Aerospace and defense organizations are expected to develop increasingly sophisticated products while maintaining quality, compliance, traceability, and mission readiness. Aircraft, spacecraft, defense platforms, and their supporting systems combine advanced materials, complex assemblies, tight performance requirements, specialized manufacturing processes, and long product lifecycles. Programs may involve distributed engineering teams, suppliers, manufacturing partners, government stakeholders, and systems that must continue operating for decades. 

At the same time, organizations face pressure to reduce development cycles, control costs, increase production capacity, and introduce new capabilities faster. That combination makes engineering efficiency critical. A design issue that is not identified early can affect more than one component. It can spread across subsystems, suppliers, tooling, test plans, manufacturing processes, and certification or compliance activities. 

Creo provides aerospace and defense teams with a connected foundation for parametric design, complex assembly development, simulation, and model-based definition. Its associative 3D model helps maintain design intent as products evolve and connected information changes. 

For many organizations, however, core CAD is only the starting point. Specialized Creo extensions add capabilities for some of the most demanding aerospace and defense workflows, including composite design, top-down assembly management, additive manufacturing, simulation, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing. 

The following five extensions can help organizations address product-development challenges earlier, reduce disconnected work, and move complex products toward production with greater confidence. 

The Product-Development Challenges Facing Aerospace and Defense Organizations 

Aerospace and defense programs vary significantly, but their engineering teams often confront several common challenges. 

Product complexity continues to increase 

Modern aerospace and defense products are not simply mechanical assemblies. They may include advanced structures, electronics, propulsion systems, sensors, software-controlled components, thermal-management systems, communications equipment, and other interconnected technologies. Each discipline may have its own requirements, tools, schedules, and suppliers. Yet all those elements must ultimately function together within one physical product. 

PTC identifies increasing product complexity, fragmented workflows, distributed collaboration, compliance, and pressure to accelerate development as continuing concerns across aerospace and defense. When systems are designed in isolation, interface problems may not become apparent until integration, testing, or production. 

Lightweighting cannot come at the expense of performance 

Weight affects fuel use, range, payload, speed, efficiency, and overall system performance. Aerospace and defense teams therefore have a strong incentive to remove unnecessary mass. However, weight reduction must be balanced against structural requirements, durability, manufacturability, cost, inspection, and operating conditions. 

Advanced composites and additive manufacturing can create new lightweighting opportunities, but both also require specialized design workflows. 

Design intent must survive across large programs 

Large aerospace and defense assemblies can involve thousands of parts, numerous subsystems, and multiple engineering organizations. Changes to one interface may affect surrounding structures, equipment placement, manufacturing processes, or supplier-developed components. If those relationships are not clearly controlled, engineering teams may spend significant time identifying which models are affected and reconciling inconsistent updates. 

The challenge is not simply opening a large assembly. It is preserving the relationships and decisions that define how the product is intended to work. 

Performance must be evaluated before physical testing 

Physical testing remains essential for aerospace and defense products. However, testing is generally more effective when avoidable design problems have already been identified through digital analysis. Discovering a fundamental structural, thermal, or vibration issue during a physical test can result in expensive redesign and another round of testing. 

Moving simulation earlier gives engineers more opportunities to evaluate alternatives before the product architecture becomes difficult to change. 

Manufacturing definitions must be complete and unambiguous 

A geometrically accurate model does not automatically provide manufacturing, supplier, quality, and inspection teams with everything they need. The product definition must also communicate permissible variation, datums, feature relationships, and inspection requirements. Incomplete or inconsistent geometric dimensioning and tolerancing can create different interpretations among the teams responsible for producing and validating the product. 

The right Creo extensions bring these concerns closer to the design environment instead of leaving them for downstream teams to resolve. 

1. Creo Composite Design and Manufacturing Extension: Connect Composite Engineering to Production 

Composite materials can help aerospace and defense organizations create structures that are lightweight, strong, stiff, and tailored to specific performance requirements. However, designing a composite part involves more than modeling its final exterior shape. 

Engineering teams must consider: 

When these activities are completed in separate environments, teams may need to rebuild definitions, translate geometry, or manually communicate changes between design, analysis, and manufacturing. 

Creo Composite Design and Manufacturing capabilities support an integrated workflow that includes composite layup design, laminate sections, ply transitions, draping simulation, flat-pattern export, structural analysis, and ply-book creation. Keeping these activities connected can help organizations maintain continuity from engineering intent through manufacturing preparation. 

For example, an aerospace structures team can develop a composite layup while considering how the plies will drape over the part and how the structure will ultimately be manufactured. When the underlying geometry changes, the team can address the composite definition within the same broader design environment. 

Potential benefits include: 

The value is not simply the ability to model composite geometry. It is the ability to treat the composite structure as an engineered and manufacturable definition throughout development. 

See how Creo connects composite layup design, draping simulation, and manufacturing documentation in a single workflow. 

2. Creo Advanced Assembly Extension: Manage Complex Systems from the Top Down 

Aerospace and defense products are often developed by multiple teams working on interconnected portions of the same system. One team may be responsible for the primary structure. Others may develop propulsion, electronics, sensors, interiors, payloads, controls, or mission equipment. Suppliers may also contribute major assemblies that must comply with defined interfaces. If every team begins with an isolated bottom-up assembly, maintaining those relationships can become difficult. 

Creo Advanced Assembly Extension supports concurrent engineering and top-down design. Teams can use skeleton models, shared references, associative structures, interface definitions, and dependency controls to capture and communicate design intent. Changes can then propagate to associated components while teams maintain visibility into product relationships. 

This approach can be especially valuable when teams need to establish critical architecture before detailed component design begins. For example, an organization developing an unmanned aircraft could define key envelopes, mounting interfaces, structural boundaries, and equipment locations at the system level. Individual engineering teams can then develop their components against those shared requirements. 

If the overall architecture changes, the connected design relationships help teams understand and respond to the impact. 

Potential benefits include: 

Advanced assembly management becomes increasingly important as products grow more interconnected. The objective is not just to manage more components. It is to manage the relationships among those components so the complete system can evolve without losing design intent. 

See how aerospace and defense teams use Creo Advanced Assembly Extension to coordinate complex systems and maintain design intent across distributed programs. 

3. Creo Additive Manufacturing Extension: Design Lightweight and Complex Parts in a Connected Workflow 

Additive manufacturing has created new opportunities for aerospace and defense organizations. It can support rapid prototyping, specialized tooling, low-volume production, part consolidation, lattice-based structures, and geometries that would be difficult or impossible to manufacture through conventional processes. 

These capabilities are especially relevant when organizations need to reduce weight, simplify assemblies, or produce highly specialized components. But additive manufacturing also introduces workflow challenges. 

Engineering teams may need to move models between applications to: 

Each transfer creates another opportunity for disconnected data or repeated work. Creo Additive Manufacturing Extension brings lattice creation and print-preparation capabilities directly into the Creo environment. Engineers can design, optimize, and prepare additive parts while maintaining a closer relationship with the original CAD model. 

For aerospace and defense applications, that could include: 

Parametric lattice structures can help reduce material while maintaining support in areas where it is required. Part consolidation may also allow teams to replace multiple components and fasteners with a more integrated design. 

Potential benefits include: 

Additive manufacturing should not be applied simply because a part can be printed. The strongest use cases generally begin with a specific product-development problem, such as excessive weight, a high part count, difficult internal geometry, long tooling lead times, or a need for low-volume production. 

Creo Additive Manufacturing Extension gives teams a connected environment in which to evaluate and develop those opportunities. 

4. Creo Simulation Extension: Evaluate Performance Before the First Physical Part 

Aerospace and defense products may be exposed to demanding combinations of load, temperature, vibration, acceleration, pressure, and other operating conditions. Engineering teams need to understand how a design is likely to behave before committing to tooling, test articles, or production hardware. 

Creo Simulation Extension provides structural, thermal, and modal analysis capabilities for evaluating digital product models before physical prototyping. Engineers can calculate factors such as stress, displacement, frequency, temperature, and heat-transfer behavior. Because the analysis is connected to the product model, engineers can evaluate how changes to geometry, materials, loads, constraints, and interfaces affect performance. 

This can support questions such as: 

For aerospace and defense teams, integrated simulation can help move performance considerations earlier in development. Design engineers can use analysis to compare concepts and screen alternatives before involving specialist analysts in the most demanding studies. This allows expert simulation resources to focus on higher-risk and higher-value problems rather than routine questions that could have been addressed earlier. 

Potential benefits include: 

Simulation does not eliminate the need for testing, certification, or advanced analysis. Instead, it improves the quality of the design entering those activities. The earlier engineers can identify a weak concept, the more options they have for correcting it without disrupting the broader program. 

5. Creo GD&T Advisor Advanced Extension: Strengthen Model-Based Product Definition 

Aerospace and defense manufacturers increasingly use 3D models as central sources of product information. However, model-based definition succeeds only when the model communicates complete and accurate manufacturing requirements. Geometry shows the nominal shape of the product. Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing communicates how much variation is permitted and how critical features relate to one another. If GD&T is incomplete, inconsistent, or applied incorrectly, downstream teams may need to interpret the designer’s intent. That can lead to unnecessary questions, manufacturing delays, inspection problems, supplier confusion, and rework. 

Creo GD&T Advisor Advanced Extension supports guided GD&T creation and validation at both the part and assembly level. It can provide real-time feedback, identify noncompliant annotations, support the reuse of legacy annotations, and strengthen model-based definition compliance. 

This can help engineering teams create product definitions that are clearer for: 

For a complex aerospace or defense assembly, assembly-level GD&T is particularly valuable because component relationships often determine whether the finished system will perform correctly. A mounting feature may be acceptable when evaluated on one part but create an alignment problem when its relationship to surrounding components is considered. 

Potential benefits include: 

GD&T Advisor does more than accelerate annotation. It helps engineering teams communicate functional intent in a structured and standards-based way, strengthening the model as a source of information across the product lifecycle. 

See how Creo GD&T Advisor guides compliant annotation and strengthens model-based product definitions at the part and assembly level. 

Why Connected Engineering Workflows Matter 

Aerospace and defense organizations often have access to specialized tools for composites, simulation, additive manufacturing, and tolerancing. The challenge is not always a lack of technical capability. It is that those capabilities may be separated from the core design process. 

When engineering data moves between disconnected applications, teams may need to: 

These steps add time and make it harder to maintain a consistent digital product definition. Creo supports product development through a fully associative 3D model, while its extensions bring specialized design, analysis, and manufacturing activities closer to that model. This continuity can help teams move faster because changes are less likely to require an entirely separate chain of manual updates. 

It can also support a stronger digital thread by improving the quality and consistency of the engineering information passed to manufacturing, quality, inspection, and sustainment. 

How Creo Extensions Can Help Aerospace and Defense Companies Grow 

The benefits of these extensions extend beyond individual engineering tasks. They can contribute to broader business goals across development, production, and program execution. 

Accelerating time to market 

Teams can move faster when they identify structural, manufacturing, assembly, and tolerancing issues before those issues reach physical testing or production. Earlier insight creates more opportunity to correct problems without disrupting downstream work. 

Supporting greater product complexity 

Top-down assembly tools allow organizations to coordinate more systems, interfaces, and contributors without relying entirely on manual communication. This can help engineering teams take on more sophisticated products without increasing coordination problems at the same rate. 

Expanding lightweighting capabilities 

Composite and additive manufacturing tools provide additional ways to reduce mass while maintaining performance. This can help organizations pursue new aircraft, spacecraft, payload, mobility, and mission-system requirements. 

Reducing development risk 

Simulation, composite producibility analysis, and guided GD&T help teams uncover concerns while they can still be addressed digitally. Resolving issues earlier can reduce the likelihood of costly redesigns, test failures, tooling modifications, or production problems. 

Improving collaboration with manufacturing and suppliers 

More complete composite definitions, additive manufacturing data, assembly interfaces, and model-based tolerancing give downstream teams clearer information. This helps reduce the need for interpretation and repeated clarification. 

Making better use of engineering resources 

Integrated capabilities reduce the amount of time engineers spend moving, rebuilding, and verifying data between systems. Specialist resources can focus on the problems that genuinely require their expertise, while design teams address more routine questions as part of their normal workflow. 

Which Creo Extension Is Right for Your Aerospace or Defense Program? 

Not every organization needs every Creo extension. The right starting point depends on the challenges creating the most risk or delay in the current product-development process. Consider the following questions: 

The answers can help identify the most relevant extension. An organization focused on lightweight structures may begin with Creo Composite Design and Manufacturing or Creo Additive Manufacturing Extension. A team struggling to coordinate a complex system may see greater value from Creo Advanced Assembly Extension. Programs experiencing late performance problems may prioritize Creo Simulation. Organizations building a model-based enterprise may begin with Creo GD&T Advisor Advanced Extension. 

The objective should not be to purchase the greatest number of extensions. It should be to identify the product-development problem where additional Creo capability could produce the clearest operational result. 

Get More from Creo Across Aerospace and Defense Product Development 

Aerospace and defense organizations are being asked to deliver more sophisticated products under demanding cost, schedule, quality, and performance requirements. Meeting those expectations requires more than the ability to create a detailed 3D model. 

Teams need to: 

Creo provides a strong foundation for complex product design. The right extensions make that foundation more capable by bringing specialized engineering activities into a connected environment. Creo Composite Design and Manufacturing Extension can connect composite definition with analysis and production. Creo Advanced Assembly Extension can improve coordination across interconnected systems and teams. Creo Additive Manufacturing Extension can support lightweight structures, complex parts, and integrated print preparation. Creo Simulation Extension can move performance insight earlier in development. Creo GD&T Advisor Advanced Extension can strengthen model-based definitions and reduce downstream ambiguity. 

Together, these capabilities can help aerospace and defense teams reduce rework, manage greater complexity, and move mission-critical products toward production with greater confidence. 

EAC can help your organization review its current Creo environment, identify the workflows creating the greatest risk or inefficiency, and determine which extensions align with its engineering and program goals. 

Explore the Creo extensions built for aerospace and defense organizations. 

Automotive and industrial machinery companies are under pressure to develop increasingly complex products without extending timelines, increasing costs, or introducing additional risk. Automotive organizations must manage expanding vehicle platforms, new technologies, dimensional quality, weight reduction, and demanding performance requirements. Industrial machinery manufacturers face similar pressures as customers request more configurable equipment, greater automation, improved efficiency, and faster delivery. 

In both industries, engineering teams must coordinate large assemblies, moving mechanisms, tight component interfaces, thermal behavior, and increasingly demanding performance targets. Automotive manufacturers are also confronting intense pressure around speed to market, cost control, regulatory requirements, and growing product complexity. 

Creo provides a strong foundation for addressing these demands. Its parametric 3D CAD environment connects product design, engineering, validation, and manufacturing activities through an associative digital model. When a design changes, connected downstream information can update with it, reducing the need to repeatedly recreate data across separate workflows. 

But core CAD capabilities are only the beginning. Creo extensions allow organizations to add specialized functionality for the engineering problems that create the greatest amount of delay, rework, and uncertainty. For automotive and industrial machinery teams, several extensions can be especially valuable. 

The Product-Development Challenges Facing Automotive and Machinery Teams 

Although automotive companies and industrial machinery manufacturers produce different products, their engineering teams frequently encounter the same underlying problems. 

Product architectures are becoming more complex 

Vehicles and machines are rarely designed as one fixed configuration. Automotive manufacturers must support multiple platforms, trim levels, powertrain options, regional variations, and model years. Industrial machinery companies often create equipment from configurable modules that are adjusted for each customer, facility, or production environment. 

As the number of variations grows, engineering teams can spend more time maintaining product relationships, reconciling changes, and rebuilding similar assemblies. 

Dimensional variation creates downstream risk 

Every manufactured component includes some degree of dimensional variation. Problems can occur when acceptable variation across several individual parts accumulates in the final assembly. A bracket, shaft, bearing, spacer, housing, or frame component may each meet its specified tolerance while the completed system still fails to fit, align, seal, or function correctly. 

When tolerance stack-ups are evaluated late (or managed through manual spreadsheets) issues may not appear until prototyping, inspection, or production. 

Static models do not show how mechanisms will behave 

Automotive systems and industrial machines both contain moving components. Linkages, actuators, gears, robotic arms, suspensions, conveyors, lifting systems, and other mechanisms may appear correct when viewed in a static assembly. Their true performance becomes apparent only when movement, friction, gravity, loads, and interference are considered. 

When these behaviors are not evaluated digitally, physical prototypes frequently become the first meaningful test of the mechanism. 

Thermal and fluid behavior influence product performance 

Cooling, airflow, pressure, and heat transfer can affect everything from an electronic vehicle component to a piece of automated manufacturing equipment. 

If these considerations are evaluated after the surrounding geometry has been finalized, the team may have limited options for correcting the problem. Engineers may need to change enclosures, packaging, component placement, channels, or other established design decisions. 

Weight and material use remain important 

Automotive engineering teams are continually looking for opportunities to reduce component and vehicle weight. Industrial machinery manufacturers may need to reduce moving mass, improve machine efficiency, lower material costs, or make equipment easier to transport and install. 

Traditional design iteration can make it difficult to explore a wide range of alternatives while balancing structural performance, materials, and manufacturing requirements. These are not isolated engineering inconveniences. Collectively, they can contribute to additional prototypes, delayed design releases, production rework, material waste, and longer development cycles. 

The right Creo extensions bring these questions into the design process, when engineers still have the greatest ability to act on the answers. 

1. Creo Advanced Assembly Extension: Manage Complex Products as Connected Systems 

Large assembly size is only one part of product complexity. The greater challenge is managing the relationships among systems, modules, components, interfaces, and product variants while multiple engineering teams work concurrently. 

Creo Advanced Assembly Extension supports top-down design, concurrent engineering, shared geometry, change control, and platform-based product development. It can help organizations maintain critical design relationships as teams work on different parts of a complex assembly. PTC also positions the extension for managing options and variants across product platforms. 

For an automotive organization, that could mean defining common architecture across multiple vehicle configurations while allowing teams to develop individual systems. 

For an industrial machinery manufacturer, it could mean creating a modular machine platform that can be configured for different customers without rebuilding each assembly from the beginning. 

Potential benefits include: 

Advanced assembly capabilities become especially important when the business wants to increase product variety without increasing engineering effort at the same rate. 

See how engineering teams use Creo Advanced Assembly Extension to manage complex product platforms and concurrent design. 

2. Creo EZ Tolerance Analysis Extension: Identify Dimensional Risk Earlier 

A product can be modeled correctly and still be difficult to manufacture or assemble consistently. Creo EZ Tolerance Analysis Extension helps engineers conduct 1D worst-case and statistical tolerance stack-up analysis directly within Creo. It provides insight into dimensional variation within the 3D model and helps teams evaluate critical assembly requirements before committing to production.

Instead of treating tolerance analysis as a separate exercise performed late in development, engineering teams can evaluate how part variation may affect the finished assembly while the design is still evolving. 

An automotive team could use tolerance analysis to examine alignment, gaps, flush conditions, bearing placement, or component fit across an assembly. 

An industrial machinery team could evaluate whether accumulated variation will affect shaft alignment, actuator placement, sealing surfaces, tooling positions, or other critical interfaces. 

Potential benefits include: 

Tolerance analysis is not simply about making tolerances tighter. In many cases, the goal is to understand which tolerances matter most so the team can protect product performance without creating unnecessary manufacturing cost. 

3. Creo Mechanism Dynamics Option Extension: Understand How Products Move 

A static CAD assembly can confirm that components fit together in one position. It cannot, by itself, show exactly how the complete mechanism will respond under operating conditions. Creo Mechanism Dynamics Option Extension enables teams to simulate and evaluate dynamic assembly performance. Engineers can analyze motion, forces, friction, gravity, springs, dampers, belts, gears, interference, and clearance before relying on physical prototypes.

For industrial machinery manufacturers, this can support the development of: 

For automotive teams, the same capabilities can support moving mechanical systems, linkages, closures, actuators, and other vehicle mechanisms. The extension can also help teams understand the forces generated by movement. Those results can inform later structural analysis and help engineers evaluate whether surrounding components are prepared for expected operating loads. 

Potential benefits include: 

The objective is not necessarily to eliminate physical testing. It is to make each physical test more valuable by resolving avoidable design problems first. 

4. Creo Simulation Live Advanced Extension: Evaluate Thermal and Fluid Performance During Design 

Traditional simulation workflows can involve a handoff from the designer to an analyst, followed by setup, analysis, interpretation, and a return of results to engineering. That process remains appropriate for specialized and high-fidelity analysis. However, it can be too slow for the frequent design questions engineers face while developing a product. 

Creo Simulation Live Advanced Extension provides fluid-flow and combined thermal-fluid analysis within the Creo design environment. Engineers can visualize factors including velocity, pressure, flow behavior, and heat transfer as the design evolves. 

The ability to receive feedback while changing the design can help teams evaluate questions such as: 

Automotive organizations may use these capabilities to investigate cooling and thermal-management challenges around components, enclosures, or fluid systems. 

Industrial machinery companies may apply them to electrical cabinets, power systems, process equipment, cooling circuits, airflow paths, or other heat-generating machinery. 

Potential benefits include: 

Moving simulation earlier does not mean every designer becomes a specialized analyst. It means engineers can answer more routine performance questions before those questions become expensive problems. 

5. Creo Generative Design Extension: Explore More Viable Design Alternatives 

Engineering teams usually have limited time to explore design alternatives. A designer may develop a few concepts based on previous experience, test the most promising option, and refine it until it meets the requirement. That process can produce an effective component, but it may leave better alternatives unexplored. 

Creo Generative Design Extension uses defined engineering parameters to generate multiple design possibilities. Teams can establish requirements such as loads, operating conditions, target weight, materials, and manufacturing constraints, then compare the resulting alternatives.

For automotive teams, this could support lightweighting initiatives for brackets, supports, structural components, and other weight-sensitive parts. 

For machinery manufacturers, generative design can help reduce: 

Because materials and manufacturing constraints can be included in the study, teams can evaluate concepts based on more than shape alone. PTC’s generative design workflow allows engineers to compare generated designs and return the selected option to Creo for further development.

Potential benefits include: 

Generative design is most effective when applied to a clearly defined engineering challenge. The objective is not to generate unusual geometry for its own sake. It is to identify a practical design that better meets the organization’s performance, weight, cost, and manufacturing goals. 

Extending Creo Without Complicating the Engineering Environment 

Organizations sometimes address specialized engineering problems by adding separate tools. One application manages tolerance stack-ups. Another evaluates motion. Another performs thermal analysis. Another generates optimized geometry. 

Each tool may solve part of the problem, but it can also create additional handoffs, file translations, training requirements, and data-management challenges. Creo extensions provide another option: add specialized capabilities within the environment the engineering team already uses. 

That continuity matters because design, analysis, and optimization activities remain more closely connected to the core product model. Creo’s broader platform is built around an associative model that connects product-development activities and updates related information as the design changes.

For teams that already use Creo, the question may not be whether they need a completely different engineering platform. It may be whether they are taking advantage of the capabilities that can address their most difficult workflows. 

Which Creo Extension Is Right for Your Team? 

Not every automotive or industrial machinery company needs every extension. The best opportunity depends on the problems appearing most frequently in the current development process. 

Consider the following questions: 

The answers can help identify which extension is most likely to create meaningful value. For some organizations, the priority may be controlling complex product platforms with Creo Advanced Assembly Extension. For others, the most immediate opportunity may be tolerance analysis, mechanism simulation, thermal-fluid feedback, or generative design. 

The goal should not be to add more technology for its own sake. It should be to remove a specific source of rework, delay, or engineering risk. 

Get More from Your Creo Environment 

Automotive and industrial machinery organizations cannot control every source of market pressure. They can control how efficiently their teams identify problems, evaluate alternatives, and move designs toward production. 

Creo already provides a connected foundation for product design and engineering. The right extensions can make that foundation stronger by helping teams: 

By bringing more of these decisions into the design process, organizations can reduce late-stage surprises, make better-informed engineering choices, and move products toward production with greater confidence. 

EAC can help your organization review its current Creo environment, identify the workflows creating the greatest amount of friction, and determine which available extensions align with its product-development goals. 

Explore the Creo extensions built for automotive and industrial machinery teams. 

Innovation in product development doesn’t wait. And neither do the technologies that support it. From AI-powered engineering tools to cloud-native collaboration and product lifecycle management (PLM) enhancements, manufacturers today are navigating a rapidly evolving technology landscape. Staying informed about the latest capabilities is critical for maintaining a competitive edge.

PTC NEXT On Demand brings PTC’s latest innovations to whenever and wherever you need them, giving engineers, product developers, IT leaders, and executives the flexibility to explore product updates, AI innovations, and strategic insights. Missed the live event or want to revisit a session? Here’s an easy way to stay current with the technologies shaping the future of product development.

What Is PTC NEXT?

PTC NEXT is PTC’s flagship innovation event, bringing together customers, partners, and industry experts to showcase the latest advancements across its portfolio of engineering and product lifecycle management solutions.

Rather than announcing new capabilities throughout the year, PTC NEXT delivers a consolidated look at the newest releases, emerging technologies, and product roadmaps across solutions including Creo, Windchill, Codebeamer, Onshape, and more. It also offers valuable insights into broader industry trends, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and the connected digital product lifecycle.

The event is designed to help organizations understand not only what’s new, but also how these innovations work together to improve collaboration, accelerate product development, and drive smarter business decisions.

Fortunately, you don’t have to attend the live event to take advantage of everything PTC NEXT has to offer.

The On-Demand Experience

Engineering teams rarely have the luxury of blocking off multiple days to attend an event. PTC NEXT On Demand removes scheduling challenges by providing access to the event’s most valuable content whenever it’s convenient for you.

Instead of trying to fit your schedule around an event, you can:

Whether you’re interested in high-level strategy or deep technical product updates, the content is organized to help you quickly find the sessions most relevant to your responsibilities.

Explore PTC NEXT On Demand

Whether you’re looking for executive insights, technical product demonstrations, or the latest AI innovations, PTC NEXT On Demand makes it easy to access the content that’s most relevant to you.

Discover What’s New Across the PTC Portfolio

One of the biggest advantages of PTC NEXT On Demand is the breadth of product content available.

Creo: Smarter Product Design

Creo users can explore the latest enhancements designed to improve engineering productivity, including updates to model-based definition (MBD), simulation capabilities, composite design, electrification workflows, and manufacturing support.

Sessions also highlight how AI is becoming a practical design assistant, helping engineers automate repetitive tasks and make more informed design decisions without disrupting existing workflows.

Windchill: Advancing the Digital Thread

Windchill sessions showcase enhancements that improve collaboration, usability, and lifecycle management across the enterprise.

Learn how new capabilities strengthen the digital thread, simplify access to product data, and help engineering teams collaborate more effectively throughout the product lifecycle. You’ll also see how AI is beginning to streamline PLM workflows and surface insights from complex product data.

Codebeamer: Modernizing Application Lifecycle Management

As software becomes increasingly central to today’s products, application lifecycle management (ALM) plays a larger role than ever before.

PTC NEXT sessions covering Codebeamer explore improvements in requirements management, traceability, product line engineering, and AI-assisted development. This all designed to help organizations build increasingly complex software-enabled products with greater confidence.

Onshape: Cloud-Native Innovation

Onshape users can discover the latest advancements in cloud-native CAD, including new collaboration tools, AI-powered design assistance, robotics simulation, ECAD/MCAD integration, and enhanced compliance capabilities.

These sessions demonstrate how cloud-first engineering continues to reshape product development by making collaboration easier across distributed teams.

AI Becoming a Core Focus

Artificial intelligence was one of the defining themes of this year’s PTC NEXT, and the On Demand experience provides multiple opportunities to explore how AI is transforming engineering and manufacturing.

The dedicated AI in Focus sessions go beyond theoretical discussions, offering practical insights into how AI is being integrated across the PTC portfolio today.

Highlights include:

Rather than asking whether AI will impact product development, these sessions focus on how organizations can begin leveraging AI responsibly and effectively using the engineering data they already manage.

Dive Deeper into PTC’s AI Vision

Curious how AI is being applied across engineering, PLM, and ALM? The AI in Focus sessions provide practical demonstrations and strategic guidance to help organizations understand where AI delivers real business value.

Who Should Explore PTC NEXT On Demand?

PTC NEXT On Demand isn’t designed for just one audience. Whether you’re responsible for designing products, managing product data, overseeing IT infrastructure, or leading digital transformation initiatives, there’s content tailored to your role.

The platform is especially valuable for:

Even if you primarily work with a single PTC solution, exploring sessions across the broader portfolio can provide valuable context for how emerging technologies like AI, cloud collaboration, and the digital thread are reshaping product development.

Learn at Your Own Pace

Technology evolves quickly, but staying informed doesn’t have to be overwhelming.

PTC NEXT On Demand gives you the flexibility to learn on your own schedule while providing direct access to the product experts, strategic insights, and technical demonstrations that can help your organization get more value from its PTC investment.

Whether you’re interested in the latest Creo enhancements, exploring AI within Windchill, evaluating Codebeamer capabilities, or learning how cloud-native engineering continues to evolve with Onshape, you’ll find the resources you need in one convenient location.

Ready to Explore? Don’t miss the opportunity to see what’s new across the PTC portfolio.

Visit PTC NEXT On Demand to watch keynote presentations, explore product highlights, and discover how AI and modern engineering technologies are shaping the future of product development.

Artificial intelligence is no longer a standalone technology layered onto engineering software. Across the PTC portfolio, AI is becoming part of the everyday engineering experience. This helps teams design products faster, improve data quality, automate repetitive work, surface insights from connected lifecycle data, and make better decisions throughout the product lifecycle.

Across Windchill, Creo, Codebeamer, Arbortext, Mathcad, and ThingWorx, PTC is enabling teams with AI features. What do these PTC AI updates look like? Let’s explore these additions, their benefits, and their limitations.

Where AI Shows Up in Today’s Engineering Stack

Before we go into the weeds, we should address the elephant in the room. AI in engineering has exploded. And that isn’t just focused on one single area of engineering. It’s a growing set of capabilities embedded across multiple systems. Have a look at the high level focuses below:

Each of these tools applies AI to improve specific tasks. To get the full picture, let’s look at what AI is actually doing within each system.

AI Is Only as Good as Your Engineering Data

The AI capabilities built into PTC’s engineering solutions can help teams work faster and make better decisions, but only if they’re built on a strong data foundation. AI relies on accurate, connected, and well-governed engineering data to deliver meaningful results. If product information is scattered across disconnected systems or inconsistent throughout the product lifecycle, AI can only provide limited value.

That’s why becoming AI-ready is just as important as adopting AI itself. EAC’s AI Readiness Discussion helps manufacturers evaluate whether their engineering data, PLM processes, and digital infrastructure are prepared to support AI-driven workflows. We’ll help you identify gaps, uncover opportunities, and build a practical roadmap for implementing AI with confidence.

AI in Windchill (PLM): Unlocking Product Data

Windchill is the backbone of product data for many engineering organizations, making it a natural place for AI to deliver value. AI capabilities in Windchill include:

These capabilities help engineers find the information they need faster, reduce duplicate work, and make more informed decisions.

However, most AI functionality remains focused within the PLM environment itself. Access to insights is often limited to Windchill users and interfaces, leaving broader workflow opportunities untapped.

AI in Creo (CAD): Faster Design and Simulation

In Creo, AI is focused on improving how engineers design and validate products. Key capabilities include:

These features allow engineers to explore more design options, iterate faster, and reduce reliance on physical prototypes.

The result is better-performing products developed in less time. While AI enhances design tasks, it does not inherently connect those insights to downstream systems like PLM or manufacturing.

AI in Codebeamer (ALM): Smarter Requirements and Traceability

For organizations managing complex or regulated products, Codebeamer uses AI to improve development processes. Key capabilities of this addition include:

These features reduce manual effort, improve compliance, and help teams identify issues earlier in the development lifecycle.

Still, these insights often remain within the ALM domain, without full integration into product data or engineering workflows.

AI in Arbortext: Smarter Technical Documentation

Arbortext applies AI to one of the most time-consuming areas of product development: technical documentation. AI capabilities include:

These features help organizations produce accurate, consistent documentation more efficiently while reducing redundant work.

For service, manufacturing, and support teams, this means faster access to reliable information. However, documentation insights are still often disconnected from real-time engineering and product data.

AI in Mathcad: Improving Engineering Calculations and Knowledge Capture

Mathcad brings a different kind of intelligence to engineering, one focused on calculations, validation, and knowledge transfer. Key capabilities include:

While not always labeled as “AI” in the same way other tools are, these capabilities reduce errors and make complex calculations easier to understand and reuse.

This is especially valuable for organizations looking to preserve engineering knowledge and improve collaboration. However, these calculations are typically not connected to broader product data systems or workflows.

AI in ThingWorx and Kepware: Operational Intelligence

On the operations side, ThingWorx and Kepware enable AI-driven insights using real-world data. Capabilities include:

These tools help organizations improve uptime, optimize performance, and make better operational decisions. But like other systems, these insights often remain siloed unless integrated with engineering and product data.

The Gap: AI Is Still Siloed Inside Each System

As evidenced product by product, AI is clearly delivering value across the PTC ecosystem. But this value is mostly within individual tools. That’s where the limitations currently lie. And those limitations pave the way for potential challenges:

As a result, organizations still struggle to answer some fundamental questions. Questions like “Where has this design been used before?”, “What issues are associated with this component?”, or “What data across systems is relevant to this decision?”

The problem isn’t a lack of AI. It’s a lack of integration. AI inside tools improves individual tasks. AI across systems transforms entire workflows.

AI delivers its greatest value when it’s built on connected engineering data, not isolated applications. EAC’s AI Readiness Discussion helps manufacturers evaluate their current systems, identify integration opportunities, and develop a practical strategy for enabling AI across the entire product lifecycle.

What Engineering Teams Actually Want from AI

Most engineering teams aren’t looking for standalone AI features. They’re trying to solve practical problems:

These workflow challenges aren’t limited to isolated tools, but span multiple systems.

Why Windchill Is the Foundation for Engineering AI

If you’re looking to apply AI across engineering workflows, Windchill is the logical starting point. Why?

First, it contains structured, governed product data. Second, it connects to the other systems: CAD (Creo), ALM (Codebeamer). Finally, it represents the digital backbone of product development.

By anchoring AI to Windchill, organizations can ensure that insights are grounded in accurate, up-to-date product information.

Connecting AI to Windchill: Where the Real Value Happens

The next step is not adding more AI tools. It’s connecting AI to your existing environment. When AI is integrated with Windchill, organizations can enable:

This is where AI moves from isolated capability to enterprise value.

How EAC Helps You Integrate AI with Windchill

PTC provides powerful tools with embedded AI, but most organizations need help connecting those capabilities across their environment. That’s where EAC comes in. EAC specializes in integrating AI with Windchill and related systems to support real engineering workflows. Our approach focuses on:

We’re not introducing disconnected AI tools. We’re helping you make AI work within the systems your teams already rely on.

Getting Started with AI in Your Engineering Environment

The question for manufacturers is no longer whether AI will influence engineering. It already is. The greater challenge is ensuring the underlying engineering data, product lifecycle processes, and digital infrastructure are prepared to support it. Organizations that invest in connected lifecycle management today will be better positioned to realize the full value of AI tomorrow.

Learn more about EAC’s Windchill AI Integration services today.

Selecting the right CAD software is no longer just about drafting geometry. Today’s engineering teams must balance design flexibility, performance at scale, collaboration, simulation, and long-term adaptability all while supporting increasingly complex products. For organizations evaluating whether their current CAD environment still meets those demands, understanding how modern solutions like PTC Creo compare to legacy CAD systems and other leading platforms such as SolidWorks and CATIA is a critical step in assessing CAD tools.

We made this high-level comparison to help you frame an evaluation. For deeper technical detail, we’ve included links to full comparison guides and a practical CAD Software Evaluation Scorecard you can use to assess your own requirements objectively.

Creo vs Legacy CAD Systems: Moving Beyond Yesterday’s Tools

What “Legacy CAD” Looks Like Today

Many engineering teams still rely on older CAD platforms. They’re familiar, stable, or deeply embedded in existing workflows. However, these systems are typically characterized by:

While legacy CAD tools may still “get the job done,” they often struggle to keep pace with modern product complexity.

How Creo Modernizes the CAD Experience

Creo was built to address the shortcomings of older CAD architectures. At a high level, key differentiators include:

For teams feeling constrained by legacy platforms assessing CAD tools, Creo offers a clear path toward more agile, future-ready design workflows.

Creo vs SolidWorks: Depth, Scalability, and Flexibility

A Common Comparison Point

Creo and SolidWorks are frequently evaluated side by side, particularly by organizations assessing CAD tools with standardization or growth beyond departmental CAD use in mind.

At a high level:

Key Areas of Differentiation

Rather than focusing on features, many teams evaluate these platforms based on broader engineering outcomes:

When SolidWorks May Be the Right Fit

SolidWorks remains a strong option for smaller teams or projects with simpler mechanical requirements, particularly where rapid onboarding is a priority.

For organizations anticipating product growth, increased complexity, or deeper lifecycle integration, Creo is often evaluated as a more scalable long-term platform.

Creo vs CATIA: Power, Accessibility, and Ecosystem Strategy

Different Philosophies, Different Strengths

CATIA and Creo are both powerful engineering platforms, but they tend to serve different organizational needs.

High-Level Comparison Themes

Teams often weigh the following considerations when comparing Creo and CATIA:

The right choice often depends on how specialized your design needs are and how broadly the CAD platform must integrate across your organization.

How to Evaluate CAD Software for Your Organization

Every engineering team has unique requirements. That’s why side-by-side feature lists rarely tell the full story.

A structured evaluation helps teams assess CAD platforms across criteria such as:

Use a Scorecard to Guide the Decision

The CAD Software Evaluation Scorecard provides a practical framework for comparing solutions objectively, whether you’re replacing legacy tools, consolidating platforms, or planning for future growth.

Final Thoughts on Assessing CAD Tools

Choosing the right CAD software is a strategic decision that impacts productivity, product quality, and long-term innovation. By understanding how Creo compares to legacy CAD systems, SolidWorks, and CATIA, engineering teams can make more informed, future-focused decisions.

Use these high-level comparisons to narrow your options and structured evaluation tools to validate the choice.

Modern product development moves fast. Companies can’t afford lengthy iteration cycles, costly prototypes, or delayed design validation. That’s why more teams are turning to real-time simulation (and specifically PTC Creo Simulation Live) to close the gap between design and analysis. Powered by Ansys technology and embedded directly within Creo, CSL lets engineers validate their designs as they work. That means no exports, no waiting, no specialist intervention.

Below, we answer the top questions engineering leaders and design managers ask when evaluating Creo Simulation Live, focusing on measurable ROI, deployment considerations, and implementation best practices.

Business Value Questions

How does using real-time simulation with Creo reduce design cycle time and speed up time-to-market?

Creo Simulation Live eliminates the traditional bottleneck between CAD design and FEA (Finite Element Analysis). Instead of waiting hours or days for simulation feedback, engineers get instant, continuous insights as they model. This allows them to correct issues before they compound. This iterative, in-context simulation reduces the number of formal analysis loops needed, speeding up concept validation and design approval. Companies using CSL often report significant time savings in early design phases and faster product launches overall.

What kinds of efficiency gains (fewer prototypes, fewer iterations) can companies expect when using Creo Simulation Live?

By validating designs in real time, teams drastically reduce the need for physical prototypes and redundant digital iterations. Engineers can instantly test the impact of geometry changes on stress, displacement, or thermal behavior. This results in first-time-right designs that move directly into downstream analysis or production. This leads to measurable cost savings through fewer prototype builds and reduced rework. Over time, these efficiency gains compound, shortening development cycles and freeing up resources for innovation rather than iteration.

How does early access to simulation results improve product quality or reduce rework downstream?

Early design validation is one of CSL’s greatest strengths. Because engineers can see how forces, loads, and materials behave as they model, they can identify weak points long before manufacturing or physical testing begins. This reduces the risk of costly design changes late in the process, when errors are most expensive to fix. The end result is higher product quality, greater reliability, and fewer field failures. All this can be achieved without slowing the pace of design.

What ROI metrics should engineering management track when deploying real-time simulation in CAD?

Key ROI metrics for real-time simulation adoption include reduction in design cycle time, number of prototypes built, time-to-market, and first-pass yield improvements. Many companies also track reductions in engineering change orders (ECOs) and post-release defect rates as direct indicators of design accuracy. In parallel, productivity metrics (like average simulation time per design iteration) help demonstrate the efficiency of CSL in day-to-day operations. Together, these KPIs quantify how Creo Simulation Live directly supports profitability and innovation goals.

How can real-time simulation help companies innovate more effectively rather than just optimize what’s already there?

Traditional simulation workflows tend to limit creativity. Designers hesitate to explore new ideas when analysis cycles are slow or resource-heavy. With CSL, experimentation becomes frictionless. Engineers can test “what-if” scenarios instantly, evaluating materials, geometry changes, or load conditions without leaving their design environment. This empowers teams to innovate boldly, exploring a broader design space and developing optimized products that balance performance, cost, and manufacturability.

Licensing, Deployment, and Scalability Questions

Is Creo Simulation Live available as an add-on extension or part of a simulation suite?

Creo Simulation Live is offered as an add-on extension to Creo Parametric, available standalone or bundled within PTC’s Simulation Suite. It complements Creo’s other simulation tools (such as Creo Simulate and Creo Ansys Simulation) by focusing on real-time, interactive analysis during early design stages. This modular licensing approach allows companies to scale simulation capabilities according to team size, product complexity, and analysis needs.

Can Creo Simulation Live be deployed on-premises, cloud, or hybrid environments?

Currently, Creo Simulation Live is deployed primarily on-premises, integrated directly with Creo installations. However, it can easily function within hybrid or cloud-managed environments that host PLM data (e.g., PTC Windchill) or cloud-based CAD setups. Organizations running virtualized or remote engineering environments can still leverage CSL without performance loss, provided GPU and compute resources meet recommended specifications. As simulation technology evolves, hybrid configurations will only become more accessible and flexible.

What considerations are there around licensing cost, hardware investment, or user rollout?

Licensing for CSL is subscription-based, making it easier to budget and scale with team growth. Since the tool uses GPU acceleration for real-time computation, performance depends largely on the workstation’s graphics card. Most organizations can leverage existing high-end CAD hardware without significant additional investment. For rollout, it’s best to start with pilot users (typically design leads or CAD specialists) before extending licenses organization-wide.

How does Creo Simulation Live scale from individual designer use to enterprise-level simulation adoption?

Scaling CSL across teams is straightforward because it integrates directly into Creo’s user interface and workflows. For individual designers, it serves as a self-service validation tool; for larger organizations, it becomes part of a connected simulation strategy spanning concept, design, and verification. Enterprise adoption typically involves defining simulation standards, sharing templates, and integrating results into PLM for traceability. With minimal setup overhead, Creo Simulation Live can scale from small design teams to global engineering operations.

What support resources and learning paths are available for Creo Simulation Live?

PTC and partners like EAC Product Development Solutions provide extensive support. This includes onboarding, mentoring, and self-paced training courses. Learning paths range from beginner tutorials on running simulations to advanced modules on interpreting results and optimizing performance. EAC also offers custom workflow consulting to help teams embed CSL into their specific design processes. Continuous learning ensures teams fully leverage the real-time feedback capabilities that make CSL so transformative.

Implementation and Workflow Questions

How do you enable and deploy Creo Simulation Live in your Creo environment?

Enabling CSL is a straightforward process. Once licensed, users can activate the extension within Creo Parametric’s interface and immediately begin running simulations on parts or assemblies. Setup involves selecting analysis types (structural, thermal, modal, or fluid), defining boundary conditions, and viewing instant visual feedback, all within the modeling window. Deployment across teams typically includes standardizing simulation templates and data management practices for consistent performance and reporting.

What are best practices for integrating real-time simulation into your design process?

Start by embedding simulation early in the concept and preliminary design stages, where design flexibility is highest. Encourage designers to use CSL iteratively as they model, rather than as a post-design verification step. Define internal guidelines for simulation fidelity—balancing speed with accuracy—and integrate results reviews into regular design checkpoints. Over time, this approach fosters a simulation-driven design culture that accelerates innovation and reduces late-stage revisions.

How long does it take to get up and running with Creo Simulation Live?

Most teams can begin using CSL within a single day of installation, since it’s fully embedded in Creo and requires minimal configuration. For organizations new to simulation, training and adoption may take a few weeks as users learn best practices and refine workflows. The intuitive interface and live feedback make the learning curve significantly shorter than traditional simulation tools. Within the first few projects, teams typically begin seeing measurable productivity gains.

What kind of training or change-management effort is required for design teams to adopt real-time simulation?

Training focuses less on tool operation and more on design thinking with simulation in mind. Designers learn how to interpret results dynamically and make informed trade-offs as they model. Change management should emphasize how real-time simulation empowers, not replaces, engineers, making it a collaborative enhancement rather than a separate discipline. Organizations that invest in hands-on learning sessions often achieve faster adoption and higher sustained use.

Can Creo Simulation Live support large assemblies, multi-body parts, and complex designs?

Yes. Creo Simulation Live is designed to handle complex geometries and multi-body parts efficiently using GPU-driven solvers. For large assemblies, users can define subsets or simplified representations to focus on critical areas while maintaining performance. The ability to simulate directly within the full assembly context ensures engineers can validate interactions between parts in real time. This scalability makes CSL suitable for industries ranging from automotive to aerospace, where system-level analysis is essential.

Why Real-Time Simulation Is the Future of Design

Choosing Creo Simulation Live means rethinking how design and analysis work together. Instead of relying on delayed validation cycles, engineers can now explore, test, and refine designs instantly—unlocking innovation and confidence at every stage. The result? Faster design cycles, fewer prototypes, higher product quality, and measurable ROI.

Whether you’re a small design team or an enterprise organization, real-time simulation with PTC Creo Simulation Live empowers you to build better products, faster.