Configuring Your Environment Using the Environment Editor

This task explains how edit an existing environment.

1. Select the Start > All Programs > MyProduct > Tools > Environment Editor V6R2012 command.

   You can also start the environment editor by running the command:

   C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B211\intel_a\code\bin\catiaenv
   C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B211\win_b64\code\bin\catiaenv 

   The Environment Editor appears.

   Note: the screenshots in this scenario describe how to perform the scenario for the CATIA brand on Windows. But the scenario works in the exactly the same way for all other brands.

   
   
   

   Note that the list of existing environments is displayed in the Environment name list. The list will contain all the environments detected in the current environment folder. The first environment is selected by default.

   When an environment in the list is selected, click the right mouse to display a contextual menu of environment manipulation commands.

   The Mode field indicates one of two possible values:

   
   
   • User: indicates that the environment was set up using your userid, is visible to you and can only be accessed by you (you cannot see anybody else's user environments)
   • Global: indicates that the environment was set up by somebody belonging to the Administrators group, or who has the privileges assigned to the Administrators group (you can see all the global environments on your computer): this is what you will see after an initial installation on your computer.

     Only an administrator can modify global environments.

     This means that you will only see in the Environment name list the names of environments you created, or which are common to all users. You can only edit environments which belong to you. Furthermore, if you select a global environment as end user, you will be able to display an environment, but not edit it.

   The Last Modified field specifies the date and time the environment was last modified.

   The Environment storage directories area displays the current storage location for both global and user environments. This setting is the location you specified during installation.

2. To reset environment storage directories, select the Options > Set User Storage Directory or the Options > Set Global Storage Directory command to display a file explorer, then explore your filetree to select the directory, and click OK.

   Any environments created from now on will be stored in these locations.

   You can use the storage directory settings to filter the list of environment names and types displayed. For example, if you created both global and user environments in the same user storage directory, selecting the user storage directory will now only display the user environments, and not the global environments.

3. To display the variables for any environment, click the environment name.

   For example, click the name of the default global environment set up at installation.

   This will be the only environment name in the list after a default installation. However, once you create new environments, these will also be displayed in the list.

   The variables and their values are displayed:

   
   
   • the variable name is displayed on the left
   • and the value (path) for the corresponding variable is displayed to the right.

4. Click a variable name in the list.

   The variable name and its corresponding value are highlighted:

   
   
   

   For example, the default path for the CATDocView variable in our example is:

   C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B211\intel_a\doc

   However, you may have installed the online documentation in a different folder.

5. If you are authorized to edit the variable, click the variable value to be able to edit it, then type in the new value.

   For example, you would type in the new path for the variable CATDocView. The value of the variable is reset in the Environment Variables field.

6. Click OK.

CSIDL Values in Environment Variable Paths

There are a number of folders that are used frequently by applications, but may not have the same name or location on any given system. For example, the system folder is "C:\Windows" on Windows XP. CSIDL values provide a unique system-independent way to identify these special folders.

Consequently, CSIDL values are now part of paths pointed to by environment variables. The variables concerned are:

• CATUserSettingPath
• CATTemp
• CATReport
• CATErrorLog

What Is the DSKEY_TMPDIR Key?

The TMP and TEMP variables pointing to the current temporary file path on your computer are not necessarily activated.

The DSKEY_TMPDIR key points to the current temporary file path on your computer which is obtained as follows:

The software does not verify that the directory specified by the TMP or TEMP environment variables exists. The temporary file path is obtained as follows:

• the path specified by the TMP environment variable.
• the path specified by the TEMP environment variable, if TMP is not defined.
• the Windows directory, if both TMP and TEMP are not defined.

This task explains how to create a new environment using the Environment Editor.

1. Select the Start > All Programs > MyProduct > Tools > Environment Editor command.

2. Select the Environment > New command to display the following dialog box:

   
   
   

3. Enter the name of the environment to be created.

4. Enter the path of your installation folder.

   The default installation folder path is:

   C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B211\intel_a
   C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B211\win_b64

5. If you logged on as administrator, enter the environment Mode.

   The type can be user or global (global is available only for administrators only). If you are logged on as a normal end user, the type is set automatically to "user".

6. Check the Server option if the environment is to be a server-type environment.

7. Check the Overwrite existing environment option to overwrite an existing environment.

8. Click OK to create the environment.

   The environment is created in:

   C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\DassaultSystemes\CATEnv

   where "user" is "All Users" for a global environment, or "myuserid" for a user environment.

This task explains how to create a new environment using the Environment Editor by copying an existing environment.

1. Select the Start > All Programs > MyProduct > Tools > Environment Editor command.

2. Select an environment and click Yes to confirm you want to modify it.

3. Select the Environment > New from... command to display the following dialog box:

   
   
   

4. Customize the name of the environment to be created.

5. Enter the path of your installation folder.

   The default installation folder path is:

   C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B211\intel_a
   C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B211\win_b64

6. Check Add a new path to this environment and specify where to insert the path (before or after the install path) using the appropriate options if required.

7. If you logged on as administrator, enter the environment mode.

   The type can be user or global (global is available only for administrators only). If you are logged on as a normal end user, the type is set automatically to "user".

8. Check the Overwrite existing environment option to overwrite an existing environment.

9. Click OK to create the environment.

   The environment is created in:

   C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\DassaultSystemes\CATEnv

   where "user" is "All Users" for a global environment, or "myuserid" for a user environment.

   Setting Correct Authorizations for End Users on Windows

   Server environments use by default the folder referenced by the CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA path for the CATUserSettingPath variable. This folder is usually:

   C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data

   and is used to contain a variety of files, including user settings located in the Dassault Systemes folder. Typically, the authorizations given to the CATUserSettingPath may not be sufficient. By default, the folder:

   C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data

   does not provide write access for normal end users. The default authorizations on the folder:

   C:\Documents and Settings\All Users

   and all the subfolders it contains are:

   Administrators - Full Control
   Power Users - Change (Read/Write)
   Everyone - Read
   System - Full Control

   Consequently, make sure that end users using server-type environments have sufficient authorizations (MODIFY+WRITE) for at least the folder:

   C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Dassault Systemes

   to be able to write their settings to (and modify their settings in) this folder.

This task explains how to create and delete user-defined variables, and edit any variable, using the contextual menu.

1. Select the Start > All Programs > MyProduct > Tools > Environment Editor command.

2. To display the variables for any environment, click the environment name and confirm that you want to modify it.

3. Without selecting a variable, right-click on the variable list to see the contextual commands:

   
   

   • New Variable

   • Delete Variable

   • Edit Variable

4. To create a user-defined variable, select the New Variable command to display the Variable Editor dialog box:

   
   
   

   and enter the variable name, its value, and a comment if required, then click OK.

5. To delete a user-defined variable, select the variable, then select the Delete Variable command, then click Yes to delete the variable.

   Note that you can delete only user-defined variables created using the New Variable command, and not official variables.

6. To edit any variable, select the variable, select the Edit Variable command to display the Variable Editor dialog box:

   
   
   

   then enter its new value and click OK. Note that the variable name and comment field are not available if you are modifying an official variable. However, the name, value and comment are editable if you are editing a user-defined variable only.

7. Do not forget to save your changes by selecting the Save command, also in the contextual menu.