Follow this guide to create a procedure in Creo Illustrate or a process plan to generate State-Based Model Targets.
Prerequisites
Creo Illustrate is currently only available on Windows.
Creo Illustrate
Use Creo Illustrate to model procedures such as assembly, disassembly, or service instructions that resemble various states an object can be in.
See the Creo Illustrate documentation for more background information about procedures.
A procedure consists of a series of steps modeled in Creo Illustrate using Figures. A State-Based Model Target can be created from Creo Illustrate procedures where the state at the end of every step defines a state for which the Model Target can be tracked. For that, the procedure is exported as a PVZ file with illustrations.
State names for a State-Based Model Target are derived from the figure’s step names. In Creo Illustrate, they are named Step 1, Step 2, etc., by default. An additional state will be created that represents the state of the Model Target before the first step. This state will be named after the PVZ file. Any special characters in the step name are sanitized to follow the MTG’s 64-character limit and restricted use of symbols
Once a State-Based Model Target is created, the order in which the states are observed is irrelevant; Vuforia will recognize the states independently of whether an object is assembled or disassembled. The MTG will also remove duplicate states with the same geometry as the prior state.
Create a Procedure
Set up your CAD Model as a new illustration in Creo Illustrate.
- Start by setting up your standard, or choose the Creo default standard.
- Click Import, and choose embed or link.
- The Embed option inserts a copy of the file into the illustration.
- The Link option copies the CAD data to your illustration (C3DI file). You can then dynamically update your illustration data whenever the source CAD model changes.
- In the import window, select the model to import and click Create & Close.
Creating states
With your CAD model loaded in Creo Illustrate, start defining the states by creating a figure and steps in the Step Editor for each end state to be included in your State-Based Model Target.
- In the Animation tab, click Sequence.
- Add a new step for each end state representation needed for the object: Hide/unhide parts in the sBOM sidebar tab, and position parts with the Transform, all while Record Content is enabled in the Animation A step-by-step guide is available in the Disassembly Sequence in Creo Illustrate for Vuforia Studio.
- It is recommended to create a separate step for any change that considerably alters the appearance of the target, e.g., when the cover of an engine is removed. However, small changes (like the removal of individual screws) do not need to be modeled as separate steps since they will not impact tracking. When in doubt if a change in a procedure should be its own step, it is preferred to split changes into smaller, separate steps instead of combining too many changes into a single step.
- When a sequence is finished, it must be published as a new PVZ file. Due to a current limitation, the “Publish Separate Files” option needs to be selected from the Publish menu in Creo Illustrate. This creates a separate PVZ for every figure in your Creo Illustrate project. The PVZ file can then be loaded in the MTG. See Generate State-Based Model Targets to load the PVZ file in the MTG.
See the Studio Guide for step-by-step instructions on authoring in Creo Illustrate, or visit the Creo Illustrate help center for more information about the software tool.
If you already have a Vuforia procedure or similar prepared to use as the State-Based Model Target, remember to keep the states and procedure in sync.
Create a Process Plan
A process plan can be any 3D model where the top-level scene graph nodes describe the parts that are added between one state and another. This is most commonly an assembly procedure, where each node describes a step in which an object is assembled. A disassembly procedure is equally possible since the order of states does not matter to the Vuforia Engine.
When creating a State-Based Model Target, the content of the first node is implicitly part of all other nodes, meaning that each state automatically contains the sum of all nodes from the top level to the current state.
Typically, a process plan is exported from Windchill MPMLink as a PVZ file, but it can also be prepared and exported from 3D software that can export in the.
Parent nodes together
Group the parts into assembly steps by adding them together in a scene graph node that matches your assembly instructions.
This may look different depending on the model, the number of assembly end steps, and the use case. In general, each node should capture an assembly step of one or more parts or the possible states of a part, such as open and closed.
Preparing a process plan can be done in Blender, for example:
- Import the model with all its parts in Blender.
- Group together, in a single node, parts that represent an end-state. This could, for example, be based on assembly instructions or manuals
- Complete the process plan by adding a node with the part for each state.
- Go to File -> Export and export the process plan as a glTF.
- Load the model according to the Generate State-Based Model Targets.
When loaded, each node results in a separate state.