Popular CAD suite “Pro/ENGINEER” is no more, now known as “Creo Elements/Pro”, thanks to a global product rename by parent company PTC.  CoCreate and ProductView have been renamed as well.

“We believe Creo could be significant and a positive advance in PTC’s product offerings.” said Mike Galbraith, Global Engineering Systems & Services, Tyco Electronics. Creo could allow the teams involved in designing new products and bringing them to market…across different functions, different locations, etc… to productively use the same toolset throughout the product life-cycle process. We’re looking forward to working with PTC and their other partners in shaping these new capabilities.”

At at the naming event, they announced launch partner Luxion who have revamped their KeyShot rendering plugin for the new software.

“Selecting Luxion as a launch partner enables us to demonstrate that Creo in combination with Luxion’s KeyShot rendering technology allows other members of the community such as sales and marketing to be involved early in the design process and utilize the digital data directly for the creation of product imagery” said Michael M. Campbell PTC’s Divisional Vice President of Design and Visualization Products.

I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of the name.  The previous name was more than just a product name, it was a job description (Professional Engineers use “Pro/E”, etc).  The new name reminds me too much of the Pleo or the Treo.

Nonetheless, I’m glad to see a company like Luxion brought it at the ground floor.  High-end rendering has traditionally been forgotten in CAD packages, and I’m glad to see it available at-launch for a new product (even if it is just a rename of an old product).

via Press Releases: PTC Introduces Creo Design Software – PTC.com.