Installation and Setup

In this section, you will learn why you do not see all the icons and cannot assemble a mold base if you do not comply with certain installation and setup procedures using CONFIG.PRO.

Installation

During Pro/ENGINEER installation, you should make sure you have checked "Mold Component Catalog."

You also need to order (or download from ptc.com) and install the MOLD BASE LIBRARY to have several sample mold bases ready to be used.

Take note: when the Mold Base Library is installed from the CD, it is not finished! You need to perform some more setup as follows.

1. Set the environment variable PRO_LIBRARY_DIR to the directory specified by the config.pro option pro_library_dir (see later). The directory path specified must be absolute. To set the PRO_LIBRARY_DIR variable using MS Windows XP:

Start > Settings > Control Panel > System (or RMB on My Computer, then pick Properties)
Click on "Advanced" tab
Click on the "Environment Variables" button
Add a new System Variable called PRO_LIBRARY_DIR to your moldbase library installation (D:\PTC\MOLDLIB in this example).

2. In Windows Explorer, browse to the ...\moldlib\bin directory and execute the pro_build_library_ctg.bat file. A .ctg file will be generated and placed in the pro_library_dir along with the .mnu file. Both files MUST be named the same name as the directory and MUST be present to retrieve a mold base.

See the Customizing a Library Catalog File section on the Pro/ENGINEER help for additional information related to setting up libraries for use with Pro/ENGINEER

CONFIG.PRO

There are two very important CONFIG.PRO options that should be defined properly, and a third useful option:

SHOW_ALL_MOLD_LAYOUT_BUTTONS YES
- Without this option set, the Mold Layout list of features and buttons will be limited to basic actions.
PRO_LIBRARY_DIR to the location of the standard Mold Base Library installation (see before, must be same as the environment variable).
- It contains components of DME standard and metric mold bases, HASCO standard and metric components, FUTABA metric components, and NATIONAL components ).
- In our example, this config is set as follows: PRO_LIBRARY_DIR D:\PTC\MOLDLIB
DEFAULT_MOLD_BASE_VENDOR... you may select your default mold base vendor so that it will be proposed as the default choice during your work.
- DEFAULT_MOLD_BASE_VENDOR HASCO_MM (for our tutorial)

Once you have installed the Mold Library CD, you may want to go inside the installation directory to find the file mold_library.htm: this is an HTML file that you can browse to review all the component specifications and drawings.

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