Why do we need to know ProToolKit

[trillicomm]

It sounds like ProToolKit is a macro writer using C language. The repetition tasks can be somewhat automated by code instructions in PTK, right or wrong?

If I know Pro/E really well, should I venture into PTK and see a brighter career?

Or not worth it?

Please help clarify. If you don't mind, please brag your rights and name a few applications.

I'd appreciate your time and comments.

t.

 

[manar]

I wouldn't say Pro/TOOLKIT is a macro writer !

Yes it does let you automate tasks between other things , but it does so by letting you having access to low level function calls . The functions you can access are usually the same internal functions used to create higher level features in Pro/Engineer ( ie : There is no "Show the global reference viewer" function in Pro/Toolkit but there are functions that let you check the parents and childs of a feature and others that let you check their dependencies so theoretically you could make your own reference viewer ) . Note though you don't have access to all Pro/E functions ( ie : You can create an extrude but there is no function to create an offset as in menu Edit->Offset ) .

Many PTC applications are made using Pro/Tookit : Autoaxis , Feature Recognition Tool , even the Distributed Pro/Batch .

External applications using Pro/Toolkit I can cite out of the top of my head :
DDM ( http://www.designdatamanager.de/products/Pro/proe/proe.html )
3DConnexion ( http://www.3dconnexion.com/solutions/cad/proengineer.php )

Should you venture in Pro/TOOLKIT and is it worth it ? Well , now that's a tough question .

First of course you need to be fluent in C .
Second thing is I don't know that many companies using Pro/Toolkit , most of them prefer the cheaper alternative with J-Link or Pro/Web.Link and now VB API . But if you have good ideas that need a robust environement and an access to most of Pro/Engineer functions then I would definitely recommend going with Pro/Toolkit instead .

 

[minhua]

Macro can automate your tasks,
Pro/TOOLKIT can add new functionality to Pro/ENGINEER

applications using Pro/TOOLKIT: many functions you see in Pro/ENGINEER are originally written with Pro/TOOLKIT. PTC find these functions usefully, bought them and embedded them to Pro/ENGINEER, such as ModelCHECK