When you create a user-defined plastic feature, Creo Elements/Direct Modeling loads a tool part and pastes the faces of the part to the mold part. The loaded tool part can be either a face part or a solid part. For solid parts, you are asked to specify the open faces on the part that are used in the paste operation.
A customized plastic feature must first be registered in a customization file found in the Creo Elements/Direct Modeling installation directory:
where x is your Creo Elements/Direct Modeling version number.
Before you can create user-defined features, you must register the plastic feature. If the tool part is to be loaded through a function, it must first be defined (in LISP). Then you use the following function for registration:
• name: a string that specifies the name of the feature being defined.
• :categories: a string or a list of strings that specify in which category the feature should be shown in the Plastic Feature browser.
• :package-file: the package file of the tool part, if the tool part is saved in a package file in the customization directory
sd_customize_x/MoldDesignAdvisor/user_geometry.
• :load-tool-func: the name of the function that loads the tool part for pasting, if :package-file is NOT specified. NIL should be returned when errors occur.
• :dialog-image (optional): the filename of an image (size: about 160x160) of the tool part, that is shown in the feature dialog. The file must be stored in the customization directory
sd_customize_x/MoldDesignAdvisor/user_geometry.
• :browser-image (optional): the filename of an image (size: about 50x50) of the tool part, that is shown in the Plastic Feature browser. Again, it must be stored in the customization directory
sd_customize_x/MoldDesignAdvisor/user_geometry.
• :description (optional): text that contains other information (such as factory-specific data). This is available when modifying plastic features, and the information is also included in plastic feature reports.
• :tools-file (optional): the name of a file containing tools associated with the feature; for example, slider geometry or slider-subtracting geometry. This is available when modifying plastic features, and the information is also included in plastic feature reports.
Examples
1. The following function registers a user-defined geometric feature whose tool part is a solid part. The tool part is loaded by specifying the package file: