Make sure to look at the version of Creo View compatible with your version of Windchill (which can be found in the Windchill software matrices). I would recommend taking a look under PTC's product documentation in Creo View Adapters.

There's some configuration to setup within the Windchill UI to get the publisher talking to Windchill too. To automate publishing is more involved: You'll need to setup a publisher either on the Windchill application server or more preferrably on a machine of its own. But this will give you a quick way to test this functionality out and evaluate it before moving forward. This manual method isn't really the process you would want your designers using long term anyways. There used to be a setting to make Pro/E also generate the thumbnail, but I'm not sure if that still applies in Creo.

There are options to create the viewable at check-in. To do this manually, Ed: When you have the model and/or drawing opened in session in Creo and checked out, go to File -> Custom Check-In.

Creo view windchill