National Instruments LabVIEW vs. PTC Creo

LabView is a great tool to connect your sensors to your data aquisition hardware. It makes it really easy to set-up a data acquisition routine that meets your individual requirements. I, as an engine researcher, find it very well suited for engine experimentation. For any other programming needs, i.e. not data acquisition, I would not recommend using LabView because of its graphical programming architecture. The architecture makes it a great tool for Data Aquisition but puts at a disadvantage when it comes to other computational tasks, e.g. making a thermodynamic engine model. For those applications having text-based programming is better suited

Incentivized

PTC Creo is great for assemblies that multiple users are collaborating on. Models can reference other models that someone in another department has released and when those models are changed, the referenced parts and assemblies are changed. These changes are very helpful when working on collaborative machine designs and comparing forging dies with the final parts.

Incentivized

• Being a graphical programming language, it is a little easier for a layperson to understand than text based programming languages.
• The program has very good debugging features.
• Support is good.
• There are a variety of tutorials which make it easier to do something that you aren't sure about.

Incentivized

• PTC Creo contains many advanced tools with better optimization for creating part models and other production related drawings.
• The initial concept designs can be done more adequately.
• The parameters of 2D drawings can be changed easily by editing the 3D model.
• The productivity can be increased by customized tools for modeling.

Incentivized

• improve the management of pc resources to use the minimum amount of resources
• add a utility for zooming in the block diagram window
• Improve management of complementary applications, such as real time module or dsc

Incentivized

• No autosave
• No clear message if it has problems saving the file
• Not so easy to use
• In my experience, has a lot of things missing that other CAD already have in years
• In my experience, it's extremely easy to lose work/time

I liked the training manuals I used to learn some, as I didn’t have CAD background in college or before this job. My coworkers were able to share with me what they learned in PTC training and I was able to get support online and through reading.

Incentivized

We chose LabVIEW over MATLAB due to the integration with hardware and the graphical programming interface. Also, the ability to use LabVIEW with FPGAs and real-time processors without having to make large changes to the code base or swapping to a separate programming environment was a big benefit since we don't know what hardware will be suitable for each customer application.

Incentivized

Learning curve of SOLIDWORKS is higher compared to Creo, however, stability and more design control is provided by Creo. Creo also have more robust and stable interfaces. For larger assemblies, Creo works better than SOLIDWORKS. New upgrades of Creo has given liberty to open different file data of different software without any file conversion. Creo costs comparable to SOLIDWORKS cost, with more capabilities.

Incentivized

• We use NI's data acquisition hardware as well which has made it possible to get whatever experimental data we need to get for our studies.
• LabView has made it possible for us to post-process and tailor the raw data to our specific needs.
• With a responsive customer support team, NI allows us to expand our data acquisition and post-processing capabilities to carry out the kind of research projects that we would want.

Incentivized

• Having PTC Creo as our primary tool positions us as forward thinking and creative in the eyes of our clients.
• PTC Creo constantly evolves in the ability to increase our productivity; new capabilities and features are added, which reduce our level of effort for some tasks.

Incentivized