When you save a bundle file, both the Creo Elements/Direct Annotation drawing and the Creo Elements/Direct Modeling model are saved together in a single file.
Saving a drawing file, however, saves the drawing alone, and you must save the model separately to maintain the drawing's association.
To save a file,
1. Click File > Save. The Save file browser opens.
2. Select the type of data you want to save from the File Type cascade button.
3. If necessary, click Options and specify additional parameters for the save operation. This button is inactive if there are no additional options for the selected file type.
4. Select a File Version.
5. Select the elements to be saved (you may need to click Select in the browser first) in one of the following ways:
◦ Click a drawing element in the viewport.
◦ Select the elements from the Drawing Browser.
◦ Use the Select tool.
◦ Enter the name of the element in the user input line within double quotes ("").
6. Specify the name of the file to save by selecting an existing file or entering a name in the file browser.
7. Click Save to save the file.
Creo Elements/Direct Annotation saves the selected drawing elements.
File Version - The file version listed first in the File Version drop down menu will depend on the Default file version in the System Settings menu. To temporarily switch to a different file version, select the version from the drop down menu. This file version is active for one save operation and then the filing revision is restored to the default file version.
Export to MI format
You can export an Creo Elements/Direct Annotation sheet as a pure MI file to be used in other applications (such as Creo Elements/Direct Drafting).
The file browser automatically selects the active sheet when you select Sheet from the File Type cascade list. Specify a different sheet to export in one of the following ways:
• Select the sheet from the Drawing Browser.
• Enter the number of the sheet in the user input line within double quotes ("").
Click Options in the Save file browser to open the Export MI option box, in which you can specify the following:
• Remove Invisible Elements removes all elements which were previously set as invisible with Creo Elements/Direct Annotation's Hide command. When the file is loaded again into Creo Elements/Direct Drafting, these elements no longer exist.
• No System Infotexts Removes the information about the association between the drawing and the 3D model. This option is switched on by default as it rarely makes sense to translate Creo Elements/Direct Annotation infotexts. It also results in significantly smaller exported files. Note that these internal codes cannot be recovered once exported.
• Merge All Elements Connects all geometry elements into single entities, where possible. This applies to all geometry in the drawing. Note that this option increases the time needed for Creo Elements/Direct Annotation to export the sheet.
• Text to Geometry Converts drawing text into geometry elements. This applies to all text, including text within symbols. This is useful for a sheet using a font not recognized by the MI translator.
Set DXF/IGES environment variables
The two sections that follow describe how to export sheets to the DXF and IGES file formats. To enable the conversion, Creo Elements/Direct Annotation needs to know the directory containing the DXF and IGES executable and configuration files. Creo Elements/Direct Annotation uses environment variables to specify the directory, which can be set in a Creo Elements/Direct Modeling execution script or the sd_customize file.
The following example (which you could add to the sd_customize file) gives the default DXF and IGES directories as created when you install Creo Elements/Direct Annotation:
The directories given above also contain configuration files for DXF and IGES translations:
• dxfdwg.con is the configuration file for DXF imports and exports.
• igesi.con is the configuration file for IGES imports.
• igeso.con is the configuration file for IGES exports.
You can edit the files in any text editor to customize the translation settings.
Export to DXF
Before you can export to the DXF format, the DXF environment variable must have been set.
The file browser automatically selects the active sheet when you select DXF from the File Type cascade list. Specify a different sheet to export in one of the following ways:
• Select the sheet from the Drawing Browser.
• Enter the number of the sheet in the user input line within double quotes ("").
Click Options in the Save file browser to open the Export DXF option box, in which you can specify the following:
• No System Infotexts—Removes the information about the association between the drawing and the 3D model. This option is switched on by default as it rarely makes sense to translate Creo Elements/Direct Annotation infotexts. It also results in significantly smaller exported files. Note that these internal codes cannot be recovered once exported.
• Merge All Elements—Connects all geometry elements into single entities, where possible. This applies to all geometry in the drawing. Note that this option increases the time needed for Creo Elements/Direct Annotation to export the sheet.
• Text to Geometry—Converts drawing text into geometry elements. This applies to all text, including text within symbols. This is useful for a sheet using a font not recognized by the DXF translator.
A log file of the export, with the same name as the exported file but with the .log extension, is saved in the same directory as the exported file.
Export to IGES
Before you can export to the IGES format, the IGES environment variable must have been set.
The file browser automatically selects the active sheet when you select IGES from the File Type cascade list. Specify a different sheet to export in one of the following ways:
• Select the sheet from the Drawing Browser.
• Enter the number of the sheet in the user input line within double quotes ("").
Click Options in the Save file browser to open the Export IGES option box, in which you can specify the following:
• No System Infotexts—Removes the information about the association between the drawing and the 3D model. This option is switched on by default as it rarely makes sense to translate Creo Elements/Direct Annotation infotexts. It also results in significantly smaller exported files. Note that these internal codes cannot be recovered once exported.
• Merge All Elements—Connects all geometry elements into single entities, where possible. This applies to all geometry in the drawing. Note that this option increases the time needed for Creo Elements/Direct Annotation to export the sheet.
• Text to Geometry—Converts drawing text into geometry elements. This applies to all text, including text within symbols. This is useful for a sheet using a font not recognized by the IGES translator.
A log file of the export, with the same name as the exported file but with the .log extension, is saved in the same directory as the exported file.
Export to DWG format
Before you can export to the DWG format, the DWG environment variable must have been set. Note that DWG uses the same variable as DXF/IGES.
The file browser automatically selects the active sheet when you select DWG from the File Type cascade list. Specify a different sheet to export in one of the following ways:
• Select the sheet from the Drawing Browser.
• Enter the number of the sheet in the user input line within double quotes ("").
Click Options in the Save file browser to open the Export DWG option box, in which you can specify the following:
• No System Infotexts—Removes the information about the association between the drawing and the 3D model. This option is switched on by default as it rarely makes sense to translate Creo Elements/Direct Annotation infotexts. It also results in significantly smaller exported files. Note that these internal codes cannot be recovered once exported.
• Merge All Elements—Connects all geometry elements into single entities, where possible. This applies to all geometry in the drawing. Note that this option increases the time needed for Creo Elements/Direct Annotation to export the sheet.
• Text to Geometry—Converts drawing text into geometry elements. This applies to all text, including text within symbols. This is useful for a sheet using a font not recognized by the DWG translator.
A log file of the export, with the same name as the exported file but with the .log extension, is saved in the same directory as the exported file.
• Pictures in Annotation drawings are currently not exported using the 2D standard data exchange formats such as DXF / DWG and IGES.
• Shaded views in Annotation drawings are currently not exported using the 2D standard data exchange formats such as DXF / DWG and IGES.
• OLE data in Annotation drawings is currently not exported using the 2D standard data exchange formats such as DXF / DWG and IGES.
Edit a text file
You can open a file in your system's default text editor with the Edit File command. Any text file can be specified in the File Browser. This can be useful for editing a Readme file describing your saved drawings, for example.
1. Click File > Edit File.
The File Browser opens.
2. Specify the file to open in one of the following ways:
◦ Select the file in the File Browser.
◦ Enter the filename in the user input line within double quotes ("").
If the named file exists, Creo Elements/Direct Annotation displays it in the text editor; otherwise a new file is created with the given name and the editor displays the empty file. (Note that WordPad cannot create new files in this way.)
You can configure Edit File to use a text editor other than the default editor, WordPad.
