1-Visitor

Question

Creo 2.0 network drive install

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
December 4, 2012
10 replies
6874 views

Hello Everyone,

In the past we've always done local installs on everyone's PC. We have customized so much in the last couple of months that doing updates on each PC is a bit of a hassle, so I'd like to install Creo on a network drive.

I'm running setup.exe as an administrator, and it looks like it would install as normal on my C:\ drive, but if I type any other network drive letter, the "Next" button grays out and I can't do it.

I've seen some online postings where folks have said they've installed it locally and then copied the Creo folder to the network. I find it hard to believe that would work, but nothing surprises me anymore.

So, if someone can point me in the right direction, I'd certainly appreciate it.

Also, has anyone noticed if you have any performance hits as a result of running from the network? I figured after Creo starts, it would be the same as running from your local drive.

Thanks, and have a great day.

Dave Clark
Sr. CAD Application Engineer
Dukane Corporation
Intelligent Assembly Solutions Division
2900 Dukane Drive
St. Charles, IL 60174
630-797-4922 (Phone)
630-797-4949 (Fax)

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General

bfrandsen

10-Marble

Did you hit Enter after typing the network path?

/Bjarne

JonathanHodgson

13-Aquamarine

I can't comment for Creo 2, but we've switched from running WF4 on a network to having local installs, and then back again.

At the time we moved to local installs several years ago, we'd been noticing distinct lag on the first access of any given menu, which was quite annoying. However, having had the network install since enforced on us by company admin, I must admit it now seems fine - I'm guessing a round of server upgrades has improved the speed to the point where it no longer matters.

We still point to our own config file, but we share the same network install as other divisions of the company.

Jonathan

DonSenchuk

12-Amethyst

Not sure about the drive letter solution. I ran into the same issue when attempting to do so these past couple of weeks.

I can confirm that installing Creo 2 locally then moving the folder to the network is a viable option.

The performance hits come when you attempt to access some of the standard files that are located in the Creo install, such as the hole tables. It's practically impossible to detect unless your network is usually slow or congested.

There were other issues we ran into, some of which had easily found remedies from PTC, some of which did not.

Today is the first day of running Creo 2 (with Windchill 10.1) from the network install, so I don't have much data to back up the viability of this method.

In Reply to Dave Clark:

Hello Everyone,

In the past we've always done local installs on everyone's PC. We have customized so much in the last couple of months that doing updates on each PC is a bit of a hassle, so I'd like to install Creo on a network drive.

I'm running setup.exe as an administrator, and it looks like it would install as normal on my C:\ drive, but if I type any other network drive letter, the "Next" button grays out and I can't do it.

I've seen some online postings where folks have said they've installed it locally and then copied the Creo folder to the network. I find it hard to believe that would work, but nothing surprises me anymore.

So, if someone can point me in the right direction, I'd certainly appreciate it.

Also, has anyone noticed if you have any performance hits as a result of running from the network? I figured after Creo starts, it would be the same as running from your local drive.

Thanks, and have a great day.

Dave Clark
Sr. CAD Application Engineer
Dukane Corporation
Intelligent Assembly Solutions Division
2900 Dukane Drive
St. Charles, IL 60174
630-797-4922 (Phone)
630-797-4949 (Fax)

dgschaefer

21-Topaz II

In the install guide for Creo 2.0 M020 & M030 there's a section doing a
silent install (appendix F) that details a couple ways to install
silently, including how to install on a network. I've attached the M030
PDF here; there were some slight changes from M020.

While the XML based silent local installs don't work prior to M020, the
network install has worked for years as has copying the install folder
and then running setup to set registry values (until a few years ago,
you didn't even need to run setup). The install guide has info on
adding the registry values and I guess there's even a *.reg file
available in the install folder, at least in M020 and up.

--

1_creo2_M030_install.pdf

DamianCastillo

1-Visitor

I have ran all versions of Wildfire, Creo 1 and Creo to as a network install and I used the standard installer with no issues. Anything that needs to be installed locally is done when the user first runs Creo. This happens only once and it's simple.

The Network install has many advantages, especially if you have many users. I always install a new build on it's own folder and keep the current build. This allows me to install the new build while everyone is running the current build. When I am done, I update one line on a batch script that points to the new <loadpoint> and the next time the user launches Creo, they get the new build.

I always keep one previous build in case some bug shows up that we did not realize and I need to revert everyone back to the previous build. If this happens, it's as simple as changing the <loadpoint> on the batch script and I am done.

This allows me to install new updated or versions without users having to stop what they are doing.

I recently did this from Creo 1.0 to Creo 2.0. I changed the <loadpoint> on my script and when my users closed Creo 1.0 and relaunched it via the shortcut on their desktop, they were running Creo 2.0

I only had one issue with Wildfire 5 were I had to change the PSF file to point to the FEA folder by typing in the actual path on the PSF file itself. This is no longer needed for Creo 1.0 and Creo 2.0

"Too many people walk around like Clark Kent, because they don't realize they can Fly like Superman"

davehaigh

13-Aquamarine

I wanted to weigh in here on the concept of just installing the software locally and then moving it up to the server.

That's bound to have performance problems because none of the paths that got set when the software was installed locally are correct for the server drive.

As others have pointed out there is an appropriate process for doing this so that all the internal paths and registry settings on the client computers are correct.
Now all of this is detailed in the appendix of the install guide, but it tends to leave out some important things. So since I've been responding to a number of folks about this issue. Here's my suggestions for how to do this.

Sorry about the length, this is the combination of several emails.

David Haigh
Phone: 925-424-3931
Fax: 925-423-7496
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
7000 East Ave, L-362
Livermore, CA 94550

So you want to end up with this:
[cid:image001.png@01CDD2EE.371A1CC0]

DamianCastillo

1-Visitor

David,

Could you help me understand the advantage or need to do what you described?

I have always installed Creo on a Network Server using the built in installer and have no issues. We run Creo Parametric 2.0 and Creo Simulate 2.0 with this process. I don't do anything with registry keys on the server or on the clients.

I simply created a batch script that controls what license each user gets based on their username and put the shortcut to this batch script on their desktop. They double click this "Creo" icon and launch Creo with no issues. The first time you do this the user will have to accept the Creo Viewer installer but that's it. It's a simple one button process and off they go.

What do you mean by "Silent Install"?

I can install a new build or version of Creo while all my users are working. Once I finisht the new install, I simply open my script and change the path to the <loadpoint>. From this point forward when my users double click on that same Creo icon on their desktop, they autoamtically run the latests build or version of Creo on the Network.

When I install Creo on the Network, I use Remote Desktop and run the actual install on the Network Server itself. We use a VMWare Server for this purpose.

I must be missing something because this has always worked.

Any thoughts?

"Too many people walk around like Clark Kent, because they don't realize they can Fly like Superman"

TomU

23-Emerald IV

At this point I haven't found the need to be nearly as thorough as what David is doing. I simply install Pro/Creo locally and then use a text editor (like Notepad++) to do a find & replace for all occurrences of the install path with the server install path (as seen by the users). Then I simply copy the whole thing to the server and update my launch script to point to this new version. There are some different config files buried in the text directory (hole tables, etc.) that I copy in, but these don't affect the ability of the software to actually run. I will stress that the launch script I'm using was manually created to both determine OS type and setup the necessary environment variables to keep Pro/Creo happy. Though not as cool as David's, I will be happy to share it with anyone who wants it.

I should also mention that all users have full administrative rights to their own computers. This means any on-demand software installations Pro/Creo wants to do are possible without having to play games with group policy software installation, etc.

Tom U.

davehaigh

13-Aquamarine

The main reason I go through the process detailed in the apendex of the install guide is because we do not give admin rights to our users.
So, we need to install the local applications for them. Creoagent, CreoView Express, thumbviewer.dll, & CreoView.

The Silent install term comes from PTC. Essentially, they are just talking about a way to push the install out to the clients without any user interaction. You can push out a full local install of Creo using this method. I do that for laptops.

Registry Files
===========
If you will look at the reg files you will see that it's defining...
file types:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.asm]
@="asmFile"

Icons for those file types:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\creoFile\DefaultIcon]
@="P:\\/Creo 2.0/Parametric/install/nt/parametric.ico,0"

How to open those file types:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\creoFile\Shell\Open]
@="Open With Creo Parametric"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\creoFile\Shell\Open\Command]
@="\"P:\\/Creo 2.0/Parametric/bin/parametric.exe\" \"%1\"

Can you do without this? Sure, but the client is not going to behave like a machine that had Creo installed on it locally.

Batch Files
=========
As for editing the .psf & .bat files in the install location. Sure you can do that, doing it my way I don't have to edit those files.

The .bat files give the path to the software, and tell it what psf file to read for license configuration:
@echo off
"P:\Creo 2.0\Parametric\bin\parametric.exe" "P:\Creo 2.0\Parametric\bin\Parametric1.psf" %*

The .psf file sets the license that was defined for that configuration.

When you've defined several license configurations, I find it simpler to install it on the proper drive letter first so I don't have to edit that stuff.

When my users startup they get the choice of several different licenses that they can run. Like this:
[cid:image001.png@01CDD38B.3A494E50]

These are all startup extensions, not floating options, so they have to be defined in their own configuration in order to be used.

David Haigh

DamianCastillo

1-Visitor

David

Thank you for taking the time to explain. It's very clear to me now. We do give our users admin rights which is why I never had to worry about it. The information you shared is good to know but it seems I can still benefit from the way I do it since my users have admin rights to their personal computers.

As for the .PSF files, I don't edit them but simply call them out on a script that assignes the correct license to the user who launched Creo based on their username. I have certain users who require a particular license package while others require a different license package. This includes certain extensions like REX and AAX.

Thanks again for sharing and clearning it up for me. Seems that in your situation, you are doing exactly what needs to be done to run things smoothly.

"Too many people walk around like Clark Kent, because they don't realize they can Fly like Superman"

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