Measurement Tool is Unacceptable

[BrianMartin]

The Measurement Tool... (Analysis->Measure)... was changed was back around Creo 2.0 or 3.0 to a "new, improved" GUI. Back then I complained loudly to the PLM for modeling tools and he was annoyed that I thought the new tool was inferior to the old one. 

In any decently sized assembly, I find the tool to be nearly useless. Tips like "pre-selecting the first reference" help but the should software function in a reasonable time span nonetheless. PTC says it "works to specifications" but taking 4 minutes to measure between two holes cannot possibly be "intended functionality".

What are your thoughts? Any tips for improvement? Or do we all just avoid measurements now?

[tbraxton]

Is your difficulty with the selection UI or with the measurement tool? Can you post a video explaining exactly what makes it unusable in your workflow?

Have you brought this to the attention of the core Creo Technical Committee?

[BrianMartin]

What is the difference really? You have no option to measure except using the GUI. Therefore, yes, the user interface is a problem - but so is the measurement tool. Imagine I am picking two planar parallel surfaces and wish to obtain a measurement. Pretty easy. Why should this operation take 4 minutes? As mentioned in the original post, I have brought this up before to PTC PLM's. It was also brought to the old Technical Committees , multiple User Experience (UX) Labs, and the core committee. In October at PTC User, I will stand up and mention it again.

I do not expect much of a response. In my experience, about 75% of the people attending technical committees are not hardcore users of the software. They are admins, managers, SMEs, instructors, etc. In the old technical committees, you could bring up software issues. In the new ones, the focus is different and much less driven by customer pain points.

I'll happily report back with my results.

[pausob]

It used to be that I was often cursing that I didn't save my work before launching the measure tool because it reliably crashed my computer.  At least of Creo4, the performance is not a problem and the worst thing is that the results sometimes show up hidden behind the measure dialog box. 

I guess I'm used to it so it's not so bad... for sure the UI could be improved (but that applies to Creo in general)

I offer this mapkey as I find that 90% of the time, I use the measure tool to find a distance between surfaces:

mapkey qq @MAPKEY_NAMEopens the measure dialog box and changes the selection \
filter to surfaces;@MAPKEY_LABELMeasure Surfaces (qq);\
~ Command `ProCmdNmdTool`  1;\
~ Command `ProCmdSelFilterSet` 90;

[BrianMartin]

Thank you... setting the filter is a good technique and does help as long as you have a mapkey for the type of reference you wish to select. 

However,my contention is that this is still a serious deficiency and one that receives no attention. The tool becomes slower the larger the model you're working on. I have a workstation with 128GB of RAM and a 16GB graphics card... it should not take 4 minutes to pick two references. I can spin the model like a top, cross-section it, even route harnesses in a fraction of the time it takes me to create a simple measurement.

If you work on medium-to-large sized projects, you've probably encountered this issue. I'm just wondering why we all accept it and no one addresses it.

[pausob]

I don't typically work with large assemblies, but I have some that are ~1500 parts in it and I do not have to wait for 4 minutes to pick  a couple of references.  So I do wonder if you have some graphics related problem.  My system is a 5 year old laptop with 16GB of RAM and 4GB Quadro M2000M card and so I do work with all the bells and whistles related to nice graphics turned off (disable anti-aliasing, make the shade quality low, turn off glow, turn off pre-selection highlighting...)

[Patriot_1776]

Holy cr@p, a post from Brian!  Man, I thought you'd fallen off the earth!  Good to see you back, and hope you've been well!

PTC is actually calling that an "Enhancement!", designed in there so you can go get yourself a cup of coffee while you wait...  LOL  But seriously, did you actually expect the arrogant elitist PLM to actually acknowledge that they made a MISTAKE with their fancy new indecipherable GUI ("Bold New Graphics!!!"), and that there was now LESS functionality?  I had the same experience when I complained about Windburn years ago:  They're always right, and the customer is always wrong.  Nice.

Hmm, I haven't noticed that, but then it's been a while since I did an assembly of 500 parts or so.

Frank

(I had to change my forum name because of a cowardly little snowflake stalker - long story)

[BrianMartin]

Hi Frank!!

Great to hear from you! Yes, I am still out here trying to make a living with Creo and I'm doing well, thank you!

Of course, unfortunately, my experience with PTC has been similar to yours. Calling tech support to report issues, submitting ideas, or filing enhancement requests does little to ease the software's pain points. Engaging PTC support usually takes many rounds of back-and-forth explanations, files, videos, follow-ups, and phone calls. Many times, the item remains unresolved. If an SPR is filed, there's often no urgency to address it.

For example, I am still waiting for a Creo Cabling error from Creo 2.0 to be corrected. The SPR is filed - and guidance from PTC says "No Plans to Fix".

I had hoped someone would have a tip to help with measurements but it appears there's not much to be done.

Best regards,

-Brian