Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
(OP)
I am currently using Wildfire 3.0 and may be moving to 4.0 soon. I am trying ot find a way to automate some tasks in ProE, specifically relating to CATIA file conversions, and in general to creating parts, drawings, etc. Are there any reference materials out there that deal with running ProE from a batch file or with the command tree for ProE. I have been searching for a while and haven't found anything that fits the bill. I would appreciate any help that can be given.
Thanks,
SV
Thanks,
SV





RE: Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
Some have managed to automate some tasks in Pro/E by making use of Trail Files. These trail files can be loaded from the command line, which might be what you are looking for. The "automation" that I've heard of involved using Visual Basic or some similar programming language to create a program that generates a trail file based on user inputs, then the trail file is saved to a specific location, and the VB program then loads up Pro/E with the trail file.
This is the closest thing to a command-line based execution in Pro/E, without getting into Pro/Toolkit (C++ based) solutions.
RE: Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
Peter Stockhausen
Pollak Switching Products
RE: Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
For information on adapting trail files, you can refer to my series of articles starting with:
http://inversionconsulting.blogspot.com/2008/05/proe-anatomy-of-trail-file-part-1.html
Another option is to use Javascript or VBScript in the Pro/Engineer embedded web browser via PFC based Pro/WebLink. This provides a lot of programmable access into the Pro/Engineer session and models, is very easy to use, and quick to program. Because it works in the web browser, there are some security hassles to deal with, but that's a one time initial problem. You should have a "weblink" folder in your Pro/Engineer install that contains examples and documentation.
Beyond the online help, here are some starting points for Pro/WebLink:
http://inversionconsulting.blogspot.com/2008/04/weblink-what-is-it-anyway.html
http://inversionconsulting.blogspot.com/2008/07/proe-weblink-getting-started-tips.html
PTC released the VB API for use with Wildfire 4 and higher. This is also a PFC based API, which means it has mostly the same core (but more) functionality as Pro/WebLink. You can use just about any flavor of VB (or practically any scripting language) desired with the VB API.
Some starting points for VB API:
http://inversionconsulting.blogspot.com/2008/06/proe-visual-basic-api-first-look.html
http://inversionconsulting.blogspot.com/2008/06/proe-vb-api-not-just-for-visual-basic.html
J-Link (also PFC based) is for automating Pro/Engineer in Java. Documentation and examples can be found in the "jlink" folder in your Pro/Engineer install.
Here is a Pro/Files articles on J-Link:
http://www.profilesmagazine.com/p39/felkins.html
Pro/Toolkit is the C/C++ based API. It requires considerably more investment in time and money to start producing useful applications, but it is very powerful. It differs from the all other methods that I have mentioned in that it is not free. While the PFC API's allow access into Pro/Engineer, including the ability to manipulate models, creating models and geometry is either not possible or just very difficult. Pro/Toolkit allows you to create stuff, but it is also not particularly easy either.
I hope that gives you a sense of what your options are.
Marc
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Marc Mettes
Inversion Consulting
http://inversionconsulting.blogspot.com
RE: Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
RE: Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
I just have a lot of CATIA files to convert and this would make life a lot better.
Thanks,
SV
RE: Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
The sites listed above by marcmettes offer some really good tips on how to do this.
RE: Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
Peter Stockhausen
Pollak Switching Products
RE: Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
Marc,
Thanks for the links, I had found your blog on a search, but that is a good list of ones that I had not looked at yet.
Thanks again to everyone for the help.
SV
RE: Advanced Programming for ProE Automation
Trail files can be very tricky, but they can make your
organization hugely productive. They have to be created
and edited very carefully to ensure robust results from
model to model and system to system. I stick to clicks
in menus and dialogs only, never in the graphics window,
for my trail files.
I have anywhere from 30-40 computer-hours of automation
running per day using trail files. When the models are
good and the servers are up, they work flawlessly. Dozens
of users would be wasting enormous amounts of time if not
for trail files.
Marc
--
Marc Mettes
Inversion Consulting
http://inversionconsulting.blogspot.com