Along with its numerous powerful design tools, Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 provides the tools for data recovery. You might have noticed that Wildfire always creates a trail file for certain sessions. This file is a vital tool for data recovery because it is a record of all menu choices, dialog-box choices, selections, and keyboard entries for a particular working session.
This tip explains that how you can manage and effectively manipulate these files. NOTE: This technique is effective only when you open the same version of the part that you opened the last time Pro/ENGINEER was launched.
Managing Trail Files
1. Create a folder at any location and launch WildFire 2.0.
2. Open your config.pro file by picking Tools > Options.
3. Add trail_dir and browse to the folder you created.
4. Now pick Add/Change and then Apply.
5. Now add set_trail_single_step and change the value to yes.
6. Pick Add/Change and then pick Apply.
7. Save the config.pro file and exit WildFire2.0.
8. Now go to the folder you created in the beginning and you’ll see a trail file has been created in that folder with an extension number (in this example, 1).
9. To use this file for further applications, you have to delete its extension number and
change its name from trail to any other word or integer. In this example, we rename the file 1.txt and pick Yes in the Rename dialog box.
10. Now launch WildFire and pick Tools > Play Trail / Training File.
11. Browse to the file created earlier, pick the file, and then pick Open. 12. The Single Step Trail dialog box will open. Keep picking Step and Pro/E will show you each move you made during the last session.
13. At the end, Pro/E asks for the confirmation to exit. If you want to exit, simply pick step again. If you don’t, pick End and then pick No.
Notice that the working directory has been changed to the directory set during the last session. You may change it back to your required directory.
Now comes the million-dollar question: “If you close a model without saving it and perform ‘Erase not displayed’, have you lost the model?” Thanks to the trail, the answer is NO.
Just exit Pro/ENGINEER. Launch it again and play the trail file of the last session. Keep picking Step until the model is complete. Then pick End and save your model.
IMPORTANT: If you want to play the trial file for data recovery, it is suggested that you first delete the portion of the file containing the “Close window”, “Erase not displayed” and “Exit” commands. After deleting the highlighted portion shown below, save the file. This will ensure you a “safe journey” through the trail.
Mirza Saqib Saeed is a design engineer at Wahid Industries in Gujrat, Pakistan.
