Kevin, Good question. I have thought of that and think that it is a nice thought, but perhaps not realistic for the following reasons:
- The problem is it has not been a reality for the last 20+ years, yet they have refused to give any decent 2D tools built in to ProE/Creo drawing mode (though their sketcher is superior in many ways, and they created a separate module to draft in 2D). There has been almost no chance of this happening during those years and only recently has it become possible. Even though it is possible to do a drawingless environment, nor is it easy to change...nor is it always the best option.
- What realistic alternative do we currently have? I have not yet seen a good alternative to detailing on 2D dwgs so that it is a structured way to go through the dwg to verify that all the dimensions are there, they are all correct and all features, big and large are good. Have you? If so I would be interested in seeing it and investigating it.
- Paperless is very different than drawingless. By in large, we still use either PDFs or Creo View during the approval process, so this part is, by definition, paperless even though we are still use drawings to display the model features and dimensions. Even when the model is fed directly into the CNC programming, a dwg/pdf is still useful to verify the features and dimensions, giving a good overview/summary. There may be a better way to do it, but I have not yet seen it.
- There is an assumption that Models are the only thing put on dwgs, which I think most companies would strongly disagree with. What about text, symbols, performance graphs, tables (not only BOM, but specification tables too), and any other kind of spec. Does PTC want me to create a circuit symbol in Creo modeling? A graph too?
If there are good alternatives and solutions to these problems, I sincerely and very much look forward to hearing about them, to see if perhaps we could integrate their use. If there isn't, I think PTC needs to re-access providing these basic and simple solutions for dwgs.