Best way to script Pro/E?

[jhyder79]

I would like to develop some custom applications for Pro/E that are far beyond the scope of mapkeys and user defined features, but I don't want to learn Pro/Toolkit. I'm currently using WF4 and I have a pretty good background in writing small applications in Perl/Tk. What I wanted to know is if anyone can point me to an easy way to access the Pro/E API with Perl?

 

[williaps]

I don't think you're going to be able to get around the fact that you have to learn Pro/TOOLKIT. I know there is Pro/TOOLKIT training available from www.felcosolutions.com if you want to take a course. Otherwise you'll have to learn it on your own which is no small feat.


Alternatively, you could try J-Link but that API is going away in future versions of Pro/E and you still have to overcome the learning curve.

 

[amit.dabade]

Hi Patrick,


How are you so sure about J-Link going away in futureversions of Pro/e

 

[jhyder79]

After doing a little research on this topic, it appears that the VB API is the best way to go in WF4. Any program that can access Windows COM can interact with the VB API. This means that you can write programs in VBScript, Perl, Javascript, or even by using an Excel macro.

 

[williaps]

Did you research the amount of functionality that the VBAPI has within Pro/ENGINEER? You can only program an asynchronous application with means that all API calls have to go through a message dispatching interface. This will make programs run quite slow. Additionally, the VBAPI is based upon the PFC so functionality is limited as compared with Pro/TOOLKIT. Therefore; it depends on the problem that is being solved to decide which API is best suited.

 

[TombStone]

I am interested in the difference between VP-API and Pro/TOOLKIT as well, but I cannot find the differences or even an overview of the functionality that can be used with either one of them.

Is there somewhere where the functionality for both VB-api and Pro/TOOLKIT can be compared?

Edited by: TombStone

 

[williaps]

Unfortunately there is no such comparison guide. The knowledge only comes with experience. For example, the PFC APIs cannot create features but Pro/TOOLKIT can. This would only be known by using the APIs. VB API can only run in the slower asynchronous mode whereas Pro/TOOLKIT can run in synchronous, simple asynchronous, and full asynchronous.


Another point, the PFC APIs are a language wrapper for the Pro/TOOLKIT API. Therefore; functionality must be present in Pro/TOOLKIT before it can be available in a PFC API. Additionally, not all Pro/TOOLKIT functionality is availble in the PFC.

 

[Guest]

hi,




i also triedin synchronous mode and i successfully compiled
theStartInstalltest.java ,then i set the start in directory to the
directory contains required byguruscript.com ,



I started Pro-E



a MSG boxcomes like this "Invalid License host id"



but it never came before when i open Pro-E

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