retrieving models from paths

[MaikTheBike]

Hi,

I have a lot of assemblys that have to retrieve parts/assemblys from other folders.

One solution that worked, was to add lines into the search.pro-file, that points to the folder, in which the parts are stored.

But I think that it slows creo down when I add a lot of paths into the search.pro-file. Especially when I work from home it takes a lot of time to open files.

Most of the time the assemblys have to retrieve files from only 2-3 folders. Then the other 20-30 folders in the search.pro-file are senseless. I added so many folders because I want to be flexible and don't have to edit the search.pro-file every time I open another model.

Is there a solution for this problem ? I tried to put a search.pro-file directly into the folder where the main-assembly-file is (which loads the other files) but creo doesn't load it automatically.

Thanks,

Maik

[StephenW]

Definitely the more search paths you have, the slower your retrieval will be. 

Make job related search path files. When you know you are going to work on a specific project, load just the search paths for that project. Don't try to make a search path file that covers everything.

If I remember right, if you put the most common paths at the beginning of the file, that will help some also. It's been years since I used search paths but I'm pretty sure they search from top to bottom of the list, so having your most common folder at the last of the list will cause creo to search all the other folders first.

[KenFarley]

This is what we do, with some rather large projects. A beneficial side effect of the technique is you can then use subdirectories of the main project directory to organize the hundreds or thousands of part models needed. Here's a previous discussion about this very topic that might help:

Past search path Discussion (with .bat file utility program) 

Before I started doing this it got really annoying the sheer quantity of files I'd have to scroll through to find a specific model I wanted to work on. Particularly if someone named the file in a random fashion, like "bracket-small-bit".

[TomU]

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Is there a solution for this problem ?

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Yes.  Windchill.  😂

[BenLoosli]

An old quote about PDMLink:

PDMLink is a tool that allows you to add months to your product development cycle!

[StephenW]

Hahaha, luckily we here at my company, we only use it for creo file storage and retrieval. It doesn't have a connection to our business/enterprise system. The company uses Creo AND Solidworks AND NX AND Inventor AND Autocad AND i'm sure there are others, so integrating all those systems would be a challenge.

Adding that level of "crap" (my personal opinion) to your cad file management system is a horrible idea.

Too bad PTC doesn't have a dedicated CAD file management system. All those mid-range and small companies could use an affordable solution.

[Tdaugherty]

Level of crap is a good way to describe it lol...

We've got about 12-15 different design environments (Creo, SolidWorks, NX, Windchill, network, SW PDM, custom standards) that are all supposed to live in ERP harmony. It gives me nightmares.

Simple is better.

[Tdaugherty]

You can use a mapkey to set the working directory and load the search.pro file. Here's one that we use when not in Windchill. The search.pro file you want to load needs to be in your working directory.

!!!SET WORKING DIR LOAD SEARCH.PRO
mapkey SWD @MAPKEY_LABELSET WORKING DIR LOAD SEARCH.PRO;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdSessionChangeDir` ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Move `file_open` `file_open` 2 1.0000 9.0000;\
mapkey(continued) @MANUAL_PAUSESelect Working Directory then Resume;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `file_open` `Open`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdRibbonOptionsDlg`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `ribbon_options_dialog` `PageSwitcherPageList` 1 `ConfigLayout`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `ribbon_options_dialog` `ConfigLayout.ImportExportBtn`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `ribbon_options_dialog` `ConfigLayout.Open`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `file_open` `Current Dir`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Update `file_open` `Inputname` `search.pro`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProFileSelPushOpen@context_dlg_open_cmd` ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `ribbon_options_dialog` `OkPshBtn`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `UITools Msg Dialog Future` `no`;

If you are attempting to use the other paths to load things like library parts, it might be worth setting up a library directory on your network somewhere. You can use the pro_library_dir setting to specify the library location. It's definitely a little clunky but it might work for your application. You can also use a catalog file (kind of like a search.pro) to ensure that parts can be retrieved from subfolders in the library. Here's some PTC info:

About Searching For and Retrieving Models

Ty

[MaikTheBike]

Thanks for all of your replies and ideas.

I think its best for me to create separate search.pro files and use the Mapkey provided by Tdaugherty.

Thanks...

[MaikTheBike]

Hi,

I reopen this thread because I have another question that is related to this question:

How do you manage your file-names in Creo without windchill ? The problem is, that two files might have the same name, which could cause some trouble when the files are loaded into the same assembly. Do you use numbers ? Or how do you manage the huge amount of files ?

Does it make sense to use Prefixes (or suffixes) to create unique filenames ?

Thanks,

Maik

[KenFarley]

I have a rather obsessive insistence on making filenames for a particular project unique. My co-workers, on the other hand, will copy a complete design to another directory and not rename a single thing. So, any attempt to bring two of their designs into a temporary assembly to compare things is doomed.

I tend to use filename prefixes to differentiate a particular design, something like <company abbreviation>-<project>-specific-identifier

spiffco-set04-frm-sideplt.prt, for example.

It's pretty much up to you and yours to determine what you think is a reasonable approach. Personally I'd go with a prefix designation approach, since it will nicely sort the filenames when you are looking for a particular model. Creo limits the number of characters it will accept as a filename, so keep that in mind, too.