AtbProE - Open Pro/DESKTOP 2001 Assemblies in Pro/ENGINEER 2001 |
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‘AtbProE’ is a Pro/TOOLKIT program that allows you to open Pro/DESKTOP assemblies in Pro/ENGINEER.
Requires:
· Pro/ENGINEER 2001 (Datecode 2001320 or later).
· Pro/DESKTOP 2001 or Pro/DESKTOP Express 2001.
Pro/DESKTOP must be installed on the same computer as Pro/ENGINEER. Note that Pro/DESKTOP only runs on Windows/Intel computers.
Using Pro/ENGINEER 2001 (Datecode 2001320 or later), it is already possible to open Pro/DESKTOP 2001 (or Pro/DESKTOP Express 2001) parts directly in Pro/ENGINEER using the File/Open command (look for "Pro/DESKTOP Direct (*.des)" in the Type filter). If you do not see the Pro/DESKTOP Direct filter in File/Open dialog, then set the 'pro_gplug_dir' config option as follows:
Option:
pro_gplug_dir
Value: C:\Program Files\proe2001\i486_nt\gplugs
Pro/DESKTOP does not need to be installed for this to work, but this capability is limited to parts. Pro/DESKTOP assemblies cannot be opened in this way.
AtbProE allows you to open Pro/DESKTOP assemblies in Pro/ENGINEER, but Pro/DESKTOP has to be installed on the same computer.
In the future, AtbProE will be installed as part of Pro/DESKTOP. At the moment, the installation process is manual. Here are the steps:
· Copy the entire 'Atb' folder and its contents to somewhere on your computer. The rest of these instructions assume you have copied the folder to C:\Atb.
· Go to C:\Atb and then double-click on register.bat to run it. Two message boxes will be displayed:
"DllRegisterServer
in AtbProE.dll succeeded."
"DllRegisterServer in AtbProEClient.dll succeeded."
Just press the OK button as each one is displayed.
· Edit prodesktoptk.dat. This file contains lines of name-value pairs.
· Set the value of 'exec_file' to be C:\Atb\AtbProEClient.dll.
· Set the value of 'text_dir' to be C:\Atb\text.
Now save the file and close it.
· Run Pro/ENGINEER and choose the Utilities/Options command:
Add the following config option:
Option:
toolkit_registry_file
Value: C:\Atb\prodesktoptk.dat
If you already have a 'toolkit_registry_file' option with a different value, that's ok, just add another entry for the same option.
If needed (not required for Pro/ENGINEER 2001 Datecode 2002060 or later), you should also add:
Option:
pro_gplug_dir
Value: C:\Program Files\proe2001\i486_nt\gplugs
This assumes you installed Pro/ENGINEER in the default location under C:\Program Files.
· Exit, and then re-start Pro/ENGINEER. The Import Pro/DESKTOP Assembly command is now ready to use.
A new command, Import Pro/DESKTOP Assembly is added to the File menu in Pro/ENGINEER. You enter name of the Pro/DESKTOP assembly .des file, and a new Pro/ENGINEER assembly is created, along with sub-assemblies and parts. Each part created contains an import feature for the Pro/DESKTOP model.
All Pro/ENGINEER parts and assemblies created are in meters.
Note that Pro/DESKTOP default view directions (Trimetric, Isometric, etc) have the Z-direction upwards, whereas Pro/ENGINEER has the Z-direction out towards you. Therefore the imported assembly appears to be rotated towards you when seen in Pro/ENGINEER.
Mating conditions are not imported. The assembly components are in the correct position and orientation in space, but no mating conditions (assembly constraints) are created to keep them there.
AtbProE does not work with Pro/DESKTOP configurations. You cannot specify the configuration to open. You always get the default configuration. Similarly, if the Pro/DESKTOP assembly uses configurations of components, only the default configuration will be used.
Assemblies and parts that have been imported using AtbProE are not associative. If changes to the Pro/DESKTOP files have been made, you cannot update the imported assembly in Pro/ENGINEER.
If you import the same Pro/DESKTOP assembly twice, you will get two separate Pro/ENGINEER assemblies. Because part and assembly names must be unique in Pro/ENGINEER, the second assembly will have "_2" at the end of each name.
The same is true if you open a Pro/DESKTOP sub-assembly, followed by its parent assembly. AtbProE will not recognize that the sub-assembly has already been imported, so it will be imported again, with "_2" at the end of each name.
AtbProE will also open Pro/DESKTOP parts, however, it is preferable to open Pro/DESKTOP parts directly using the Pro/ENGINEER File/Open command, because this is associative. If you opened the Pro/DESKTOP part directly and the part has since changed on disk, you can do the following to update the Pro/ENGINEER part:
1. Using the context menu in the model tree, redefine the group in the model tree that contains the Granite import feature.
2. Check the box that says “Update geomtools model”, then press the OK button.
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