PTC Creo Simulate gives design engineers early insight into product behavior to significantly improve product quality, decrease rework, and save money with fewer iterations in the design process.

Virnig Manufacturing needed to maintain a high level of quality in their skid steer loader attachments and was looking to increase operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Darin Virnig and his team use PTC Creo Simulate to reduce costs, decrease weight, and eliminate reliance on physical prototypes – ultimately reducing design time by twenty-five percent.

Check out how Virnig Manufacturing uses PTC Creo Simulate to change the way they innovate in early design stages.

Business Initiatives

When it comes to skid steer attachments, it doesn’t get better than Virnig. Located in the heart of Central Minnesota, Virnig Manufacturing has been designing and producing skid steer loader attachments for over 27 years.

However massive they may seem now, Virnig wasn’t always the manufacturer we know today. When Dean and Lois Virnig got their start in 1989, the business operated out of a two-stall garage repairing farm and construction equipment. After five short years, the company discovered its niche – creating skid loader attachments.

Today, all steps of the manufacturing process are completed in-house. From engineering and cutting raw materials, to machining, welding, and painting the finished product, every attachment is designed and produced at Virnig’s facility.

Virnig now carries over 40,000 attachment parts and offers more than 80 unique skid loader attachments. Headquartered in Rice, MN, Virnig’s 67 employees have over 400 years of combined industry experience. The family owned and operated business has grown into a premium skid steer attachment manufacturer supplying North America and beyond.

Business Challenges

Virnig has been challenged more than ever to produce high quality, lightweight attachments in order to outperform the competition.

Darin Virnig, Manager of Production and Engineering explained, “We try as a company to get repeat business and to demonstrate to our customers that we have a solution for their problems. As our products continued to get more complex, they became heavy and overbuilt compared to our competitors. We knew we needed to lighten the machinery parts to reduce cost. As a company, we had to look to practices that gave us confidence in our processes before jumping into prototyping.”

Darin knew his team needed to maintain a high level of quality and also saw an opportunity to increase operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. To deliver on this goal, Virnig needed to provide employees across the organization with an in-depth view of how designs performed in real-world conditions.

This understanding would help Virnig reduce or eliminate product related issues in the field, lighten machinery parts, and reduce costly prototyping. By virtually testing real-world conditions, Virnig could maintain high-quality standards while optimizing and adjusting to their product lines.

Solutions – PTC Creo Simulate

Eager to reduce costs, decrease weight, and eliminate reliance on physical prototypes, Darin and his team turned to a PTC product called Creo Simulate. Because the engineers had used PTC Creo (formerly known as Pro/ENGINEER) as their primary CAD tool for several years, they felt it was only logical to turn to PTC’s Creo Simulate.

Creo Simulate is designed to provide users with accurate design simulation capabilities right within their CAD platform. By using the software’s simulation tools to create virtual prototypes, users are able to visualize and test a product’s structural performance before cutting any steel. This saves Virnig’s engineers time, energy, and money as they are designing new products.

Prior to implementing simulation software, Virnig tested product designs using trial and error or the build-and-break method. As products became more complex, the team realized the importance of accurate structural analysis. Virnig’s engineers found PTC’s integrated simulation tool easy to design, analyze and optimize the attachment lines.

Improving engineering design standards with early simulation

Virnig used Creo Simulate to innovate their most popular product, the Pick-up Broom. Traditionally the product consisted of a top with hydraulically driven bristles engineered to propel dirt into the bucket located on the bottom. With the Pick-up Broom, in particular, Virnig faced challenges as they attempted to lighten the machinery parts. To effectively analyze the deflection and strength of the product components, Virnig needed to test several design variations.

Using Creo Simulate, the team was able to virtually test multiple product designs in real-world conditions. At the touch of a finger, Virnig identified overbuilt areas on the Pick-up Broom. Their findings directly translated into lowered manufacturing costs, and lighter weight products that adhered to quality and manufacturing standards.

Pick-Up Broom with Gutter Brush Option – Virnig Manufacturing

With the help of Creo Simulate, Virnig was able to reduce the Pick-up Broom cost by 5% without compromising quality. Creo Simulate also allowed Virnig to save 10% on labor and assembly time throughout the product development process by eliminating most of the expensive and time-consuming prototype manufacturing.

Darin explained, “We were able to resolve the problems we had with field issues as we got more comfortable with the software. We saw it replicate places that had problems showing us the high-stress areas and factors.”

The benefits didn’t just stop there. This PTC simulation software allowed Virnig to use analysis early and often to verify and optimize the attachment product’s design integrity, function, performance, and cost. On average the company saved 25% on design time.

Darin stated, “We were able to finish the product faster, especially the structural parts that we manufacture by cutting and molding. Simulate on average has provided us a time savings of at least 25% because we don’t have to do as much trial and error on testing and prototyping.” Today, Virnig saves an average of 5 hours on every product they manufacture.

Darin explains what he considers the real value of Creo Simulate, “We have saved material, labor, and product while being confident that our quality hasn’t been compromised. Creo Simulate is saving us money and putting us at a competitive advantage – there is no doubt about that.”

By integrating the latest product development technologies and using top-of-the-line materials, Virnig continues to be a leader in the skid steer attachment industry.

Learn more about PTC Creo Simulate, contact us, or download the case study.

PTC is changing the way Creo Design software is being sold. As of January 1st, 2018 new 3D modeling software licenses for PTC’s core solutions are only available by subscription in North America.

This makes it easier for users to utilize new functionality and keep up with the latest release of PTC Creo Parametric CAD software. It also gives organizations the flexibility to choose a 3D CAD package according to specific needs at a given time, and ensures access to the latest capabilities and premium support.

Changes in PTC Creo CAD Packaging

PTC has retired and consolidated the following CAD packages into one of 4 new tiered PTC Creo Parametric Design packages: Essentials, Essentials Plus, Essentials Premium, Engineer 1, Essentials Team, Engineer 2, Engineer 3, and Engineer 4.

You can see from the table below that Creo Design Essentials (T1) replaces Essentials, Essentials Plus, Essentials Premium, and Engineer 1; Creo Design Advanced (T2) replaces Essentials Team and Engineer 2; Creo Design Advanced Plus (T3) replaces Engineer 3; Creo Design Premium (T4) replaces Engineer 4; and Creo Design Premium Plus (T5) is an entirely new package that becomes the fifth tier for the new Creo packaging.

New PTC Creo Design Packages

With Creo Parametric and its extensions you can create, analyze, view, and share designs using 2D CAD, 3D CAD, parametric design and direct modeling capabilities along with additive manufacturing, model-based definition (MBD), and smart connected design. Every package includes the industry’s most comprehensive set of 3D CAD tools to allows you to design with maximum potential.

Every package comes with the Core Capabilities and the power to publish, share, and create augmented reality experiences right inside of your 3D CAD models. This allows you to add value to your customer experience because they can now visualize your design with AR.

Here’s a breakdown of what is included in each package:

Creo Design Essentials

Download the Creo Design Essentials brochure here.

Creo Design Advanced

**includes everything in Design Essentials and also includes:

Download the Creo Design Advanced brochure here.

Creo Design Advanced Plus

**includes everything in Design Advanced and also includes:

Download the Creo Design Advanced Plus brochure here.

**includes everything from Advanced Plus and also includes:

Download the Creo Design Premium brochure here.

Creo Design Premium Plus

**includes everything from Design Premium and also includes:

Download the Creo Design Premium Plus brochure here.

For more details on the extensions in each of the new packages, watch our webinar replay, “New PTC Creo Design Packages Overview.”

FAQ on New Packaging

Q: What is the price for existing customers upgrading to the new packages?
A: If you already have a subscription license, then you may upgrade to the new packaging through a contract amendment. If you are still on a perpetual license, then you may convert and upgrade at the same time and pay the subscription conversion price.

Q: Do the new packages contain PTC Windchill?
A: Creo Design Advanced (Tier 2) contains Windchill PDM essentials. Design Advanced Plus, Design Premium, and Design Premium Plus is bundled with Navigate Author, MCAD Data Management I, BOM Management, and Project Management at no increased cost. These three packages will also be available without PDM.

Q: Can I still buy Creo extensions that are now bundled in the new packages?
A: Yes, all extensions will still be available to be purchased separately. If you are subscribing to a new package that does not contain an extension that you need, that extension will be available separately.

Q: Are trials for the Creo software available online?
A: Yes, you can download a free 30-day trial here

Q: How would upgrades work if I already have subscription license?  Do I pay the difference on the remaining contract?
A: Subscription upgrades are handled through a contract amendment. You would pay the difference between your current package and the upgraded package.

If you have more questions or would like to talk to us about the new Packages and Pricing, then contact us and we’ll give you more information.

Looking to make some major advances in innovation and digital transformation at your company? Check out how PTC Creo is the leading 3D CAD software in the industry.

I’ll start off explaining to you what exactly PTC Creo Parametric is and what it does for your design process.

What is PTC Creo Parametric?

PTC developed a premium parametric and direct computer-aided design (CAD) modeling software called Pro/ENGINEER. Pro/E was rebranded into PTC Creo Parametric and is now the leading product design software in the product development industry. Over 12,000 manufacturing companies worldwide use PTC Creo (Pro/E) software.

PTC Creo software gives you the ability to work with and edit data from almost any CAD source without recreating designs due to incompatible data. Creo provides a robust and scalable 3D CAD product design toolset for all different skill-levels of engineers and designers. With Creo CAD software you can quickly create 3D models of any part or assembly and improve existing designs with comprehensive surfacing capabilities.

PTC Creo Parametric provides 3D capabilities such as:

How to Download PTC Creo

“I’m already using another CAD software. How do I know PTC Creo is right for me?” Chances are you like to ride the bike before you buy it, right? That’s why PTC allows you to try it out before you decide to purchase. Download a free 30-day trial of PTC Creo here.

PTC Creo Parametric Software is constantly improving

Every version of Creo is better than the last! For instance, when Creo 4.0 was released it included capabilities for additive manufacturing, model-based definition (MBD), and smart connected design that allows engineers to leverage 3D modeling to define individual components and product assemblies. With Creo 5.0 building on the previous release, it contains all of Creo 4.0’s functionality and more!

The Intelligent Mini Toolbar: the mini-toolbar gives you access to relevant options while staying focused on the graphics area.

Customizable Menus: you can now tailor the tool for optimal productivity to customize your own workflow.

Flexible Modeling for Sheet Metal: you can now edit sheet metal bends, bend reliefs, corner reliefs, corner seams, and forms – simplifying designs for faster analysis.

Enhancements to Geometry Manipulation: accessibility to side 2 directly from graphics window when you right-click on a feature without navigating to the dashboard each time; the extrude and revolve tools allow you to specify negative direction values to invert materials for offset geometry; extrude is added to offset to eliminate the step of creating intermediate construction features.

PTC Creo 5.0 includes Topology Optimization, Additive/Subtractive Manufacturing for metal 3D printing, Mold Machining, Flow Analysis, Multi-CAD Collaboration, and improved enhancements with geometry sketch regions, subdivisional modeling, surfacing, sheet metal tools, and volume helical sweeps.

Read more about the newest release in our blog called, “What’s New in Creo 5.0?” or download the data sheet here.

Creo Software – Technology of the Future

When you purchase PTC Creo Software, you have the power to publish, share, and create augmented reality experiences right inside of your 3D CAD models. This allows you to add value to your customer experience because they can now visualize your design with AR.

With Creo Parametric, you also have the power of simulating digital twins within your CAD models to collect real-time data from sensors on a physical product. You can reduce downtime while using this data to find performance issues and schedule predictive maintenance.

As the physical and digital worlds converge, digital transformation starting with the right CAD software is more relevant than ever. PTC Creo software eliminates barriers to innovation and is a solution for product development challenges.

Download a free 30-day trial of PTC Creo to see for yourself how the right CAD software gives you the tools you need to design above and beyond anything you’ve ever imagined.