New OCUS Utilities for Your Toolbox

By Olaf Corten, Fico BV

[Editor’s note: In his presentation at the PTC/USER World Event 2006, Olaf Corten introduced his OCUS Benchmark v5 and OCUS Wildfire 2.0 Configuration tools, but didn’t have time to discuss the two utilities described here. All of these tools, along with his presentation, are now available at www.ProESite.com. ]

ProTrail and IlinkTrail are Windows command-line tools to automate processes with Pro/ENGINEER and Pro/INTRALINK 3.x. At Fico, we use these tools for a variety of tasks, such as checking out drawings from Pro/INTRALINK and creating .dxf and .pdf files with Pro/E to upload to our ERP system.

Installing these tools is easy. Just put them in a folder that is included in your environment PATH variable. (We use a special c:\Utilities folder for such tools.)

ProTrail

ProTrail creates trailfiles and runs them with Pro/ENGINEER to help you perform a multitude of tasks. It can either connect to a workspace or open the files directly from a folder. ProTrail has no fancy UI and everything is adjusted through command-line options, which makes it well-suited for automated processes. There are many tools available that can do approximately the same (Pro/BATCH, SpekanBatch, ProE Trail Maker), so this is another option for your list.

Here are some examples of what you can do with ProTrail:

• Create .pdf and .dxf files of all sheets on all drawings in your current working directory.

protrail –e pdf –e dxf –drw

• With the background turned white, create 300-dpi jpegs of the front view of all models in your current working directory.

protrail –bgw –view FRONT –e jpg –dpi 300 –models

• In workspace WORK, set all parts to mmNs units, assign material aisi_316, regenerate, and save.

protrail –ws WORK –unit mmNs –assign aisi_316.mat –regen –save –prt

• Open all assemblies in your current working directory, un-explode them, and check for interference.

protrail –unexplode –interference –asm  

For help, type protrail –h. Be sure to read the disclaimer!

Installation Notes

1. ProTrail needs a DOS batch command-file to start Pro/ENGINEER. You can find these in the [PROELOADPOINT]\bin folder. Use the –cmd option to point to the .bat file of your choice. 

2. To disable the startup of Pro/INTRALINK when you start Pro/ENGINEER, comment these lines that set the Pro/INTRALINK start command in the .psf file:

// ENV=INTRALINK_DIR=C:\ptc\proiclient3.3

// ENV=ILINK_CMD_NAME=proilink3.3.bat

// ENV=INTRALINK_CMD=%INTRALINK_DIR%\bin\%ILINK_CMD_NAME%

3. ProTrail checks the Pro/ENGINEER output trailfile to verify if running the input trailfile has finished without errors. It looks for the trailfiles in the folder where the environment variable TEMP has been set and in the work folder. 

IlinkTrail

IlinkTrail creates a Java file, uses Pro/INTRALINK to compile it, and then runs it in Pro/INTRALINK. This tool is also driven by command-line options.  

Here are just a few of the tasks that IlinkTrail will automate:

• Delete (if it exists) and create workspace WORK.

ilinktrail –delete –create –ws WORK

• Checkout 12345.asm to workspace WORK, including all drawings and generics with the dependencies set to all.

ilinktrail –ws WORK –checkout –inc drw –inc gen –dep all 12345.asm

• Export all objects in the table configuration drawings from workspace WORK.

ilinktrail –ws WORK –tc Drawings –export

• Run purge script Purge Name as user purgeadmin with the Pro/INTRALINK startup command ilinktest.

ilinktrail –purge “Purge Name” –user purgeadmin –passwd MyPassWd –cmd ilinktest.bat

Type ilinktrail –h to get help. Again, be sure to read the disclaimer.

Installation Notes

1. You need to change the Pro/INTRALINK startup script to prevent it from returning control to the DOS prompt before the Javascript has ended. Remove the “start /B” from the Java startup line at the bottom. (See also TPI 117004.)

2. Point IlinkTrail to the .proi folder by creating the PDM_LDB_PATH environment variable and setting it to the full path where your .proi folder is.

3. IlinkTrail also checks the output logfile if any errors occurred. It assumes the logfiles are created in the work folder.

If you have any questions, want additional functionality, or find bugs in any of these tools, don’t hesitate to send me a note ( ).

Olaf Corten is CAD supervisor at Fico BV in Duiven, The Netherlands. He is also the chair of the Dutch PTC/USER Organization (www.PTCUSER.nl), as well as owner of www.ProESite.com.