PTC Product Family
Creo Elements/Direct
The industry-leading direct modeling software. Creo Elements/Direct is a comprehensive system for mechanical engineers and designers who create products using a Direct Modeling approach to 3D CAD — make instant changes to geometry with no dependence on history-based steps or a feature tree.
3D CAD/CAE/PDM Solutions
Direct modeling lets you create one-off designs quickly and easily, even without knowing how the model was originally built, or redesign existing work with radical changes. In fact, most companies are adding 3D modeling to their product design process to shorten time to market, meet customer demand for new products, and keep up with increasingly complex customer requirements.
With direct modeling, even novice CAD users can make fast, easy changes to geometry, while CAD experts rely on the flexibility of direct modeling to design large assemblies in record time.
Creo Elements/Direct Modeling is the most comprehensive direct modeling system on the market, with a complete feature set built to meet your specific needs. The software is intuitive, robust, and ready for the job even on large assemblies. You or anyone on your team can pick up a 3D product and start working on it directly with minimal ramp-up time — easily bring in multi-CAD data from suppliers and keep moving toward a digital prototype fast.
When you're facing design challenges or racing against the clock, you'll appreciate just how simple and flexible Creo Elements/Direct Modeling is. The faster your product reaches the market, the faster your business sees revenue.
No Feature Tree Required
Make direct, instant changes to geometry with no dependence on history-based steps.
Multi-CAD Integration
Import 3D data in different formats from suppliers without friction.
Performance on Large Assemblies
Put the flexibility of direct modeling to work designing large assemblies in record time.
Set Up in 10 Minutes
Bring data management into your design process quickly with Model Manager.
Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Modules
Integrated Creo Elements/Direct Modeling modules that work together to resolve potential manufacturing issues in your digital prototype.
A set of five integrated modules
A set of integrated Creo Elements/Direct Modeling modules that work together to resolve potential manufacturing issues in your digital prototype.
Cable and harness documentation
Creates cables, harnesses and bill-of-materials documentation, including drawings for electrical wires, cable-bundle routes and terminal boards.
Fast analysis under real-world conditions
A powerful Finite Element Analysis (FEA) tool for quickly analyzing your product's performance under real-world design conditions.
Intelligent mold-plate design
Highly interactive, intelligent tools that take the tedium out of building mold plates and components.
Over 173,000 standard parts
A library of more than 173,000 ANSI, DIN, ISO and JIS components — bolts, washers, nuts and various machine elements.
Fast, flexible sheet-metal design
Extends the 3D CAD power of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling with fast, flexible sheet-metal design and data-management capabilities.
Powerful, free-form surfacing
Gives you powerful, robust surfacing capabilities for building styled surfaces and designing free-form shapes.
Automatic, relational technical drawings
- Generate technical drawings automatically
- 3D design changes update across drawings relationally
- Automatically build accurate bill-of-materials (BOM) tables on drawings
- Export to downstream manufacturing processes via Autodesk® DWG™ & DXF™ and 2D IGES
PDM built into your design process
Integrates product data management (PDM) into your design process, so you and your team can track the documents you create and easily access the most up-to-date information about your product. No more ad-hoc systems with the potential for errors and confusion — manage file ownership, revision and model design states seamlessly. It suits organizations of any size and sets up in 10 minutes.
Secure viewing and sharing
A CAD viewer for securely sharing 2D and 3D product design concepts across your company and supply chain.
From engineering BOM to manufacturing BOM
Lets lean manufacturing companies use engineering bills of materials as the starting point for producing manufacturing BOMs. Built to eliminate the time and expense of manual data-management processes, BOM Editor generates, manages, modifies and exports BOM reports for your 3D product development process in a range of formats.
Collaborate with augmented reality
View and share designs on a tablet or AR glasses, collaborate securely with colleagues, customers, suppliers and stakeholders across the business, and access your designs anywhere, anytime.
A comprehensive 2D CAD system
A comprehensive 2D CAD system that serves the needs of both product designers and mechanical engineers. Its intuitive interface lets you start working on concept designs right away, carry out detailed design work, and open the result in a 3D package to build an equally detailed 3D model. It offers powerful multi-CAD collaboration and assembly-management capabilities, and can be customized to your needs.
Examine nonlinear effects
Capable tools that let you dig deeper into how advanced nonlinear effects can affect the performance of your products while they're still in development.
Frequently Asked Questions
Computer-aided design (CAD) lets users create digital 2D drawings and 3D models. Building these models allows users to develop and optimize their products to meet the design intent. It lets users test real-world conditions, loads and constraints on the design, improving overall design quality by creating a virtual prototype of any object.
2D CAD and 3D CAD are the broad classifications of the different types of CAD, and with the addition of CAE (computer-aided engineering) and CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) software elements, CAD has become standard worldwide.
It's far easier to accurately present 3D objects in CAD software than to rely on hand-drawn sketches. Once modeled, a 3D object can be analyzed, optimized and edited with technologies like generative design to produce the best version of that object within the design intent.
CAD software is used by designers, engineers and enthusiasts to build virtual models of objects. Anyone can use CAD, but it's most heavily used in manufacturing. Any company responsible for designing and building a product — from homes to industrial facilities, toys, electronics, cars and everyday objects — can put CAD software to work building its products.
Creo CAD software is easy to learn and known for its ease of use. We offer Creo training programs that will get you up to speed as an expert Creo user.