Pro/TOOLKIT

I'm using Pro/ENIGNEER Wildfire 3.

Installation

Pro/TOOLKIT is sold as a component of Pro/ENGINEER. If your license allows, you can install Pro/TOOLKIT along with Pro/ENGINEER. There should be an option during the Define Installation Components section of the install with something like:

API Toolkits—Select this component to optionally install the files necessary to run the Application Program Interface toolkits like Pro/J.Link, Pro/Web.Link, and Pro/TOOLKIT.

Setting Up A Project

I found a tutorial on setting up a visual studio project at [1]. I used Visual Studio .Net 2003 and had no problems.

Hello World

The simplest method for a "HelloWorld" program is likely the following:

   ProStringToWstring (UserMsg, "C:\\cygwin\\home\\Admin\\tkTest\\TKTEMPLATE\\msg_user.txt");
   ProMessageDisplay (UserMsg, "USER %0s", 
       "Hello World.");

where msg_user.txt has the following:

USER %0s  
%0s  
#
#
USER -HelloWorld	
HelloWorld
#
#
USER -MainBtn1
-MainBtn1
#
#
USER New Button help.
New Button help.
#
#
USER -Sub1
-Sub1
#
#
USER -Sub1Btn1
-Sub1Btn1
#
#
USER -Sub1Btn2
-Sub1Btn2
#
#

The path will obviously have to be changed to wherever you keep the file. These message files keep the text that is displayed in Pro/ENGINEER. A typical use will be something like the following:

   status = ProMenubarMenuAdd ("HelloWorld", "USER -HelloWorld", 
       "Utilities", PRO_B_TRUE, UserMsg);

Here, a button will recieve the text defined in the file under "USER -HelloWorld." In the above, this is HelloWorld. However, if the the text file instead had the entry

USER -HelloWorld	
Export

the button would be named "Export." A quirky feature of these message files is that changes in them will only be recognized once Pro/ENGINEER is closed down and restarted. Merely restarting the auxiliary application or re-registering it is insufficient.

Hello Button

The added functionality of some of the above code hints at what is to come here: a short talk on adding menus to Pro/E. This section is based on code from the user guide, which has had its buggy portions removed.

	wchar_t UserMsg[80];

/*================================================================*\
	Say hello and add menu buttons.
\*================================================================*/

/*----------------------------------------------------------------*\
    Message file.
\*----------------------------------------------------------------*/
    ProStringToWstring (UserMsg, "C:\\cygwin\\home\\Admin\\tkTest\\TKTEMPLATE\\msg_user.txt");
    ProMessageDisplay (UserMsg, "USER %0s",         "Apples2Apples export tool started.");

/*----------------------------------------------------------------*\
    Add a new menu to the menu bar (to the right of Utilities).
\*----------------------------------------------------------------*/
    status = ProMenubarMenuAdd ("Exporter", "USER -Exporter", 
        "Utilities", PRO_B_TRUE, UserMsg);
/*----------------------------------------------------------------*\
    Add to the new menu.
\*----------------------------------------------------------------*/
    status = ProCmdActionAdd ("UserDispMsg", (uiCmdCmdActFn)MiscAction,
        uiCmdPrioDefault, TestAccessDefault, PRO_B_TRUE, PRO_B_TRUE,
        &cmd_id);

    status = ProMenubarmenuMenuAdd ("Exporter", "Sub1", "USER -Sub1", 
        NULL, PRO_B_TRUE, UserMsg);
/*----------------------------------------------------------------*\
    Fill in the buttons of Sub1.
\*----------------------------------------------------------------*/
    status = ProMenubarmenuPushbuttonAdd ("Sub1", "Sub1Btn1",
        "USER -Sub1Btn1", "USER New Button help.", NULL, PRO_B_TRUE,
        cmd_id, UserMsg);

Links

1: http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/pro_engineer/select/tutorials/jovanovic_toolkit_environment.htm