Automatic Install script

[PeterRussell]

We have had a network install of Pro/E for sometime, howeversome users are unhappy with the time it takes for Pro/E to start, andit seems to take a little longer with every release of Wildfire.

Sowe are looking again atlocal client installs, we are not entertaining the idea of taking a DVD to everyone's computer but are looking for other options, so what is everyone doing? Options I can think of include:

- Silent install (i.e as per TPI 103331), if so, how do you manage different scenarios (including whether or not Pro/E is already installed etc)

- network software roll-out tools (e.g. LANDesk) if so how are you using them exactly.

Are there any other methods? Or should we just stick with a network install?

thanks,

Peter

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[iturner]

Peter

It is possible to remotely copy the whole pro/e directory to target PCs.
Pro/e doesn't install files anywhere else. There are a couple of
registry settings that can be exported and then imported into the
registry on each PC. (we do our installs this way and it works for us)




Ian Turner

CAD Manager

Cobham Mission Equipment

[msteffke]

I've done this (copy whole loadpoint directory) in the past and it
works. You need to run ptcsetup afterward. My method of choice is to
have the cd's copied to the networks and run the install from there. I
just feel better about it. You can have multiple machines installing
at once so its not too bad. How many seats are you talking about? As
doggish as Pro/e starts I would do anything I could to have it start as
fast as possible for my users.

Mark Steffke

[jfrankovich]

We have a desktop shortcut to a network batch file. The batch file checks for installation of the correct version of ProE. If it is not present, it copies the full loadpoint over from the network and sets some "markers". The batch file then sets some environment variables, copies the company configs over, and launches ProE.
It has saved me a bunch of trouble on new PCs and upgrades and IT only has to worry about copying over a shortcut.

John Frankovich

[err]

I used to use a batch file to copy the whole ptc folder then run ptcsetup.bat using a trail file. The trail file was generated by this

ptcsetup.bat -ptcsetup -uilog

Then ran ptcsetup like this:

c:\ptc\ilink\bin\ptcsetup.bat -nographics -ptcsetup -uitrail c:\ptc\ilink\bin\sl_proi32_trl.txt

Caveat: I have not been the admin for 5 years, so I don't know if these still work!


Eric Rice
BCSC Sea Launch Engineering - Payload Unit Assy
ph 206-544-8102 M/C 5E-52
eric.r.rice@boeing.com
"Don't try harder. Try easier." ~~Aldo Nadi

[JoshuaHouser]

1. The uitrail method still works great for Wildfire 4.0. In
addition, you can do a full install utilizing this method straight from
ptcsetup.exe from the storage location of your discs. The only gotcha is
that any time an installation changes requiring manual input to the
install, the trail will stop and not finish correctly.



2. I have pushed these installs through Landesk, which works
fairly well.



3. Creating a clean install on one machine and copying to multiple
others will work fine as well, followed by running ptcsetup.bat. You
can also do a folder comparison, copy over the differences and run setup
from a batch file to update Pro/E.



4. You can get more extravagant since they are just simple batch
files, including updating templates, startup files, sensing other
installs, etc. It just depends on how much time you want to spend
upfront and how often you are doing installs.

[bryan_puch]

I am wondering what you consider a slow startup for ProE? I don't have the test data in front of me, but running WF4m90 with Intralink 8.0, it takes about 20 seconds to launch ProE and get to the Intralink login screen.

I have about 30 users and they all run from a network share, it works great an test in my environment showed that the network startup was just as fast as a local install with all else being equal. I also found that some config.pro settings could adversely effect startup times. It's always a good idea to compare your results to a blank startup (no config.pro config.sup config.win ...)

Bryan

[gspencer]

During my career at Motorola, I developed a set of standard "local" installs, using a self-extracting zip file. The user (or admin) would download the zip file from a network share, then would execute the program. The installation maintained everything it needed within the package itself. What I am trying to say here is that there were NO registry edits necessary. The only prerequisite to the install was the setting of 2 environment variables, which told the package where to instal to. This "standard" install was just that - standard...at any site, any country, etc, the installation was exactly the same, which was tremendously beneficial when it came to support. We knew for any help desk ticket that was submitted, what we were dealing with from a hardware/install standpoint, and often we knew the answer to the issue before we even talked to the customer.




One caveat about "local" installations that I have not seen mentioned in this thread, is the ability to utilize a laptop (a portable) for just that, portability. Network installations require the user be "on" the network, and "pull" the ProE session across the WAN/LAN from a remote connection (good luck with that performance). By either using License Borrowing, or a simple VPN connection, the "traveling" user had full access to ProE (installed locally), as well as any support files he/she might need. License Borrowing was only used when we knew the user would not have any kind of internet access. The local installation of ProE allowed the user, who has internet access, to grab a license off the network. We found that even a dial-up connection worked.




Obviously, from the "network installation" standpoint, it is certainly easier to maintain/update a single installation that sits on a network share vs. many local installations, however, utilizing similar scripts, were were able to keep the user's local installations current by adding some "checks" into the scripts.




Gary Spencer

Sr. Application Engineer

Atlantic Engineering Solutions

gspencer@atlanticengsol.com

Jupiter, FL

[ptc-4166591]

What is the point of running ptcsetup with -uitrail or otherwise after copying over the ProE installation directory to a client?

Shane Brenner

[JoshuaHouser]

On a new install, this will set up your icons and make all the
connections. The uitrail is just a recording of what you chose as
install directories, license servers, etc.



If you are just overwriting an older install, this won't be necessary,
unless you are changing things like start-in directory, license server,
etc.

[err]

It adds the loadpoint to the system path. what else does it do.....? It also would point proe to ilink and ilink to proe, I think..

[ptc-4166591]

Running the ptcsetup after cloning can be considered an optionally step if the source installation is what is desired.. The other connections the installer makes (registry entries) are unnecessary, especially if you are coming from a network installation like Peter. A lot of companies use custom start shortcuts/ bat files. You can set path env var there or script it to system. After trying all these methods over the years, this is my current approach. Another benefit is you can remove a lot of junk files from the installation this way.

Shane Brenner

[davehaigh]

Running ptcsetup adds paths to your environment and sets up file types and icons for various ProE file types. Neither of which is absolutely necessary. However if you don't have them users could run into problems with things like the command-line purge.

Added Environment paths:
P:\wf4-m130\proeWildfire 4.0\bin
P:\wf4-m130\proeWildfire 4.0\mech\bin

A Few of the Registry Entries:
My Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PTC
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Applications\proe.exe
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\asmFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\dgmFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\drwFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\frmFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\gphFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\layFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\mfgFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\mrkFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\phaFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\picFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\proeFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\prtFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\psFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\repFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\secFile
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\xasFile







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

[ArturPonurski]

trail file method combined with batch file (to remove old version of
Pro/e) that is our plan to go to Wf4 M120

[JoshuaHouser]

If it's the same release (WF4), you can just create a uitrail to update. Of course, a full uninstall of Pro/e is possible with uitrail as well.