The models you need... in the formats you want.
Submitted by CraDen7 on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 11:16
The TransMagic CATIA V5 translator is based directly on a real seat of CATIA V5 "under the hood" of TransMagic. Like CATIA V5 itself, a few things can occur to its environment that prevent it from being launched properly. Follow this checklist to debug your TransMagic CATIA V5 translator:
· Do you have the proper TransMagic License? Start TransMagic. Then, select Help->About. At the bottom of this dialog it will list your “TransMagic License Properties." Your “Configuration:” should read one of the following:
o TransMagic Expert (includes CATIA V5 Read AND Write)
o TransMagic PowerPack for SolidWorks (includes CATIA V5 Read and Write)
o TransMagic PowerPack for Inventor (includes CATIA V5 Read and Write)
o + V5 Read (CATIA V5 Read Add-on feature)
o + V5 Write (CATIA V5 Write Add-on feature)
· Did you install TransMagic on a supported Operating System? The TransMagic R7 series requires Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. Make sure you have one of these operating systems. The TransMagic R8 series will not allow itself to be installed on an un-supported operating system to avoid this issue.
· Did you download and install the Microsoft prerequisite components? The TransMagic R7 series requires two components to be installed. The installer will warn you of these during the install but it does not force you to install them. The TransMagic R8 series and beyond will install these components automatically to avoid this issue.
o Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. To determine if you have this component, go to your Add/Remove programs and look for "Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0”. If you do not have this component you can download it from the Microsoft website via the following links:
o Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1. You cannot determine if you have the SP1 package from the Add/Remove programs dialog. Since this component is a very small download the best recourse is to simply download and install this package. It does not hurt to re-install this package if you already have it. Also, there was a Windows Update that corrupted this package on some machines so re-installing it is a good idea in any case. You can download this component from the Microsoft website via the following link:
§ Note: for the TransMagic R7 series you’ll want to install the 32-bit version whether you’re using a 32-bit or 64-bit OS as the TransMagic R7 series is 32-bit only and will run on a 64-bit machine in 32-bit mode but it will need the 32-bit version of this component installed.
· Do you have another application with a V5 translator that is conflicting with the TransMagic translator? CATIA V5 itself will NOT conflict with TransMagic; however, there are other applications that also license the V5 CAD Kernel from Dassault Systemes and one of these applications could have a CATIA V5 Kernel that is conflicting with TransMagic. The most common cause of this is that the application developers did not observe Windows best practices for DLL paths and instead of putting the DLL paths in the registry they will put them in the “Global Windows Path Statement”. You can check for this in the following way:
o Go to Start->Run, enter “cmd” and click “OK”. For Windows Vista click your Windows button + the letter R, enter “cmd” and click “OK”.
o At the command prompt type “path” and click Enter. This will display the Global Windows Path Statement.
o If there are any translators or CAD systems or other non-Windows programs in this path then they will need to be serched for CATIA V5 DLLs. When an application puts their DLL paths in the Global Windows Path statement this means that those DLLs will always be found first for every application. The problem is that let’s say there is a 3D viewer application that uses a V5 Kernel and that application puts its V5 DLLs in the Global Path. Then when you start TransMagic, which may be based on another version of V5 Kernel tries to run – it will find only the DLLs in the Global Path first. This will cause a DLL conflict and TransMagic won’t be able to run. Examples of applications that now or in the past put their V5 Kernels in the Global Path:
§ Actify SpinFire Viewer
§ SmartTeam (a Dassault Systemes PLM system). Note the directory “C:\Program Files\SmartTeam\XCADTrans” in our screenshot. In this example, this directory contains CATIA V5 DLLs that conflict with TransMagic’s V5 Kernel. See the next bullet.
o If you see a suspicious path in the Global Path, then browse to that directory and search for the following string “CAT”. A large majority of CATIA V5 DLLs start with “CAT”. If you find any of these then this is likely your offending path and it will need to be removed from the Global Windows Path Statement before TransMagic will run. Keep in mind that removing a directory from the Global Windows Path Statement could very well cause the application that put the path there to malfunction or stop working entirely. Please consult your IT department before performing the next step.
o Go to your Windows Control Panel, switch to “Classic View”, click the “System” icon. This will launch the “System Properties” dialog:
o Click the “Advanced” tab and then click the “Environment Variables…” button. This will launch the “Environment Variables” dialog:
o In the “System variables” section, find the “Path” statement, highlight it and click “Edit…”. Locate the offending path and delete it. Click “OK”, “OK” again and “OK” once more. Now this path has been removed from you Global Path and TransMagic’s V5 translator should work.
o It’s possible there could be more paths with V5 Kernels in them so you may need to repeat this process to find and remove them all.
o Also keep in mind that if an application was installed just for a single user vs. all users on the machine then there may be a “Path” Variable under the “User variables” section at the top of the “Environment Variables” dialog that needs to be edited.
· If an application was found with conflicting DLLs but you still need to use this application, you can create a *.bat file for this specific application that puts the DLL path back into the Global Windows Path Statement and then launches the application. This method protects other applications from DLL conflicts but allows the offending application to operate as well. Contact your IT department for creating a *.bat file that employs this method.
· TransMagic R8 and beyond now employ the CATIA V5 "setcatenv" tool which will set-up a specific CATIA V5 environment that only applices to TransMagic. Even if an application observes poor windows DLL path programming practice, this should no longer interfere with the TransMagic CATIA V5 translators.