searching directors paths with search.pro

[Wheelsofsteel]

Hi All

I have a problem with finding files with directory paths in Search.pro

As I work with the manufacturing side of the software, I have multiple option files and search.pro files set up for all the machines in the manufacturing process.

at the moment it is around 22 sets of files.

This has been working ok up til now...

We had been orginally using one .prt file to control all of the variation of products by family table, some 600 different parts. This became to unstable, so we split them along family groupings into six .prt files. now the search.pro file was managing this without problem, until this arrangement became to unstable, file just getting to big to manage.

We are now spilting the .prt files down into small groupings with very small family tables. so basically we have gone from one file, to six files, now to around 300 files.

This is where my problem now starts.

This mean each time a new part is now added, I will be force to edit all of my search.pro files to add the folder location of where the part is stored.

I have tried to list the top directories of the part files locations in the search.pro, but it won't find parts in sub folders...

is there a way to force Creo to search all sub folders below a directory that is listed in Search.pro

or do I have to spend a big part of my time to undate the search.pro every time a new part is created, not very productive

Now I had created one set of option files and search.pro before, but due to the size of our system, it just slowed eveything down, so I was recommend by our PTC support contact to have seperate search.pro files

so my question, is there a way to force it to search every sub folder, without having to manaully update the search.pro file

PASSING THOUGHT

Now I sit here at my desk with my Samsung tablet in one hand, thinking, wow just look how far we have come in computer technology, something that won't be out of place on the bridge of star trek enterprise, then I look at Creo, with a file management system that still dates back to the days of Apolla 13 and DOS where you have to tell it exactly where to look to find a file....

Peter

This thread is inactive and closed by the PTC Community Management Team. If you would like to provide a reply and re-open this thread, please notify the moderator and reference the thread. You may also use "Start a topic" button to ask a new question. Please be sure to include what version of the PTC product you are using so another community member knowledgeable about your version may be able to assist.

[TomD.inPDX]

They did this on purpose, you know... you -HAVE- to buy Windchill!

One way to do this is to maintain groups of part numbers whether they are intelligent or simple digits...

For instance, a 6 digit part number series may be 123-9876 and the next series is 124-9876. You would make a for 123 and one for 124. This way, each folder has a manageable chunk of data and the search file is finite.

Do your files have names that would lend themselves to this kind of thinking?

Of course, it is not foolproof. For engineers, it means manually moving files into their appropriate locations. In one instance, they would back up whole assemblies into one for the folders to capture all the changes made in the course of a session. This worked well only because a cleanup routine would make sure to clean out these folders every so often to eliminate the wrongly placed files. There was no excuse for poor file management on the engineer's part. But just in case, they often maintained a backup on their own system as well.

But short of a genuine PDM system... you will have to make some level of intelligent process that is sustainable.

[Wheelsofsteel]

No unfortunaly our new file system structure is constructed with a 2 letter code top level then the 2 letters and number for sub level, which will be the location of that type of part and all instances of that part.

this is stored on the main server.

eg top level

LA

LE

LN

LQ

LP

LW

MR

NR

SA

ETC....

sub level folders for LW top level

LW1

LW10

LW2

LW3

LW4

LW5

ETC..

and within each sub folder is the parent .prt file with all the family table instances of that part

e.g. LW5_MAIN.PRT

instances

LW5_2F-300

LW5_1-150

LW5_1-175

LW5_2G-230

etc

Currently my search.pro is set to search the top level folders, it just mean, I would have to add every single subfolder, to every search.pro, every time a new family part is created.

the old system which was 5 .prt files based on wheel styles, while stored on the main network, I would copy to my c:\ drive to work locally.

So my search.pro was

!

!(**********WHEEL PART FILES********)

"C:\************\WHEELS

"C:\************\WHEELS\MAIN_curve"

"C:\************\WHEELS\MAIN_straight"

"C:\************\WHEELS\MAIN_reverse"

"C:\************\WHEELS\MAIN_disk"

"C:\************\WHEELS\MAIN_ciu"

!

and as such never altered when new parts are created.

While the new part system is going to make life easier in one way as the files will be more reliable by not falling over every time we open it, it is going to create a headache for me costantly updating all my search.pro every time new a parts are created, usaully every week

So I need to think of a solution that will work

Peter

[TomD.inPDX]

I would suggest using only the top level folders in the search and storing all the files in only those folders. That will break up 600 files in one location down to maybe 60 files in 10 locations.

In the scenario noted earlier, we had 5 digit part number and maybe 20 folders with the 1st 2 numbers, That would mean up to 999 file-sets available in each. This was sufficient for nearly a decade of development.

If you regularly purge the history files and you police the folder usage (blanket delete non-compliant file names or eroneous folders), you should have a fairly robust system where the only edit to the search.pro would be when you create a new top level prefix.

[Wheelsofsteel]

I had a think about it last night, and just what I am going to do

While your idea may work, I don't have any control over how the design team is setting up the new directory structure for the part files, it doesn't bother them as they set their working directorys to the folder they are working on. it effect my side, as I am using manufacturing assemblies that need to look for the part.

I am pretty up to speed with Excel and VBA, I already have a spreadsheet that can search for files and creates a list with hyperlinks to the files.

What I can do I think, is create a spread sheet that will search for folder structure under a parent folder, then create a list of the file paths, then paste them into the files weekly, may be even able to automate the process.

it took 20 sec for the speard sheet to find all the prt.files from within the top level

and it list the path , sorry for the blacked out stuff, IT policy.

IF I can now automatically update all the Search.pro file from this path list , it might be a workable solution to my problem.

Peter

[TomD.inPDX]

when you can't share the pain, change is illusive. Good luck!

[spete]

Consider trying a batch or vba script to search folders for subfolders and compare a subfolder listing to existing lines in your search.pro file. If not found append to search.pro and continue on. It won't be an easy read, but it will be functional.

[Wheelsofsteel · Accepted solution]

Since I posted the original post, I had created some excel spreadsheets with VBA in them, and I currently use it when I do my weeekly planning on fridays.

it searchs the directory and list every folder under the parent and creates a list

I then paste this into another excel file that has the fixed paths that don't change.

Then this one create a new search.pro file from that info with a date at the top and saves it in the option folder for each start up shortcut I have.

Still needs work, need to combine into one file and make it a one click operation, but its functional and makes life a bit easier.