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Pro/Engineer   February 2005   Tip-of-the-Month


Take Back the Old Functionality

This probably should have been posted 2 years ago.  I have used it all along, but it was recently brought back to my attention by Neville of Magna Digitech.  Thank You.

If you are in the process of migrating to newer versions of Pro/E you may find that some functions are buried in obscure locations or missing altogether.

Although you will eventually need to learn the new menus, paradigms and procedures, you can often short-cut the process by using mapkeys from older releases of Pro/E.  Drawing mode in particular supports this better than the rest.  You can make mapkeys to SELECT MANY for instance so that you do not have to peck all over to select the desired entities.

Another example is the VIEWS > REPRESENT to simplify a view.  That is apparently not available in Wildfire.  To use the functionality, simply create a mapkey from Pro/E 2001.

Use a text editor to open your config.pro file and add the following:  (then save it).
mapkey Representation @MAPKEY_NAMEDrawing View Representation;\
mapkey(continued) @MAPKEY_LABELRepresent;#VIEWS;#REPRESENT;

Or use syntax for a typed mapkey like:
mapkey vrv #VIEWS; #REPRESENT;

Restart ProE Wildfire and open a drawing.  You can customize your screen to include the mapkey as an icon on the tool bar, or use the keystrokes vrv as in the second example above.  When you execute the mapkey it will choose the old menu picks even though the old menus are not present.

To customize the toolbar, go to Tools > Customize Screen > tab to Command.  In Category click on mapkeys and find Represent (or whatever name you called it in the config.pro).  Click and drag it into the desired toolbar.  You can also change the icon.  Don't forget to save the config.win.

For other items like this, just go back to a previous version of Pro/E and create the mapkey to do the thing you want, then copy the mapkey text to the new config.pro.  It is an easy way to take back the old great functionality for some situations.

Point of Interest:  This kind type of previous version inclusion is possible because the software includes multiple versions of the code.  Apparently PTC left the old code intermingled in the new so many of the old menus and functions are still there, just hidden.

A Word of Caution:  This is not supported, and there are several things that will not work.  Just try it, and if it does not do it, then you have lost nothing but learned something in the process.

Point of Interest:  If you want to really take back previous functionality including a restoration of old style menus, there are options for the Config that will restore most of it.  It is all there, though PTC says it will be removed.  For my 2-bits worth . . . no wonder there are so many bugs when the code is so expansive and mixed up.  By the way, I don't recommend it, so please don't ask.  I will leave that to your own searching.

A Request:  Like many of you, I am frustrated with the removal and/or burial of great functionality.  If you find something that seems really stupid, please tell PTC.  1 800 4 PRO HEL (no kidding)  or  www.ptc.com.

 

Have A Great Month!
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