API access to PTC products (creo & proE)

[lgüthle]

Hello,

I am writing my thesis at Siemens and got some questions about the Products Pro Engineer and Creo.

My goal is to extract geometric data from objects designed by both ProE and Creo.

Is it possible to extract the geometric data directly from the *.prt-file?

If yes: is there a specification for the file-type?

If no: my second solution would be via API.

I read a lot of different API solutions to do so:

• access to NX API
  • KF (knowledge fusion), SNAP... - I only read that they exist, but didnt find any files to download or any instruction guides. Are they even relevant for my requirements?
• access to only(?) Pro/Engineer API
  • weblink (Pro/E Toolbox - Simple Automation with Pro/Web.Link made Simple)
  • J-Link (?)
• access to only(?) Creo API
  • Creo Direct COM Editor (PTC Creo Elements/Direct BOM Editor | PTC)
  • Creo View Toolkits (PTC Creo View Toolkits | Ehemals ProductView Toolkits | PTC)
  • Creo Object Toolkit (PTC Creo Toolkit | Produktentwicklungsprozess | Produktkonstruktion | PTC)
• access to both ProE and Creo
  • VB API?
  • third party software by Nitro (Simplified Logic, Inc.) ?
  • PTC Windchill??
    

Is my list correct? Regarding categories "only ProE", "only Creo" and "both ProE and Creo".. maybe one of the Creo API also works for ProE?

Which API/toolkit suits best for my requirement?

Thank you very much!

regards

Luis

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[bkochar]

Luis,

You can use Creo Parametric TOOLKIT (C API) or Creo Object TOOLKIT (C++ API) to access the geometry information from both Creo and Pro/ENGINEER files.

Web.Link [Javascript], VB and JLink also provide some limited access to the information.

For more details, you can look at the user guides for these APIs [by installing these API packages from your Creo CD using the Customize button].

Regards

Bipin

[lgüthle]

Bipin,

Thanks a lot for your fast response.

Is "Creo Parametric TOOLKIT" the same as "Creo View Toolkits" from above? If not, can you provide me a link?

Do you know if there is a possibility to get those toolkits without Creo itself?

Regards

Luis

[Eike_Hauptmann]

Hi Luis,

you could also use a transfer format like STEP or something like that to get "dumb" geometric data from one system to another. So Creo can export various of such file types and NX could import them afaik.

By API (Toolkit / don't know OTK) you can get out many of the geometric details. You need Creo to work with TK or OTK so both are API's to CREO.

There is no OTK or TK possibility without Creo. Creo View Toolkit isn't Creo Toolkit.

So in Creo 3.0 you can open NX files: http://de.ptc.com/product/creo/3d-cad/parametric/extension/interface-for-nx

I don't think you can use this for reverse usage.

WebLink (JavaScript) and JLink (Java), VB are free to use API's for Creo. But afaik you can't get much about the geometrie out of parts with the free API's.

Best regards,

Eike