How to batch measure surface area of multiple parts, export to file?

[JZazzi]

I'm still learning Creo 3.0 and this forum.  I have about two hundred part files that I want to measure the surface area of but I want to avoid manually measuring each.  I hope there is a feature where I can batch measure the surface area of each part and export the result into a table with two columns: part file name, surface area

Any hints please?

[pausob · Accepted solution]

There are probably commercially available solutions to this problem - eg. NitroCell.

And there may be Creo extensions that can handle this.

it might be doable using pro/batch and modelcheck.

There are also tools published on this forum that automate tasks by manipulating and replaying trail files (search trailmaker).

If you have some programming skills, there is also this open-source solution called Creo|SON (you could run that from excel VBA script and store the results into the worksheet)

[JZazzi]

Thank you for the ideas.  I like the idea of CreoSon and I'll give it a try.  I also searched for trailmaker but the two threads I found have download links that no longer work.  Is there a better place to look for this tool?

[pausob]

Not sure... you checked the link to dropbox / and various messages in this thread:

Trailmaker 0.3

However, it seems with trailmaker, you'd still face the task of compiling the results stored in individual output files.

If you choose to use the Creo|SON tool, it'd be great to hear how that worked out for you.

[JZazzi]

The dropbox links do not work, but I overlooked Jose adding an attachment to his post on page 3.  I have trailmaker now and this looks really promising.  I also started down the path CreoSon but it looks like it would take much more time to learn how to use it.

For Trailmaker, I'm starting to see a plan.  Open a file, measure the surface area of the part, save the result as a new feature in the tree.  Then add a new parameter that is defined by the parts's file name.  Then I should be able to export the new feature's value (surface area) and the new parameter (part name) to a file somehow.

I'm not sure how to do that last step.  The Excel Analysis seems like the tool I want but I'm still exploring it.

[pausob]

Why not open the .prt file, then do the Mass Properties analysis (Model Report group in the Analysis tab in the ribbon)

The result is that in your creo working directory, there is now an .m_p file with the same base name.

Save the trail there, and run trailmaker against the whole file list.

Then use something else (excel VBA ?) to extract the surface area information from all the .m_p files generated.

I suppose the excel VBA + Creo|SON path seems simpler to me.  You can send JSON requests from excel VBA application pretty easily.  And Creo|SON has the built-in function for reporting the mass properties for a specified model.

[JZazzi]

Yes the JSON CreoSon solution seems like the most direct method too.  I can't find a "hello world" program to get it to run though.  I think I have all the parts ready: CreoSon server running, webpage interface sandbox returns some really basic information, and excel seems to have the right *.bas file and so on.

I'm just lost as what to type into the VBA module to tell it to speak with the CreoSon server.

You're right though, the Mass Properties technique does export the surface area while tying it to the filename too.  I could do that with the Trailmaker and I think I will, but it would be nice to get CreoSon to work too since it seems incredibly powerful!

[JZazzi]

I have Trailmaker working now.   The learning curve is much easier than the CreoSon looks, so I think I'll stick with Trailmaker for this project.  I might visit CreoSon later if needed.

Thank you so much for the ideas!