Creo export config setting help please

[mperkins]

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.

[BenLoosli]

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)

[mperkins]

"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.

[dschenken]

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.

[mperkins]

"it generally works that either the first entry or the last entry of the option is the only one that is used"

Sorry, I got confused. Are you saying you can't recall if it is the first or the last but you know it is one of them, or something else entirely?

I guess the config.sup, doesn't work as I thought it did. My rationale with moving as many options from the config.pro to the config.sup file was not to lock users from making changes, but rather to have as few configuration files as possible for a "default user" to come in get rolling with the ability to personalize their Creo experience via their own config.pro file. I started with messy, broken config.pro files that were several Creo versions old and many hundreds of lines long. They never got maintained and got out of control, so I was simply trying to create a more streamlined and maintainable setup.

If I am now interpreting correctly, any configuration option that is put into the config.sup file will lock out the ability for users to change that in their own config.pro file, which I knew, but also locks them out from adding file paths? That's the part that I guess didn't register at first. Also, you can only have one line item for a given configuration or search path within the config.sup file. So just for example in the config.sup specifying:

search_path $PRO_DIRECTORY\afx\parts\prolibrary

search_path_file $PRO_DIRECTORY\afx\parts\prolibrary\search.pro

search_path_file G:\Pro-E_Admin\search.pro

will do:

A) only read in one of the two search.pro files listed as opposed to both

B) lock out users from specifying their own search path and search path file to add to what is in the .sup search paths.

Do I have that correct? If so, will moving this to individual config.pro files allow users to add multiple line items that append to the search paths, so I can reference multiple files if I need to (global and user) all at once?

[dgschaefer]

Options listed in the config.sup are locked.  Once an option is set in the config.sup, any later occurrences of that option, even within the config.sup, are ignored.  That's why you should not put options that can have multiple occurrences, like search_path or mapkey, in your config.sup. 

Additionally, if an option is set in the config.sup it may prevent the user from changing it in the Creo interface.  For example, if you put "display_planes no" in the config.sup, the user cannot turn the plane display on, even by using the toolbar buttons.

I use the config.sup sparingly and only for items that affect the consistency of our data, not user preference items.  If I wanted to control the search paths globally, I might put it in the config.sup but use the search_path_file option (which I don't believe can have more than one occurrence, BTW)

[mperkins]

Fair enough, it was my misunderstanding.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but "search_path_file" should point to the search.pro file. "search_path" points to a directory containing all the things you want included in the Creo search paths as well. However the search.pro file contains many "search_path" callouts. How do these differ? If I put all of these options in the config.pro, can I use the search.pro file as the global search path list and users can then specify additional search paths (without including them for other users) by adding as many "search_path" lines into their config.pro file as they wish?

[BenLoosli]

The search_path_file option is just a cleanup thing so you don't have 1-30+ search_path setting lines in your config.pro file. It also allows a system admin to set the order of the search paths in the file, so WIP folders are searched before released folders, etc. Yes the order of your search paths is important, too. Once the software has hit on a matching file, it loads it and restarts the search path list for the next file to be located.

You can use a system search_path_file and let your users use a search_path line(s) in their own config.pro for what additional files they need. If they use a local folder for their work, they could put that in their search_path line, so each user searches their own folder before system folders. (You may need to check what the order is on your system for searching. I run Windchill and have not played with search paths in years.)

[mperkins]

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

[dschenken]

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.