Trail files - are they still useful?

[AJ_TROGLIO]

We recently solved an on-going performance issue w/ some remote workers that was traced to a config.sup setting (trail_dir) which was dumping trail files onto a network drive.  This was a nogo suggestion from PTC dating back years.  

We got to wondering if trail files are even utilized to the extent they were when hardware/software was not as mature as it is today.  I've not needed to re-run a trail file in many years so I'm wondering how it would act w/ the interactions Creo has w/ Windchill these days.  

Thanks.  

[StephenW · Accepted solution]

It becomes way more difficult to make it work with Windchill. I successfully ran one maybe a year or 2 ago, but overall it might have taken more time to get it to work than it would have to just redo the work. I remember 20+ years, (yikes), running trail files 1-2 times a year, but I honestly can't say that I've run more than 1 or 2 times in the past 10 years.

[Chris3]

They can still be useful. I have copied snippets out to rerun for things that mapkeys can't do. This mostly involves mouse movements and clicks.

I recently had a user write a python script that finds the last 6 commands in the trail file and adds them to a mapkey so that the most recently used commands in Creo can be re-used. Some other CAD packages have this feature.

[KenFarley]

Something you can do with the trail file capability, if you're perhaps a bit more computer savvy than most seem to be these days, is to use them to automate tedious tasks. Here's a previous discussion with some ideas:

community.ptc.com/t5/System-Administration/PTC-Creo-Distributed-Batch/td-p/596053

[JeroenJanssen]

• We use trail files to help analyze problems / crashes.
  • We have created a small tool, which our users can start. It collects the trail files (and some other files) and add them zipped to an email.
• I use the active trail file to create and change (parts of) mapkeys.
  • it's fairly easy to change a piece of trail file to a mapkey (once you know what to change and skip).
  • With a "reload file" function in e.g. Notepad++ it becomes a lot faster than having to store mapkeys continuously.