Config.pro search path "relative" path

I don't know if this will help, but we had a similar problem. We don't have Windchill, either. We were working on a very large assembly with thousands of part, assembly, and drawing files and it was getting crazy trying to find a file in the listing (scrolling for a long time, etc.)

What we came up with was re-organizing the files into proper subdirectories, and then building a local search.pro file which you'd load when you wanted to work on the project. The trouble is, as more and more stuff was being done, sub-sub-directories and such would be created which were then not found, the search file needed to be manually updated, and on and on.

So, I wrote a batch file that would build the search file by searching down the directory structure, without all the horrible manual editing (and the mistakes that causes). Run the batch file in the top directory of the project, and it makes all the search file lines for you. Maybe this will help you. Here's the file:

::
:: Builds two files for use with Creo:
:: locconfg.pro = A short version of a config.pro file, which adds a
:: specification of a search path file to what is already
:: defined in the user's session.
:: locsrch.pro = A list of directory specifications that are to be
:: appended to the user's already defined list of paths.
:: The purpos of these two files is to modify the search path for a specific
:: session so the user is able to find files that are in subdirectories of
:: a particular project directory.
::
:: Author: Kenneth J. Farley
:: Date: 2018-02-06
::

@ECHO OFF

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion

::
:: Define the names of the files to be created.
::

set filConfg=locconfg.pro
set filPaths=locsrch.pro
set filExtra=external.pth

::
:: Determine if this batch file is being run on a local drive, or on a
:: network shared drive, and set a variable indicating as such.
::

set drvIsNet=0
IF "%~d0" == "\\" (
 set drvIsNet=1
) ELSE (
 FOR /F "tokens=2" %%a IN ('net use ^| findstr /r /c:" [A-Z]: "') DO (
 IF "%%a" == "%~d0" SET drvIsNet=1
 )
)

::
:: Build the local search path file so it reflects the current directory
:: structure, overwriting any existing file. Note that double quotes
:: are output around each path specification to allow for the possibility of
:: spaces or other characters that Creo doesn't handle well.
::
:: If there are other paths that the user wishes to include that are not
:: subdirectories of the current directory, they may be listed in file
:: named by the variable filExtra. The contents of this file will be
:: appended onto the end of the local search file. The format of the
:: contents of this file is not checked for validity.
::

ECHO. >NUL 2> %filPaths%
call :doPath "%CD%"
ECHO "!absName!" >> %filPaths%
FOR /R /D %%d IN ("*") DO (
 call :doPath "%%d"
 ECHO "!absName!" >> %filPaths%
)
IF EXIST "%filExtra%" TYPE "%filExtra%" >> %filPaths%

::
:: Build the config file, including the user's name, the current date, some
:: comments explaining the usage, and the one search path setting.
::

ECHO. >NUL 2> %filConfg%
ECHO ^^! > %filConfg%
ECHO ^^! Local version of config.pro, built automatically. Load >> %filConfg%
ECHO ^^! this file into your Creo session via the following: >> %filConfg%
ECHO ^^! File-^>Options-^>Configuration Editor-^>Import/Export >> %filConfg%
ECHO ^^! >> %filConfg%
ECHO ^^! Author : %username% >> %filConfg%
ECHO ^^! Date : %date% >> %filConfg%
ECHO ^^! >> %filConfg%
CALL :doPath "%CD%"
set absName=%absName:"=%
::"
ECHO search_path_file !absName!\%filPaths% >> %filConfg%
exit /b

::
:: The variable "drvIsNet", set at the beginning of this batch file,
:: indicates if this is a mapped network drive or not. If it is, we
:: want to expand the <letter>: expression to the absolute network
:: path, so the search and config files will be universal, working the
:: same for anyone using them. For example, user A might have a particular
:: drive mapped to "Q:", while user B has "P:". Using an absolute path
:: eliminates any concerns about this mapping difference.
::

:doPath
set "dirName=%1"
IF !drvIsNet! == 1 (
 set mapName=%dirName:~1,2%
 set dirName=%dirName:~3,-1%
 FOR /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('net use !mapName! ^| Find "Remote name"') DO set uncPath=%%a
 set "absName=!uncPath!!dirName!"
) ELSE (
 set absName=%dirName:"=%
)
exit /b

You can copy the text and save it into a file, I call mine "bldsrch.bat".