The Creo Elements/Direct Drafting Parametric Design & Drafting System software (Parametric Design) adds powerful parametric and constraint-based modeling capabilities to Creo Elements/Direct Drafting.

Parametric modeling allows you to attach "names" or parameters to drawing dimensions, such as radii or lengths, and then to change the drawing by changing the numerical values or expressions associated with these parameters.

Constraint-based modeling allows you to specify geometric properties and relationships. The software then modifies the part so that these constraints are satisfied. For example, you can say "these two elements should be tangent," or "this line should be horizontal," or "this dimension should have such-and-such a value."

Parametric Design combines both types of modeling into a module that allows you to quickly and easily perform modifications that are beyond the scope of the basic Creo Elements/Direct Drafting Modify toolset.

With Parametric Design tools you can use any existing part as a template for generating variations or a family of parts that otherwise would have to be drawn from scratch. The following figure shows a "master" part and three variations that were generated with Parametric Design. Once constraints and parameters were defined for the master part with Parametric Design, each variation was generated by modifying only one dimension on the master.

Parametric Design provides these capabilities without changing existing Creo Elements/Direct Drafting functionality or procedures. Loading the Parametric Design module does not change any existing Creo Elements/Direct Drafting menus or commands, so your drawing methods need not change to use it. You can use any existing Creo Elements/Direct Drafting part with Parametric Design, and parts generated by Parametric Design will be fully compatible with Creo Elements/Direct Drafting. The constraint and parametric information generated by the software is added directly to the master part (as info text), and is automatically stored/recovered along with the part.