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M
mperkins1-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 18, 2017
Question

Creo export config setting help please

  • April 18, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 5526 views

Hi all,

I am working on modifying the Creo config files our company uses (Creo 3 M090)  to help aid collaboration between our mechanical group and our electrical group. The EE group is using a program called Pads for board layouts and we have to send files back and forth with them many times before reaching a final design. The current process is very manual and very clunky. I am trying to explicitly set some configuration options to make this process better and am not having a ton of luck with a few remaining ones. I am wondering if you can help direct me to the correct config setting names and proper values to accomplish the items below. We are exploring several file formats, but I am most curious about settings to export from Creo to .idf and .dxf files that Pads will read in. I know several of these things can be accomplished manually or by messing with settings boxes during export, but I am trying to automate as many of these settings as possible in order to export files right out of 3D part or assembly mode (that is, without having to create a drawing to then export a file from). The things I am trying to accomplish in terms of export settings for both of these formats is:

 

  1. Metric units
  2. 1:1 scale
  3. 2D, top-down view (as if you were looking at a PCB layout--we get weird side views sometimes.)
  4. Flattened layers, or as few layers as possible (.dxf files seem to export out with every line/curve as a separate layer???)
  5. Non-faceted geometry
  6. Displayed unit accuracy to 2 or 3 decimal places (we have it set to 5 for mechanical work, but the electrical guys don't like to see the extra digits)
  7. An established and displayed 0,0 origin
  8. Established and potentially displayed coordinate system
  9. Closed-line geometry (as opposed to a series of unconnected lines and curves which .dxf seems to do)
  10. Line thickness displayed at 100um.

 

Lastly, just a general question..

Can "search_path" be in the .sup file? We currently have the following:

search_path $PRO_DIRECTORY\afx\parts\prolibrary

in the config.sup file and I was told that it may not work if located there as opposed to the config.pro file.

 

I know some of these are more relevant to the .dxf format and not to .idf so please keep that in mind. I appreciate any and all help.

2 replies

B
23-Emerald III
BenLoosli23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
April 18, 2017

I will start with the search_path setting.

Why do you have it in the config.sup? The things I put in config.sup are items I do NOT want my users to change and I know there is no reason to have multiple entries of the setting. If ALL of your part files are stored in the prolibrary folder, then it should work. However, if you need to put some files in a released folder and others in a user's working folder, then they will need multiple search_path entries and having one entry in config.sup will prevent that.

I would really recommend that you put your search_path settings in config.pro

Alternatively, use a search_path_file setting for search.pro, which might read in the multiple search lines with no problem from being in config.sup. (I have not tested this)

M
mperkins1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
April 18, 2017

"having one entry in config.sup will prevent that."

Are you sure that this is a replacement situation instead of an appending one? My understanding was that there was a config load order and that many settings would overwrite if there were duplicate entries, but that some settings like search paths appended to what the previous one called for.

D
dschenken1-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 19, 2017

In interpreting the config.sup it generally works that either the first entry or the last entry of the option is the only one that is used. This is why mapkeys in the config.sup also (unless something has changed, which it might have) aren't a workable option.

In every other config operation they do accumulate, but config.sup interpretation is special. It is intended to lock the options against modification, even within itself.

M
mperkins1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
April 19, 2017

Search paths aside, does anybody know the answer to any of these other configuration settings that I am trying to change?

D
dschenken1-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 19, 2017

I would create a mapkey to handle the export. A quick look at the general config options had nothing jump out as matching what's on your list.

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