Visual Basic API

This may be called the Visual Basic API, however it can be accessed via any of the .net languages (and i belive anything with COM access), I will show examples in:

• C# .NET
• Powershell

Posts will be tagged with vb-api.

J-Link API

J-Link is the Java API for Creo, it is the most powerful free API and has the ability to start when creo is loaded

Posts will be tagged with j-link.

Web.Link API

This is the ActiveX component inside the embedded browser in Creo. It can be access via JavaScript and therefore its supersets (e.g. CoffeeScript and TypeScript).

Posts will be tagged with web-link.

Compiling

If you want to compile the files they are available on github, and use Java SDK 6 described in Creo J-Link Compiling

If you don't want to there is a released binary also available on github releases.

Installation

Copy the files into a folder, i am using C:/temp/ for this example.

First change the java_app_classpath location in the protk.dat file to your directory.

name     Engr.Creo.Jlink.LaunchPane
startup  java
java_app_class  LaunchPane
java_app_classpath C:/temp/LaunchPane/
java_app_start  start
java_app_stop   stop
allow_stop      true
delay_start     false
end

As per Creo J-Link Running Program, change the protkdat location to your folder, And revise the location of your java executable.

jlink_java_command C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe
protkdat C:/temp/LaunchPane/protk.dat

Finally update the LaunchPane.properties file with your desired locations.

name=LaunchPane
icon=C:/temp/LaunchPane/icon.png
url=http://www.google.com

Then run your application as per Creo J-Link Running Program

config.pro

These lines need to be added to your config pro:

jlink_java_command C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe
protkdat C:/temp/LaunchPane/protk.dat

jlink_java_command points towards your JRE and doesn't use the internal Java shipped with Creo (which i couldn't get working); in this case I am using JRE 7. If Java's bin directory is in your system path, you can shorten this to jlink_java_command java
protkdat points towards your application's protkdat.dat file.

protk.dat

This file contains all the information creo needs to launch the program.

name     Engr.Creo.Jlink.LaunchPane
startup  java
java_app_class  LaunchPane
java_app_classpath C:/temp/LaunchPane/
java_app_start  start
java_app_stop   stop
allow_stop      true
delay_start     false
end

The user guide details what each of these are, the important entry for me was the java_app_classpath this avoids needing to put this folder in the systems CLASSPATH.

Running

Creo should now load the J-Link program on startup, if you set delay_start false then its loaded but not started. You can then start it via the Auxiliary Applications menu.

JDK Version

Currently I have only managed to run programs compiled with JDK 6 available at the Java Archive Downloads. However the programs do seem to run using JRE 7, see Creo J-Link Running Program, for details on how to run an application.

Command Line

I initially used the command line to compile the .java files. Here is the batch file that resided in source directory.

"C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_45\bin\javac" *.java -classpath "C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 2.0\Common Files\M070\text\java\pfc.jar"
pause

I am using a 64bit machinem so am using the 64bit jdk, you will have to change the paths to javac and pfc.jar depending on your creo version.

IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse Luna

After having success with compiling with the command line, I decided to switch to an IDE; I managed to get programs compiling with IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse Luna. The important step is to ensure they were using JDK 6 for compiling. I ended up using IDEA, but the different was marginal.