The Creo View client can be launched using the Open in Creo View action in a number of locations throughout Windchill from desktop computers with Creo View installed. When starting the Creo View client from Windchill, the client communicates with Windchill to retrieve data to be displayed to the user. Previously Windchill is configured to launch Creo View using a browser plug-in.

Web browsers are moving away from plug-in support. Google Chrome no longer supports plug-ins, Firefox is planning to follow suit by early 2018. Microsoft Edge does not support plug-ins. See CS 222882 for more information.

A new mechanism is therefore provided to initiate the Open in Creo View action from Windchill without using a browser plug-in. The new mechanism launches Creo View from a new executable independently of the browser that the user operates. By default, Windchill is configured to use the Creo View Agent to open Creo View, but the Administrator can switch to the plug-in mechanism by changing the Windchill setting described in “Browser Configurations” below.

This change does not affect opening embedded Creo View instances, such as thumbnails on the Visualization Panel, and in Thumbnail Navigation. For the same reason, a new mechanism, WebGL, is provided to support the Thumbnail Navigator. For more information about viewing thumbnail images using WebGL, go to Using WebGL to Render 3D Graphics at the end of this chapter.