Creo 5.0 now lets you model in perspective! I for one am excited! I’m relishing the thought of giving my eyes and brain a long-awaited respite. It’s just not natural to process depth using trimetric or dimetric projections. Unlike some of my industrial design buddies who gave up on Creo (formerly ProE) opting for other CAD programs tailored for us right brain dominant kind of folks, I decided to hang in there awaiting the day PTC tossed me the old proverbial “perspective bone”. Actually, I stuck around because I saw the power Creo offers for modeling any shape I could dream up. Also, I appreciated the parametric agility that enabled me to tweak, even morph my models on a moments notice. In view of this, I made up my mind and embarked on the undertaking of remapping my neural pathways. Yep, I figured out how to suspend the need of foreshortening as a depth perception visual cue. I settled in for the long haul. And as it turns out, the haul was quite long. I’m talking ProE-to-Wildfire-to-Creo Elements Pro-to-Creo kind of long! Alas, the long-awaited persistent perspective mode modeling has come to fruition!
I don’t have a good answer as to why it took so long to incorporate persistent perspective mode, but here’s what PTC has to say about the long-awaited arrival.
Design in perspective gives designers the option of how they want to look at their models, either perspective mode or orthographic. A simple toggle allows you to switch between display modes for a better user experience. The ability to work in perspective means you can design and visualize your products as they would appear in the real world.
All my ranting behind now, let’s see how the new perspective tool works.
To Activate Perspective Mode
Activation is quite straightforward. Both the Model Tab and the View Tab now have a perspective button. From either tab simply select the Perspective View Button and voila you are now in perspective!
Adjusting Perspective View
Toggling between Orthographic and Perspective is achieved via the on/off button on the in-graphics toolbar.
To adjust how the eye sees, a.k.a view angle, you’ll need to navigate to the View Reorient dialog. From there you can tweak the setting to your viewing delight!
Activating & Configuring Perspective Types
- Walk Through– This viewing type allows you to move the model incrementally by using the controls on the Perspective sub-tab or using the mouse and/or 3D controller.
- Fly Through – This viewing type allows you to move the model in continuous motion. The orientation and position of the model is controlled using flight simulator-like interactions.
- From To – This viewing type allows you to move the model along the specified path. The viewing path along the model is defined by two datum points or vertices. From-To defines the path from one point to the other along the model.
- Follow Path – This viewing type allows you to move the model along the specified path. The viewing path is defined by an axis, edge, curve, or silhouette.
If you want your perspective setting to be available via RMB menu selection, you’ll need to add show_persp_type_om to your configuration file and set the option to yes. This will enable the perspective types option to be available in the Type drop-down menus.
Well, there you have it. The new Creo 5.0 perspective in all its glory. Enjoy!
