Integration of Pro/Engineer with Visual C++ using Pro/Toolkit for design automation
Kenneth D. Willmert · 2011
For years, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) has been a valuable tool in product development. Packages like Pro/Engineer, Unigraphics, CATIA, etc., are some of the most widely implemented CAD packages in industry. They enable creation of virtual three dimensional models of a product which can be used for analysis purposes to optimize the design, and then put into production. This research demonstrates automation of this feature creation operation on a CAD package, by integrating it with a programming language using an Application Program Interface (API). This results in considerable reduction in modeling time, compared to feature creation through the traditional method. However, the learning curve to develop this interface can be quite steep depending on how proficient the developer is with C/C++ programming. Also, more complex features would require sizable programs. The interface developed for this paper was for Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5.0, through C programming using the API Pro/Toolkit which comes standard in Pro/Engineer. The applications developed as a result, successfully demonstrated automation of feature creation on Pro/Engineer through a series of simple inputs from the user. Each application performs a different Pro/Engineer operation. Thus, it opens up a whole range of possibilities in the area of product development and has great potential.