config.pro / mapkey.pro Creo 11 working with multiple older versions

[rcrisp]

We run numerous versions of Creo (7, 10, & 11) to support various clients. The whole mapkey.pro change that PTC has made in Creo 11 has wrecked our config.pro system setup. We have a somewhat complicated setup, so without getting into that I will just explain exactly what I want to try to accomplish. I need to take the users config.pro files and separate them into 2 files; a config.pro with no mapkeys in it, and a mapkey.pro file. I need prior Creo 11 versions (specifically 7 & 10) to load the users mapkeys.pro file from the startin dir. Does anyone know a way I can achieve this? My goal is to keep all of the config.pro files neutral across all versions. I do not want to manage separate user config files for every version, this creates a admi file management nightmare for the way we have our system settings in place.

[MikePhillips]

All mapkey sequences in the config.pro file start with the word "mapkey".

So one way you could do this would be to rename their personal file to a temporary name. Read the file line by line. If the line begins with "mapkey" write that line to a new file named mapkeys.pro if not, write the line to a file named config.pro. Delete the temp file when finished.

Of course you may want to further the code to handle comment lines "!" and other exceptions.

I think I would start with that approach if it were me.

[rcrisp]

Mike,

Sorry I may not have been specific enough. I have solutions to separate the files. I’m asking after I have the files separated and have created a mapkey.pro file, how do I get this file to load into Creo 7 & Creo 10?

[MikePhillips]

Oh! Just concatenate the two files back into a single file and load it. Basically do what I described in reverse.

You could also concatenate with your company standard file as well.

[rcrisp]

Mike,

Another users suggested a great solution.

In case you are not using Creo 11 yet and are unaware, PTC has made an absolutely stupid change and you cannot have any mapkeys in your config.pro files now. So I have to separate them for Creo 11 to work and figure out how to load them in older versions as a config.pro (with no mapkeys) and the new mapkey.pro files.

Ryan Crisp

|

Sr. Engineer

100 S. Hamilton Rd.
Columbus, OH 43213
614.337.9979

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email along with any attachments contains proprietary information, some of which may be legally privileged.
​If you are not an intended recipient of this email, you must not disclose, copy or take any action in reliance of this transmission. If you received
​this email in error, please contact the sender and permanently delete all copies of the email and any attachments.

[BrianMartin]

Well, I had written a fairly extensive set of steps to do this but - hit a button and lost it all!

So... you're getting the cheapo version. I would use a trail file to load the mapkey.pro file for Creo 7 and 10 (and ignore it for Creo 11). As you may know, Creo logs everything you do in a trail file. If you capture, edit, and rename that file you can reuse it whenever you wish. Once you have separated your users' config.pro files into two files (config.pro and mapkey.pro) and put them both in the startup directory, you can begin the process.

1. From a clean, new session, launch Creo 7. The config.pro file is read automatically.
2. Once Creo opens, go to File-->Options-->Configuration Editor-->Import/Export-->Import Configuration File and load the mapkey.pro file.
3. Exit Creo.
4. Navigate to the folder where your trail files are stored. Find the most recent one. Edit it to remove the "Exit Creo" from Step 3. Save and rename the file something memorable like "Creo7_Trailfile.txt" and save it in the Creo startup directory.
5. Repeat for Creo 10 creating a file with a memorable name like "Creo10_Trailfile.txt" and save it in the Creo startup directory.
6. Edit your Creo 7 & 10 startup commands (icons perhaps?) and add the full path to the trail file. When Creo launches, if you supply a trail file as an argument to the startup command, the file will run automatically upon launch.

So... if your normal startup command is something like: C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 7.0.2.0\Parametric\bin\parametric.exe you'd simply add a space and include the path to the trail file and it would become (example):

C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 7.0.2.0\Parametric\bin\parametric.exe  %USERPROFILE%\Creo_Startup_Directory\Creo7_Trailfile.txt

(I think the %USERPROFILE% should work to match each user's specific profile home directory but you can play with that piece).

You'd follow the same process for Creo 10 but use the trailfile for Creo 10 instead. There may not be a need for two different trailfiles but just in case, I'm presenting it this way.

Results?

Creo 7 will launch, automatically read the config.pro file, then execute the trailfile to load the mapkey.pro file. Once the trail has ended, control is passed to the user to begin work. The same would happen for Creo 10. For Creo 11, do not use the trailfile... so that the mapkeys are not read.

I'm sure this is hard to understand but you can automate this pretty easily. If you get stuck, write back and I'll try to explain further. 

Thanks!

-Brian

[rcrisp]

Brain,

This is exactly what I want to do. Hopely the trail file is the same for Creo 7 & 10 and not version specific.

Thank you very much for taking time to respond!

Ryan Crisp

|

Sr. Engineer

100 S. Hamilton Rd.
Columbus, OH 43213
614.337.9979

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email along with any attachments contains proprietary information, some of which may be legally privileged.
​If you are not an intended recipient of this email, you must not disclose, copy or take any action in reliance of this transmission. If you received
​this email in error, please contact the sender and permanently delete all copies of the email and any attachments.

[MartinHanak]

---

@rcrisp wrote:

Brain,

This is exactly what I want to do. Hopely the trail file is the same for Creo 7 & 10 and not version specific.

Thank you very much for taking time to respond!

Ryan Crisp

---

Hi,

trail file is version specific. Its first line is unique. Also lines containing user actions can be different for different Creo version.

Note:

When I tested Creo 11.0.0.0 I was able to load mapkeys using following trail file located in startup directory. You can read my replies in https://community.ptc.com/t5/Customization/Creo11-and-Mapkey-pro/m-p/949207 discussion.

[rcrisp]

Thank you

[anursingh]

Hi @rcrisp,

I wanted to see if you got the help you needed.

If so, please mark the appropriate reply as the Accepted Solution. It will help other members who may have the same question.
Of course, if you have more to share on your issue, please pursue the conversation. 

Thanks,
Anurag 

[BenLoosli]

I don't think you need to do as much as you think you do.

Put a copy of all your mapkeys into your mapkey.pro file under the Creo 11 loadpoint text folder and remove them from the config.pro. Unless you are running ALL of your config.pro loads from an alternate common location, each Creo version has a separate text folder that have their own config.pro files. If you are running common a config.pro file, just leave the mapkeys in there after creating the mapkey.pro file. Creo 7 & Creo 10 will read the config.pro and ignore the mapkey.pro file. Creo 11 will read the config.pro and the mapkey.pro and copy the mapkeys to its ridiculous location, but it does not remove the lines from config.pro. This way Creo 7 & Creo 10 will still work with Creo 11.

Give that a try, as I don't run multiple versions of Creo to test it.

[rcrisp]

Ben,

Under our existing setup this will not work. I do not want to type for an hour to explain our setup going into an excruciating long and complex list of reasons why, but basically we have 1 config file I need to use for all users and versions. This means to use with Creo 11 the config.pro has to have the mapkeys removed.

Another user suggested a something that will work.

Ryan Crisp

|

Sr. Engineer

100 S. Hamilton Rd.
Columbus, OH 43213
614.337.9979

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email along with any attachments contains proprietary information, some of which may be legally privileged.
​If you are not an intended recipient of this email, you must not disclose, copy or take any action in reliance of this transmission. If you received
​this email in error, please contact the sender and permanently delete all copies of the email and any attachments.

[RandyJones]

---

@rcrisp wrote:

Ben,

Under our existing setup this will not work. I do not want to type for an hour to explain our setup going into an excruciating long and complex list of reasons why, but basically we have 1 config file I need to use for all users and versions. This means to use with Creo 11 the config.pro has to have the mapkeys removed.

---

Creo Parametric 11.0 will "unhappily/happily" load a config.pro that contains mapkeys. The first time launching you will get this:

The second and subsequent times launching you will get this:

So you can select the "In the future do not show this message". That way you can still leave your mapkeys in the config.pro for your pre-Creo Parametric 11.0 setups.

[BenLoosli]

Creo 11 config.pro does not need the mapkeys removed, you just get a pop-up saying they have been copied.

If the trail files work for you, then that is okay for your environment.

[rcrisp]

Ben,

Ok, I have not installed it yet. From what I read I thought they had to be removed.

Thank you

Ryan Crisp

|

Sr. Engineer

100 S. Hamilton Rd.
Columbus, OH 43213
614.337.9979

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email along with any attachments contains proprietary information, some of which may be legally privileged.
​If you are not an intended recipient of this email, you must not disclose, copy or take any action in reliance of this transmission. If you received
​this email in error, please contact the sender and permanently delete all copies of the email and any attachments.