Product Focus from the PTC Technical Specialists E-Newsletter September 2010 Edition

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PTC Product Focus:  Pro/TOOLKIT: the Primary Customization and Automation Tool for Pro/ENGINEER

PTC Product Focus

Pro/TOOLKIT: the Primary Customization and

Automation Tool for Pro/ENGINEER

With the Pro/ENGINEER Toolkit API, companies can extend, automate, and customize a wide range of functionality from design through manufacturing.  Pro/TOOLKIT allows:

• Automating modeling for derived or single-use models driven by geometric or parametric constraints
  
• Monitoring the state of  user's interactive session to enforce company rules or offer design advice
  
• Integrating external applications requiring access to Pro/ENGINEER data or operations
  
• Extending the Pro/ENGINEER User Interface with custom processes seamlessly embedded into the interface
  
• Automating tedious or difficult Pro/ENGINEER operations with applications designed to save design time and prevent mistakes
  
• Creating processes to run automatically without user interface on demand or at designated times
  

Characteristics

• C library programming interface to Pro/ENGINEER
  
• Over 2500 functions
  
• 2 modes of communication
  
• Bi-directional data transfer between applications and Pro/ENGINEER
  

User requirements

• C programming skills, knowledge of pointers and data structures
  
• Development license to develop applications; applications may be unlocked and distributed within the enterprise without the Pro/TOOLKIT development license
  

Pro/TOOLKIT supports two types of applications:

• Synchronous
  • Applications invoked from commands within a running session of Pro/ENGINEER
    
  • Mode of communication may be:
    • DLL - fastest method
      
    • spawn (multiprocess) - slower, but offers more flexible link options
      
• Asynchronous
  
  • Applications running outside of Pro/ENGINEER that start or connect to one or more Pro/ENGINEER sessions
    
  • Communication is multiprocess
    

Architecture

DLL applications are loaded directly into the Pro/ENGINEER process space and IPC applications run as a separate process with inter-process communications passing parameters between the applications.

Pro/TOOLKIT application code can be invoked by

• Pro/ENGINEER startup
  • launched immediately upon registration of the Pro/TOOLKIT application
    
• User interface driven
  • invoked by user choosing application-created menu buttons and user interface components
    
• Event driven
  • invoked when certain events happen within Pro/ENGINEER
    
• Task driven
  • invoked by function calls from other external foreign applications
    

Examples

1.  Custom Pro/TOOLKIT user interface to automate repetitive or critical tasks

• model creation from templates
  
• geometry creation
  
• drawing creation
  

2.  Pro/TOOLKIT back-end to an interactive Pro/Web.Link web page in the embedded browser

3.  PTC’s ModelCHECK:

• Leveraging Pro/TOOLKIT functions to:
  
  • Enforce standards
    
  • Verify models
    
  • Assist repairs
    
  • Validate user modeling
    

4.  PTC’s Distributed Pro/BATCH:

• Includes Pro/TOOLKIT asynchronous applications as services that:
  
  • Generate an extensive set of EXPORT and IMPORT formats
    
  • Execute ModelCHECK
    
  • Plot and print models
    
  • Save models with display for preview in ProductView
    

Interoperability

Pro/E Wildfire allows Pro/TOOLKIT and J-Link programmers to create reusable task libraries.

• Library functions can take any combination and number of name-value pairs as input and output arguments.
  
• Library functions can be invoked by any other customization application
  

Pro/E Wildfire supports the common goal of “write once, use in any situation” for customization efforts.

Sample Libraries

Session Menus Messages View and Window manipulation Interactive Selection Custom dialogs Custom graphics and text Mouse input Command line arguments Pro/Intralink workspace Session notifications Asynchronous Start/connect to Pro/ENGINEER Models Operations & info Export Plot Files Import, Export 2d and 3d formats Access external data Regeneration Model notifications Unit and unit systems support Modules Cabling Diagram Piping Sheetmetal Manufacturing Weld UI Popup menus in graphics window and model tree Access to the preselection buffer Object/action tool support Add functions to the relations dialog Improved chain and surface collection interaction Drawings & Annotations Get and set current drawing model Cross-reference drawing & solid annotations Access gtol properties

Solid models Dimensions Parameters Geometric tolerances Feature information and operations Feature creation Family tables Layers Units Mass properties Geometry & geometry items Solid  and feature notifications Top down design Parts Materials Assemblies Simplified Representations Access Assembly components Interference and Clearance calculations 2D Models Views Tables Sheets Notes Entities Groups Symbols Features Round  and chamfer element tree Draft and shell element tree XML support for element trees Improved support for feature references in trees Sheetmetal Flat and flange wall element trees Utilities Sketcher utilities Widestring utilities

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