hub system and semi-stand truss designs give stability to an architect’s concept.
But achieving simplicity requires intense planning.
Although the canopy looks effortless and strong in the end, the real precision came in the design, where CST engineers accommodated weight and breadth requirements as well as budget and timeline needs.
The architects initially planned the structure as a single-welded structure, but this would be too costly and take too long. Using a hub and tube technique, CST created the design concept and incorporated the subtle curves and weather requirements for the canopy.
The roof canopy is also equipped with a louver system, so staff can adjust fan blades to allow more or less natural sunlight to penetrate through the ceiling, depending on the preferred temperature and time of year, much like the roof of the Verizon Center. Given the incredible amount of precipitation dumped on D.C. last winter, engineers were forced to tweak the angle of the roof to make sure accumulated snow and ice loads could slide safely off.
The process wasn’t simple, but using Creo Parametric, the CST engineers overcame many design challenges to make the canopy true to customer requirements. Vince and Alison share more about this extremely complex model, the theoretical twist of each tube, and how CST created uniformity in the bolt pattern of each tube and hub connection.

DesktopEngineering: FIRST Robotic Tales: Buchannan Bird Brains Raises a Fish

By Admin | Published: Mar 29, 2012

Want to get a robot named after you? You may want to consider volunteering as a mentor to a FIRST robotic team.
Eunice Kokor from FIRST Team 1671 explained the logic behind the name of the team’s fighting spirit, dubbed the Fish. “Each year, we decide to dedicate the robot to someone who has helped us tremendously,” she said. “Last year, we named [the robot] In the House, after our mentor Joshua Houser, our PTC mentor who helped us with the CAD software [PTC Creo Parametric]. This year, we have … Nick Fisher. He basically spent his time machining our parts so that we can go back the next day to put our robot together.”


The team acknowledged in its home page that Fisher, a veteran employee of Harris Manufacturing, “graciously offered his faculties to our team: he spent an entire weekend machining aluminum parts designed by our team before the Build Stop deadline.”
FIRST is the brainchild of Dean Kamen, an inventor, entrepreneur, and advocate for science and technology. The blend of robotic science and teamwork required to compete in FIRST regional and national championships serve to “inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership,” as stated by the organization. Since its launch, the program has become a national phenomenon, growing into the robotic equivalent of the Super Bowl.
Continue reading Kenneth Wong’s article at DeskEng.com

The 9th PTCLive Executive Exchange Automotive in Ingolstadt

by Verena Roehrig 

Now under the new global umbrella of the PTCLive Executive Exchange event series, this event continued the successful PTC Innovation Forum Automotive event series, held every year since 2003 and making this Forum almost an institution. We were able to offer a highly attractive agenda with high ranking customer speakers who presented visions and current projects around product development and related topics, representing all of PTC’s major segments.

Almost 70 director and VP level customers from 43 companies and 6 countries, from leading automotive OEMs and suppliers, and leading PTC experts discussed current challenges to the automotive industry such as growing product complexity, shifts of business to global markets, proliferating regulatory requirements, and the need to ensure exceptional product quality and service.

Some of the top attending companies:

·         OEMs: Audi, BMW, Daimler, Nissan, Porsche, Volkswagen, PSA, Scania, MAN Truck & Bus,

·         Suppliers: Autoliv, AVL List, Bosch, Continental, Denso Automotive, FCI Automotive, GKN Driveline, Hoerbiger, MTU Friedrichshafen, Pirelli, Schaeffler, Webasto, ZF Friedrichshafen

·         Partners, Consulting Firms: Accenture, NTT Data, Porsche Consulting, Mieschke Hoffmann & Partner

Keynote and Speakers:

·         Hans-Georg Härter, Chief Executive Officer emeritus, ZF Friedrichshafen “The Future of the Automotive Industry – The Role of Tier One Suppliers in a Changing Business Environment“

·         James Gehan, VP of Product Management, PTC“Driving Value throughout the Product Lifecycle“

·         Dr. Alp Atik and Stefan Voeltz, Volkswagen
“Addressing Powertrain Complexity through modular product architecture and local variants“

·         Dr. Jürgen Schuller, Head of Development Chassis Control Systems / Electronic Control Units / Functional Safety; Audi “Software engineering as part of an integral product definition process“

·         Rainer Eidloth, project manager program SPEED, Schaeffler Technologies         
The SPEED development platform at Schaeffler

Dealing with Late-Stage Design Changes

By barb schmitz | Published: Mar 26, 2012

Dealing with design changes at any stage in the design cycle is an inevitable reality for manufacturers. Having a clear, agreed-upon design specification—based on strong market research, customer requirements and engineering methodologies—can help avoid many errors that might require design changes, but even the most promising and well-thought-out designs can require changes for myriad of reasons throughout the design cycle.


One thing is certain. Making changes to the model becomes increasingly more expensive and disruptive the farther along it is in the design cycle. Making a change once a product has gone to market can have even more dire consequences in the form of costly product recalls, possible consumer litigation, and a loss of confidence among customers. The damage to its brand, caused by a widespread recall in 2010, cost Toyota an estimated sales loss of $770 and $880 million. The cost of lost consumer confidence is hard to quantify, but is probably just as significant.
Though estimates vary in terms of quantifying the expense of making changes, a fairly simple rule of thumb is that the cost of making design changes increases by a factor of ten at each step of the design process. So while a change made during the initial concept stage might cost $10, by the time that model reaches the production stage that same change could cost $100,000. Manufacturers know this. Unfortunately, mistake happen. So the question becomes, what’s the best way to deal with changes rear their ugly heads later in the design cycle?



Why now?
That’s a common question asked when late-stage design changes are required. Sometimes they are necessary to respond to shifting customer needs. Other times they may be caused by site-specific manufacturing capabilities. Changes might be required when there is a change in material or manufacturing method, which can be caused by a lack of material availability, difficulty obtaining a specific component, or a change in vendor.
Often these occurrences are the outcome of disjointed processes within the organization that fail to keep design team members apprised of changing product requirements and manufacturing-based design parameters. While design teams must focus on the design, upstream and downstream teams must continuously provide product requirements data to the designers.
When a change is required, it’s essential for all team members to communicate openly and collaborate on how to find the appropriate solution. Making a change to the design will often affect downstream processes so engineers and designers must be realistic about how the change will affect schedules and cost estimates and communicate with those affected by this change.



Be Flexible
Though having a well-written design specification can help to avoid some design changes, it can also lead to inflexibility and a lack of responsiveness when changes are required. Companies must add continuous touch points with customers so they can test product concepts, prototypes, and features along the development and launch cycle. Studies have shown that doing so can reduce cycle time by as much as 30 percent and lower development costs by as much as 40 percent compared to the more traditional gated design approach with strict adherence to design specs developed early in the design cycle.
But these lean design methodologies fall short at the front end of the process. The enhanced efficiency of lean product development is (like the gated model) still highly dependent on early stabilization of requirements, rather than iterating, optimizing, and trading off requirements to get to the winning product design. As a result, whatever innovation there is in this approach tends to be based on safeguarding the status quo rather than being creative — leaving companies vulnerable to disruptive changes in the market later on.

The bottom line is that increased globalization has created an increasingly competitive landscape for manufacturers. The product development environment has become too volatile for rigid, standardized process. Designers and engineers—along with the rest of the design team—must be flexible, open and ready to deal with the inevitable changes required throughout the process to resolve issues quickly and get products back on schedule with as little disruption as possible.

Creocommunity.com: User Profile of Sr Engineer, John Deere

By Admin | Published: Mar 22, 2012

Originally posted on www.creocommunity.com
Sushanta Das spent many years working with PTC on the development of Creo Parametric and Creo Direct. Today he works as a senior engineer in the field of industrial design for John Deere.


The 28-year old resident of Pune, Maharashtra, India said that the coolest thing he has seen in the area of CAD technology is the development of subdivisional modeling.
In his free time he enjoys chess, trekking and exploring the world of design software.


What is your occupation and how does it relate to Creo or other PTC products?
I am currently working as a senior engineer of industrial design at John Deere. I work with Creo Elements/Pro, Creo View and Windchill. Apart from PTC products we also use Adobe Photoshop and ICEM Surf.


What is your background? How did you become involved with Creo or other PTC products?
I have almost seven years of experience in product design using Pro/E and Creo. I have a very high level of experience with Creo Parametric and Creo Direct. I was a senior engineer for the PTC Pune R&D Centre working on MCAD quality assurance for more than four years. I was lead on the Creo Styling (ISDX), Freestyle (Subdivisional Modeling), Warp and TraceSketch modules.

What software tools do you have experience with other than Creo or other PTC products?
I have experience with CATIA and Adobe Photoshop.


What is the coolest CAD technology you’ve seen in the last decade?
The coolest things I have seen are subdivisional modeling and real time user interfaces with CAD tools.


What are your future professional and/or personal goals?
I want to learn more about design and to lead my own division.

Creo Customer: Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday

By LINDSEY CHRISTENSEN | Published: JUN 6, 2012

At the starting line, all race cars look exotic, sleek, and sexy. The track that lies before them will put thousands of hours of design and innovative engineering to the test, and when the checkered flag goes down, a winner is declared – but only until the next race.

The true prize actually goes back to the designers and engineers in the form of data from the race. Companies like Aston Martin, racers in the GT European series, walk away with winning data that gets poured into their luxury consumer cars. At this point, the race is truly on to get the coolest car to the consumers the fastest.

This year, Aston Martin began designing their newest pro-racing vehicle, the LMP1, from the ground up using Creo and Windchill to manage the development process. In addition to the designers, the purchasing department uses Windchill for its request for quotation process, improving collaboration with suppliers.

The race course from data to actual design changes and production used to be lengthy, obstacle-ridden and at times painfully slow. Using software like Creo, the race more closely resembles the speed of the cars they design. Just like the cars, Creo’s suite of tools just keeps getting faster and sleeker too.

“The PTC solutions have far greater capabilities than our previous toolset,” said Ian Ludgate, Chief Designer at Aston Martin Racing. “Although we are still very early in our learning of the system, we’ve already seen significant benefits in simple things like mechanism design, which is built into the Creo (Parametric) toolset and subsequently distributed by Windchill.”

Check out how Aston Martin cashed in on the data gain from their Vantage V8 racecar to design a sharper Vantage consumer car in this week’s Product Design Show with Vince and Allison.