EXERCISE 1.

0 GETTING STARTED WITH CREO

Figure 1: Creo Parametric 3.0 start-up screen.

ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Learning Targets
In this exercise you will learn:

Setting up Creo for the first use. This includes the understanding of working directory
concept and saving procedure.
Customizations made for Creo Parametric 3.0. Some of the default settings are changed to
help you to get familiar with the software, but if you want, you can make your own
customizations. However, all exercises are made using our customizations.
Using this exercise as a quick help document. In the appendixes some basic concepts are
explained.

About the Current and Future Exercises

Common for all exercises:

Used program is PTC Creo Parametric 3.0 M050 (64 bit).

Operative system is Microsoft Windows 7 (64 bit).
Char # means number.
Marking text with square brackets, e.g. [file name], means parametric text.
RMB is right mouse button.
LMB is left mouse button.
MMB is middle mouse button (press the wheel).

2 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Setting Up
Working Directory

Creo uses one folder as a working directory. It is a location where Creo saves normal, temporary and
log files and from where Creo reads users customization files (if they exists). For this reason, it is
highly recommended to create an empty folder into your network drive (Z:\). The user must have
reading and writing rights to the working directory. Thats why Creos installation folder (C:\Program
Files\PTC\Creo 3.0) cant be the working directory.

The first task is to create an empty folder on your network drive. The user can decide the name of the
folder. One example of working directory is presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Working directory, program just started.

3 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Files you may found in the working directory:

Trail.txt.#, a file that contains all user actions when using Creo. When new session starts,
Creo creates a new version of the trail file.
Std.out, an output log file.
Std.err, an output log file for errors.
[name].prt.#, a part file.
[name].asm.#, an assembly file.

Shortcut

In order to force Creo to use the previously created Working directory at every startup, it is necessary
to create a custom shortcut.

Select Windows ( ), and type Creo in the search field (or go to All programs PTC Creo). Drag and
drop Creo Parametric 3.0 M050 shortcut into your desktop. Then RMB (right click) shortcut in your
desktop and choose Properties (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Right click menu of a shortcut.

4 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

In Properties window, change the field called Start in to point the folder you have created previously
as shown in Figure 4. When ready, click Apply and then OK.

Figure 4: Shortcut's properties.

From now on, every time you start Creo using this shortcut, the working directory is automatically
defined (the folder in Start in field). You can define several shortcuts in order to start the program
using different working directories.

5 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

UI Customization
Importing existing settings

User Interface (UI) customizations are stored in the user profile

(\\home.org.aalto.fi\[username]\windows\AppData\Roaming\PTC), making the customization
available on every computer you might log-in in the future. In order to make your Creo look like
exactly the figures of the exercises of this course, you need to load our UI customized setting.

Start Creo using the recently created shortcut. Wait until the program is up and the home screen
appears (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Part of the Creo's home screen.

6 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Select File tab and then Options ( ). The Options manager appears. From the left side, select
Customize Ribbon, then from the right bottom corner select Import/Export button and then Import
customization file (Figure 6). The customization file is called aalto_creo_parametric_customization.ui
and it is located in our course net folder (\\work\courses\T\Kon\ENG-A1001\general\Creo settings\).
Therefore, when the Open window appears, choose the address bar line and write \\work (use \ , not
/) (Figure 7) and hit ENTER (or copy-paste address). Then you can browse the right file and finally
select Open. When the Customizations alert window appears, select Import All Customizations. Now
your graphical UI should look same as in our exercises.

Figure 6: Creo options manager and importing an existing setting file.

7 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Figure 7: Open window and manually written text (\\work) to header.

This concludes our exercise.

The rest of the exercise contains additional information that may be helpful during this course;
especially the sketch constraints part. You can take a look at them when working on Exercises 1.1 and
1.2.

8 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Setting Files
Reopen (if needed) the Creo Parametric Options window. Here you can define most of the settings.
Default settings are normally read from the installation folder. However the user can overwrite the
default configuration; by defining his/her own custom configuration file(s) and placing them in the
working directory.

Config.pro
On the left side clicking on Configuration Editor you can see the options loaded from file called
config.pro that is located in Creo installation folder. It is highly recommended to use settings provided
by the course staff.

In case you want to create your own customization; you need to select the related file from the one
listed in the Configuration Editor, click on Export all option to configuration file, edit the exported file
as you wish and finally save it in your working directory using as name config.pro.

Additional information about the options customized by the course staff:

mdl_tree_cfg_file

This option points to file that holds information about model tree. To use your own tree.cfg file you
need to define its location in config.pro using option mdl_tree_cfg_file. By default it is set to point to
tree.cfg in the installation folder.

System_colors_file
This option points to the file that holds information about color schema used in Creo. We have
changed the default color schema and saved it into syscol_aalto.scl.

9 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

List of customization files in program folder

These files are part of our settings package:

Located at C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 3.0\M050\Common Files\text\

o config.pro
Basic configuration file
o tree.cfg
Model tree configuration file
o syscolor_aalto.scl
System colors configuration file
o iso_aalto.dtl
2D drawings configuration file (based on iso.dtl)
o pen_aalto.pnt
A configuration file for printing 2D-drawings
Located at C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 3.0\M050\Common Files\formats\
o a3_aalto.frm
A3 2D drawing format
o a4_aalto.frm
A4 2D drawing format
Located at C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 3.0\M050\Common Files\templates\
o mmks_steel_part_solid.prt
Default part using mm, kg and sec as units and steel as a material
o mmks_steel_part_sheetmetal.prt
Default sheet metal part using mm, kg and sec as units and steel as a material
Located at \\work\courses\T\Kon\41\3006\general\Creo settings\
o aalto_creo_parametric_customization.ui
User interface settings file

Those files can be found also at \\work\courses\T\Kon\41\3006\general\Creo settings\

10 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Sketch Constraints
Here are listed all nine geometric constrains for sketched geometries. They can be accessed and used
from Constrain group when in Sketch mode.

Vertical

Figure 8: From left: vertical line, two points vertically aligned, two lines vertically aligned.

Horizontal

Figure 9: From top: horizontal line, two points horizontally aligned, two lines horizontally aligned.

Perpendicular

Figure 10: On left arc and line perpendicularly, on right two lines perpendicurally.

11 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Tangent

Figure 11: From left: circle and line tangentially, line and arc tangentially, arc and ellipse tangentially..

Mid-point

Figure 12: On left line attached to the mid-point of the line, on right point on middle of arc.

Coincident

Figure 13: From left: point on start point of the line, start point of the line on line, point on end point of the line,
point on the line.

12 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Symmetric

Figure 14: On top start points of the lines on same distance from centerline, on bottom two points on same distance
from centerline.

Equal

Figure 15: Two arcs have same radius (R1), two lines have same length (L1) and curvature (2G continuity) between
line and spline.

Parallel

Figure 16: Two lines are parallel.

13 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Making dimensions
Here is showed different kind of usage of the Normal ( , Dimension group) tool in the sketcher. The
basic workflow is to select one or more entity (line, point, arc, reference) and then press MMB.
Depending on what was selected before and where the MMB was pressed, the dimension appears.

Here different kinds of situations are presented. Notice that there are more options available.

One entity selected

Figure 17: On left: Line selected (1) and pressing MMB. On right: Dimension appeared after MMB.

Figure 18: On left: Arc selected (1) and moment before MMB. On right: MMB pressed.

14 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Two entities selected

Figure 19: On left: Two points selected, a moment before MMB. On right: MMB pressed and dimension appeared.

Figure 20: On left: Two points selected, a moment before MMB. On right: A new dimension created.

Figure 21: On left: Two points selected, a moment before MMB. On right: A new dimension created.

15 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Figure 22: On left: Two lines selected, a moment before MMB. On right: A new dimension created.

Figure 23: Two lines selected, a moment before MMB. On right: A new dimension created.

Figure 24: On left: Same arc selected twice, a moment before MMB. On right: A new diameter dimension created.
16 / 17
ENG-A1001 Tietokoneavusteiset tykalut insinritieteiss Kaur Jaakma
Exercise 1.0 2015

Three entities selected

Figure 25: On left: Line selected (1), then centerline (2), then line again (3), a moment before MMB. On right: A new
diameter dimension created.

Figure 26: On left: Point (1) selected, then arc (2), then point (3), a moment before MMB. On right: a new arc length
dimension created.

Figure 27: A point selected (1), then arc's center point (2), then other point (3), a moment before MMB. On right: A
new arc angular dimension created.

17 / 17