In order for the integration to work, several environmental variables must be changed for the CAD process. In addition a "zsinter" process must be active before starting the CAD.

The zsinter process is a PRO.FILE process which is needed by PARTsolutions for the standard part linking. Detailed information to the zsinter process can be obtained from PROCAD.

This process needs a directory in which temporary files can be created and deleted. Please create an according directory and insert it into the environment variable ZS_SERV_INTER.

Example Inventor (other CAD systems are similar):

We recommend not conducting the start of Inventor via the Inventor.exe, it is preferable to use a startInventor.bat (Windows Batch File). This batch file should now change the environment variables and start the zsinter process. You receive an exemplary template for this batch file from CADENAS: profenv4inventor.bat

In the following you see an example as template. Please adjust it as needed.

REM working directory for data exchange with ZSInter
set ZS_SERV_INTER=c:\temp

REM DEBUG output in the DOS box 
set ZS_SERV_DISPLAY=0

REM No output in the DOS box
REM set ZS_SERV_DISPLAY=0

rem set ZS_SERV_TIMEOUT=0.25
set ZS_SERV_TIMEOUT=1000

REM LOG files for debugging purposes
set DBLISTFILE=c:\TEMP\dblistfile.txt

set GTRACE=c:\TEMP\gtrace.txt
set GTRACELEV=5

set DBTRACEDIR= c:\TEMP\TRACE

REM DEBUG: ZSInter wth DOS box
rem pause
rem %DBPFAD%run\N\zsinter.exe

set DBLISTFILE=c:\TEMP\dblistfile-inv.txt

set DB_LOCAL_WORKDIR=c:\CadData

start "" "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2011\Bin\Inventor.exe"

remZSInter without DOS box
start "" "%DBPFAD%run\N\zsinter.exe"

Ensure that all paths there are valid and that after the setting of variables both the process zsinter and Inventor have been started:

If the process zsinter is working and all environment variables are correctly set, the PRO.FILE<->PARTsolutions<->Inventor integration is working properly as well. Working with a batch file is just another possibility.

Furthermore the variables have to be known in PARTdataManager. When using a batch file for Inventor you only then achieve this, when PARTsolutions is started as child process of Inventor (meaning via the Inventor integration). If PARTsolutions is started before, a PRO.FILE Connect is not possible. The export is cancelled.

Solution: Either the environment variables are available system-wide - or also PARTsolutions contains a respective batch file.