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Creo 2 and Creo 3 running on the same laptop?

pmoore-2
1-Newbie

Creo 2 and Creo 3 running on the same laptop?

As a trainer I need to have different versions of Creo on my laptop.

 

Is it possible to run both Creo2 and Creo3 on the same laptop without any licensing issues?

19 REPLIES 19

Right now I have Pro/E WF 4.0, WF5, and all Creo releases (from 1.0 to 3.0) installed on my laptop, all running without any problems. All versions are set up to use different startup folders with different config.pro files.

One thing you might consider is changing default AppData folder (%appdata%\Roaming\PTC\ProENGINEER\Wildfire\.Settings, IIRC) for them, because by default all installs will use the same one, so you might have Creo UI customizations common to all Creo versions. You can change location of this folder using PTC_WF_ROOT environment variable for every Creo version you have installed.

There is also no problem with parallel running two different versions of Creo, so you might be running Creo 2.0 and Creo 3.0 simultaneously. All you need is proper number of licenses - if you have only one license you'll be able to run one instance of software, but still be able to run Creo 2.0 and Creo 3.0, just not at once.

Lukasz

Thanks for your input, will give it a try

Many may not believe it but i finally got Creo 3.0 M020 on my machine with Creo 2.0 still running.

Creo 3.0 picked up my menu customization from Creo 2.0. I hope this will remain stable if I only update the UI from Creo 2.0. Time will tell.

Just in case... Lukasz; The environment variable you mentioned; PTC_WF_ROOT... are you setting this differently for each version to keep them segregated? I will be working with both Creo 2.0 and Creo 3.0 for the foreseeable future. I just want to get ahead of issues before something stops me dead in my tracks.

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:pmoore-2)

As Lukasz mentioned, it's very possible to have multiple versions installed at the same time. There are several very important things you want to do to make sure they all stay separated from each other:

  • Use a different startup (working) directory for each one. This is set by the "start in" location on the shortcut you use to launch the program.13.PNG
  • If working with Windchill, set the PTC_WF_ROOT to a unique location for each one. This is easiest to set at the end of the PSF file located in the \bin folder for each installation. (If you have multiple license configurations then you need to add this line to each one.)

14.PNG

15.PNG

  • For Creo Parametric, set the config.pro option "load_ui_customization_run_dir" to "yes". This tells Creo to look in the working directory for the config.pro file instead of somewhere buried in the user's profile.

16.PNG

  • It also can be helpful to set "startup_check_for_visualization" to "no" if you don't want to be prompted about each version of Creo View Express.
TomD.inPDX
17-Peridot
(To:TomU)

Thanks Tom.

I don't have Windchill. It is easy enough to keep my projects separated from Creo 2 to Creo 3, and I use local working folder config.pro pretty much universally.

I find it somewhat disturbing that you cannot simply set a UI folder other than working folder. I do tend to have a lot of project dedicated working folders so a single dedicated UI folder for each version is definitely preferred.

I did back up the UI folder just so I can step back quickly if things go funny. So far, it looks like Creo 3 has maintained the Creo 2.0 UI intact. I do not plan to do any customization in Creo 3.0 for the time being. I just needed Creo 3 for the collaboration features with SolidWorks for a new client.

First, congratulations on giving it a try, Antonius

As for your questions Tom answered all of them, I'd just add one thing regarding UI customizations.

As you know, with Creo PTC decided to ditch config.win as a way of keeping UI customizations and introduced file creo_APPNAME_customization.ui (so it's like creo_parametric_customization.ui). And they keep this file by default in profile directory, the same you can set with PTC_WF_ROOT variable. That way you can keep separate UI customizations for different versions of Creo even when you're not using Windchill.

I see it this way: if you're not working with Windchill and want to keep separate UI customizations for different releases of Creo (eg. Creo 2.0 and 3.0), setting PTC_WF_ROOT will keep them that way. If you want to have different UI customizations for different projects made with the same release (like Creo 3.0), config option Tom mentioned comes in handy. Of course you can always use load_ui_customization_run_dir without ever setting PTC_WF_ROOT and it will also work.

Actually I ended up recently with modyfing psf files in our classrom by adding PTC_WF_ROOT for every release of Creo and ProE just to be sure they won't share any UI customizations or Common Folders additions.

Interesting. Does that mean you change the environment variable PTC_WF_ROOT in a batch file appropriate for the session you are going to run?

Not exactly. I fiddled a bit with a batch script for unattended installation of Creo and ProE (using WPKG software) and at the end of installation script I simply echo ENV=PTC_WF_ROOT=<folder_path> and append it to psf file created during installation. I have already created appropriate profile folders on training machines, so the variable points to existing folder with settings just for Creo release script is installing at the time. The idea was to have separate environments for every Creo/ProE app and have it configured with minimal user (my) input

I can already see managing this will be a nightmare if I continue to run both. I have some production work that I must maintain in Creo 2 for the time being.

I'm dangerous enough in DOS to do a batch file recovery for each version. If it becomes a problem, I'll go that route.

I did find this... it talks of an admin UI file.

http://www.codexcreo.com/creo_UI_configuration.html

..and 3 fatal error shutdowns and a complete dump today on M020.

Whoever wrote the specifications for the Creo 3 nte annotation editor (or lack thereof) should be fired!

Rounds and part level annotation is what crashed Creo 3.0.

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:TomD.inPDX)

Whoever wrote the specifications for the Creo 3 nte annotation editor (or lack thereof) should be fired!

Totally agree. The usage in drawing tables is very flaky. Don't click fast. Constant crashing. Good like trying to make a mapkey work with them!

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:TomD.inPDX)

Antonius Dirriwachter wrote:

Interesting. Does that mean you change the environment variable PTC_WF_ROOT in a batch file appropriate for the session you are going to run?

Yes, absolutely! This is exactly how I setup the environments for our users. Anything in the PSF file can be set as an environment variable instead. For license selection, instead of making a bunch of different PSF files, I comment out the feature line in the PSF file and instead set it with a batch script. I also set things like working directory and PTC_WF_ROOT location. I set these differently depending on whether the user is connecting to our production or development Windchill system, what version of Creo they want to use, whether or not they want debugging turned on, or if they simply want a clean virgin session to troubleshoot in.

If you launch Creo with the executable (parametric.exe), it will automatically read in the settings from parametric.psf. If you have multiple psf files in the folder, it will instead prompt you to choose your license configuration. Whichever one you choose will then be read in.

If instead you launch Creo from the bat files, the bat file will list what psf file to read in. Environment variables can easily be set prior to this line.

Assuming you want to set the PTC_WF_ROOT location, you can do this many different ways:

  • Create a new environment variable on the computer.
  • Set the environment variable in the batch file (assuming you are launching via bat)
  • Set the environment variable in the PSF file

Since I'm just getting ready to roll Creo 3 out I decided to double check where files are being stored. Here is a matrix showing the behavior:

17.PNG

TomD.inPDX
17-Peridot
(To:TomU)

Sweet! Thanks Tom and Lukasz. This certainly helps a lot in understanding my options.

rmuller
6-Contributor
(To:TomU)

Is there is particular reason for this?

As Lukasz mentioned, it's very possible to have multiple versions installed at the same time. There are several very important things you want to do to make sure they all stay separated from each other:

  • Use a different startup (working) directory for each one. This is set by the "start in" location on the shortcut you use to launch the program.13.PNG

I have just installed Creo 3 with Creo 2 still installed but would like to keep both versions starting into a same directory? What could it caused?

BenLoosli
23-Emerald II
(To:rmuller)

There could be config.pro setrtings that are different between Creo2 and Creo3.

Also, if you store your files in the Start In folder, how do you know which are Creo2 and which are Creo3?

rmuller
6-Contributor
(To:BenLoosli)

So if I never keep config.pro files in Start In folder and the Start In folder is full of project folders where I need to set a working directory (no work is done in Start In directory but inside its subfolders) I will be just fine, right?

Hi

I am relatively new to Creo, I prefer Creo 2 so use that most of the time but have to use Creo 3 also as my school use that version. Looking through the posts I get that this is possible to run different versions of Creo on the same laptop, however can anyone explain the method simply please? I don't understand all of the folder names and file names.

Thanks

Ryan

BenLoosli
23-Emerald II
(To:rbirch)

Just install them in their own directory structure. Simple.

Create a start-in folder for each version.

Move or install the shortcut icon to each version's parametric.bat on your desktop and go to work.

Thanks for this Ben

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