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Setting up a Library structure?

JFROST007

New member
RunningWildfire 2.0 standardwithout any add-ons.


Would like to know whether it is possible to set-up a library structure for the storage of commonly used files and assemblies. I know you can set-up a search path in the config.pro but this seems very limited as it doesn't search through sub-directories of the identified folder making this option almost impossible to maintain. Coming from Inventor please tell me that Pro-E have a solution for this and don't say interlink as I would have thought that this kind of thing is a fundamental of design.
 
Yes you can do it and if you are prepared to put in the time to
structure it and build all the .mnu files it is well worth the effort
many times over. However there are some rules that MUST be adhered to.





ALL libraries must have a common root which is pointed to by
pro_library_dir so your library can run in parallel to any other
libraries installed. It does not have to be a sub-folder of another
library.



The library catalog should also reside here and if PTC were perfect you
should not need ANY search paths or search path file but see the notes
below.



In this root folder you should also have the root menu file called
index.mnu to enable more efficient browsing of the library and each
subfolder should have a folder_name.mnu file with good descriptions of
contents.



Get as many files out of the loadpoint folder as possible. Put all your
start models, drawing setup files, formats, plot configs and any other
common files in your library and change the config.pro pointers to
these folders.





Notes about library catalog.

Library catalog is much faster than lots of search paths however there
are some restrictions. You cannot have any duplicated file or folder
names or the catalog will fail to build. If you want to retrieve an
instance directly from the library by typing its name and you do not
already have the generic in session, you MUST have a search path to the
folder that contains the .idx file. Therefore I would recommend
creating a search.pro in the library root for the library folders that
contains instances (and the correctly updated .idx file). Also add the
library search_path_file pointer to your personal config.pro after your
personal search path files. I do not recommend adding the library
search path in the loadpoint config.pro.





DB
 

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