PTC Creo

KeyShot Studio for PTC Creo Plugin

These installation notes are specific to the latest version of the KeyShot Studio for PTC Creo plugin unless otherwise mentioned. For questions about other versions, please contact KeyShot Support.

KeyShot Studio for PTC Creo 7 & 8

KeyShot Studio for PTC Creo 9 or newer

Note

Be aware that updating your plugin version from 1.3 to 2.0 might break the LiveLinking™ "update" functionality with previously exported scenes.

Specifications

The KeyShot Studio for PTC Creo plugin requirements are as follows:

KeyShot Studio (Try | Buy)

PTC Creo 7 and above

Windows 10 and later

Plugins for previous versions of KeyShot Studio are available here.

Supported Features

The KeyShot Studio for PTC Creo plugin supports these features:

Maintain color assignments on part and assembly level

Maintain assembly structure

Select simplified representations

Refine tessellation quality

Maintain saved views

LiveLinking™ – update model inside KeyShot Studio

Export to .bip without KeyShot Studio installed

Transfer NURBS (requires KeyShot Studio Professional)

Export mechanisms using .fra files (requires KeyShot Studio Professional)

Installation

After downloading, double-click the plugin installer (.exe) file. Follow the prompts and click Finish.
Launch PTC Creo and open go to File > Options.
Click Configuration Editor > Add… to add a new entry to your configuration file
Set the Option Name to: protkdat
To specify the Option Value, click Browse and navigate to the protk.dat file. This is typically located under:

C:\Program Files\KeyShotStudio\Plugins\Creo.

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\KeyShotStudio\Plugins\Creo.
Select the protk.dat file click Open. Then click OK and save your changes in the config.pro configuration file inside Creo’s working directory.
Repeat steps 2-6 while in assembly mode.
Restart Creo. Open your Auxiliary Applications and check that KeyShotStudioPlugin is “Running”. If so, you have successfully installed the plugin. Otherwise, you can start the application and close the auxiliary applications window.

KeyShot Studio for PTC Creo Plugin Menu

Once installed, a KeyShot Studio menu will appear inside PTC Creo’s Ribbon. The KeyShot Studio menu, has three buttons: Render, Update, and Settings.

Render

Click the Render button to launch KeyShot Studio. The 3D data will be transferred from Creo to KeyShot Studio. You can also click the drop-down button under Render and select Export to export your geometry as a .bip file that you can share with other KeyShot Studio users. KeyShot Studio will not launch when you use the Export button.

Update

Click the Update button while an existing KeyShot Studio scene is open to update any changes on your model.

Settings

Click the Settings button to access various plugin options like Tessellation value, NURBS, Assembly Orientation, LiveLink Part, and Mechanisms. For detailed information see Plugin Settings below.

How To Use The Plugin

Open your assembly or part in Creo.
Go to the Creo Ribbon > KeyShot Studio and click Render to launch KeyShot Studio. The 3D data will be transferred from Creo to KeyShot Studio.
To update any changes made in Creo, click Update while your KeyShot Studio scene is open. All materials, textures, labels, animations, transformations, cameras, and lighting in the scene will be updated.
When revisiting a project, open both KeyShot Studio and Creo. Load the corresponding scene/model into both applications and click Update to re-establish the LiveLink connection.

Note

Always use the same Creo mode with which you started. If your initial data transfer was done while in assembly mode, then all of your updates should be performed while in assembly mode. Similarly, if your initial data transfer was done while in part mode, then all of your data should be performed while in part mode.

Mechanisms

To export mechanisms created in Creo, follow the steps below.

Load the assembly and save out the Mechanism as a .fra file. This is done from the Mechanism application within Creo.
Go to Creo Ribbon > KeyShot Studio and click Settings.
Enable “Prompt for .fra file on transfer”.
From now on the plugin will prompt you for a .fra file every time you click Render, Export or Update.
Inside KeyShot Studio, play back the mechanism animation.

Plugin Settings

The KeyShot Studio for Creo plugin gives you access to various plugin options.

Tessellation Level

Tesselation controls the number of polygons in your model. For smoother surfaces, select a higher tessellation value. Default value is set to 0.2. Increasing the value will also increase the file size.

Include NURBS

When enabled, the plugin will transfer parametric representation of the data in the scene. This bypasses some of the problems with tessellated data, as smooth curves will remain smooth if rendered with NURBS.

Note

Although more accurate, rendering with NURBS is more CPU intensive, and frame rates in KeyShot Studio will likely be lower. File sizes will increase as well.

Assembly Orientation

This determines the up-vector (x, y, or z).

LiveLink Part Selection

By default, LiveLink Part Selection is set to Automatic. This means that the when you click Update, all part changes will be updated in KeyShot Studio. Choose Manual to manually select which parts should be updated or transferred. Manual control comes in handy when you want to increase tessellation on a single part without changing its definition.

Prompt For .fra File

This check box will allow you to transfer mechanism animations via a .fra file. See Mechanisms above.

Note

Animation, Scripting, and NURBS ray tracing features are only available in KeyShot Studio Professional.

Uninstall

You can uninstall the KeyShot Studio plugin from the Windows Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.