TIPS: How to enable the preview for drawingin proE?

Version: 2001, Wildfire, Wildfire 2.0 & Wildfire 3.0

This is a very common question that a new Pro/ENGINEER user always asked. By default, preview is available for all the parts and assemblies. However, when come to drawing the preview varies from one file to another. A config options is being used to control to save the drawing preview in Pro/ENGINEER.

Parts, Assemblies and Drawings preview are saved during the files being saved. It means that these file format actually holds the information of the graphical preview. By default, parts and assemblies preview are set to be saved and hence we will always get the graphical preview. Drawings preview is set as disabled by default. So, if you did not enable it, the drawing that you saved will not comes with graphical preview.

To change the default setting, click Tools> Options from the drop down menu to access the Pro/ENGINEER configuration options dialog box.

Next, type save_drawing_picture_file in the options text field at the bottom left of the dialog box.

After the option is inserted, you should get a drop down list for the value. Below are the descriptions for the values option

No* – No preview saved (default)

Embed - Embeds the graphical preview inside the drawing file. File size will increase due to the picture embedded.

Export – An extra picture file is saved in the working directory during the drawing being saved. You will get 2 files after saving - (*.pic) and (*.drw)

Both - Does both embed and export.

My own preference is embed because I don’t like to have too many files in the working directory. So for my case, I change the value from “no” to “embed”. Next, hit the Add / Change button to add or change the value and save the config.pro

After the setting, you need to open and save the old drawing again to make the preview available. You should be able to notice that the drawing preview is available and the drawing file size is increased.