"Chris Gosnell" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com... : : : David Janes wrote: : -snip- : > : There are other options you may want to enable such as 'prompt on exit' : >
: > I thought this might be useful, too. But, as Pro/e is not a Windows program and : > has neither the intelligence nor the good manners to tell you that you have : > unsaved data before you close the program, this prompt can lull the naive into a : > false sense of security. If you answer it's prompt with a Yes and convince it that : > you really and truly and sincerely do want to close the program, it will happily : > trash your data for you. This is the Unix way. : >
: > David Janes : >
: -snip- : : Excuse me for the dumb question, but I am somewhat confused. : Are you saying that Pro-E will not save updated models in session when : you exit? : That's exactly what I said and Hamei's reply confirmed/affirmed it. Pro/e neither knows, nor cares, nor warns you that you have unsaved data, before it exits. The option prompt_on_exit does just that: it puts that little interruption in the way of exiting that says "Do you really want to exit". There is no automatic file saving, no automatic backup, no automatic anything in Pro/e, except possibly exiting without warning. Have you ever seen a message that says "Some files have changed. Do you wish to exit without saving the data?" and then, if you answer no, puts you into a file save box? I never have. That's a feature of the Windows API. Pro/e avoids any OS-specific operations in order to be able to compile and distribute a single, generic set of code on a single CD that can intall and play on six flavors of Unix plus Windows NT. If you want just a hint of how bizarrely complex the installation and operation of Pro/e is, go to 'Window>Open System Window' and at the prompt, type Set. This will show you a list of environment variables, close to 20 that are just for Pro/e. Then, take a look in the /bin directory and figure out what all the batch files are for. The whole program is a throwback to the 80s when no operating system saved automatically or warned about unsaved data.
: In my example, I do die and mold work. : The model drives the die cavity in the die, and the die cavity drives : the EDM electrode. : There are drawing sheets for all of these components and I often have : 6-8 inter-related parts/assemblies 'in session' including family table : instances of components/assemblies. 'Prompt on exit' SEEMS to save : anything that was changed in session. : : I also have have the following options enabled to help propagate the : model / drawing / assembly changes: : : propagate_change_to_parents yes : retrieve_data_sharing_ref_parts yes : save_objects changed_and_specified : : I would appreciate your comments on the suitability of these options to : keep all of the file dependencies 'up to date'. : : The only other way I know to make sure that the files are up to date is : to only open one at a time in the order of the feature association : part>die>electrode, then close and save all of the parts and open the : associated drawing sheets one at a time. : : Being a prior Solidworks user, I was constantly having problems with : Pro-E until 'prompt on exit', and the other options I selected as listed : above. : There are a plethora of options that seem like they could effect data integrity. I'm thinking of one, create_parameters_from_fmt_tbls, which prompts for the values of any parameters contained in a format whenever you add that format to the drawing. It's a good way to enforce consistency and uniformity of parametric information. However, it's often used to collect information such as names of detailer, modeller, project engineer, checker and possibly design control group. Is it enough that this information is contained in the drawing? should it get back, parametrically, to the assembly/part files so that they form a complete product description? is such information necessary to a complete product description? do you know patent regs and are you a lawyer?
Your question, I'm sure, is more basic ~ you want to know if all the stuff that should be save will get saved. First, I can say that much happens in Pro/e because of its associativity (drawing/assembly/model). Second, the options you mentioned have very precise bahaviours, based on precise situations. Means you ought to go through a disciplined process to find out the effect of changing each and all in various combinations. While those option settings seem appropriate, they may be ineffectual and unnecessary. Take, for example, save_objects changed_and_specified. This is the default behaviour of Pro/e, so the program would behave this way, even if you didn't include this option in a config.pro file. The other option, propagate_changes_to_parents sounds like it means that if you change something in the drawing, it will make its way back into the model. Actually, no, this is done, more or less, automatically. If you change a dimension in a drawing, you should go 'Edit>Regenerate>Model' to get the model to update so that the drawing and model dimensions agree (and, of course, to make sure that changing a model dimension will not blow up an assembly). But, even if you don't regenerate the model, the drawing will save just fine and nothing will be lost. If you print the drawing, you will just notice a highlighted dimension, indicating that the model wasn't regerated with the new value. The option just means that Pro/e will assume that the models have changed (a precaution) if the drawing has changed and save them as well. It may result in some unnecessary saving but no data will be lost this way.
The last option you mentioned, retrieve_data_sharing_ref_parts, setting it to yes may only work with another option, topobus_enable, set to yes. The Associative Topology Bus governs a lot of the exchange of data between different systems, through export files or translators, and helps to keep them current on your end. If you're using native Pro/e models exclusively, this option means nothing. Everything downstream gets regenerated when the models change. If the 'data sharing' reference parts never change, this option also means nothing.
David Janes