Running the Converter

The Converter is located in the SpaceClaim installation directory. Simply double-click converter.exe to open the Converter dialog.

Select the files you want to convert. All the files have to be the same format. Build your list using any combination of the commands below.

  • Add Files: Opens a dialog to browse to specific files to convert. All files must have the same format. Specify the format by setting the Filter in the Open dialog.
  • Add folder: Opens a dialog to browse to a directory containing files to convert. All files matching the File Filter on the Options page will be added.
  • Remove: Removes the currently highlighted file(s).

Once you have the list of files to convert, click the Convert button. As the conversion proceeds, you are given the following feedback.

  • The file currently being converted is highlighted in Yellow.
  • Files that converted successfully are highlighted in Green.
  • Files that could not be converted are highlighted in Red. If any file fails to convert, a copy of the file is written to the Failures directory specified on the Options page.

Skip: Click this button to skip (do not convert) the current file.

Abort: Click this button to cancel the process.

Pause: Click this button to pause the process. When paused, the button switches to Resume.

Converter Options

You need to specify the output file type as well as some other directories used by the Converter. Frequently used conversion settings can be saved and reused. When SpaceClaim is started from Converter, there is no longer a check for updates in SpaceClaim when it starts.

The Converter options are described below.

  • File Filter: When you specify a directory to convert, it may contain many different file types. Since all input files must be the same type, the File Filter specifies which type to convert.
  • Recurse directories: Check this option to include subdirectories.
  • TimeOut: This is the maximum time allowed for the conversion. It will be aborted if it exceeds this time limit.
  • File Type: This is the output file format. All the input files will be converted to this format. Converted files are written to the same directory as the input file.
  • Failures Directory: Any files that fail to convert will be copied to this directory.
  • Settings Directory: Converter settings can be saved to an XML file in this folder.
  • SpaceClaim directory: This is the directory where SpaceClaim.exe is located. Normally this will be the same directory containing Converter.exe.
  • Output directory: The converted files will be saved to this directory.
  • Email Recipient(s): The converter will send an email to the specified email addresses. You can select when you want email sent with the following check boxes.
    • Complete
    • Errors
  • Abort if failures exceed: Check this box and enter a percentage of failures. The process aborts when the percentage is exceeded.
  • Start separate SpaceClaim for each design: A separate SpaceClaim instance is started for each design to avoid memory exhaustion on large models. This sacrifices speed to save memory. The option is Off by default.
  • Multiprocess: Multiprocessor support allows multiple SpaceClaim sessions to run in parallel to translate files. This setting is defaulted to the number of cores available, based on your system and available memory, but you can configure it. Be careful not to exceed the number of cores present, and to expect performance of other running programs to degrade potentially.

There is a command line switch (for SpaceClaim) to check for add-ins

  • CommandLineAddInsOnly will only load add-ins specified in the command line for SpaceClaim
  • For example: /CommandLineAddInsOnly=true
  • The switch is primarily intended for use with the Converter to limit the add-ins loaded
  • The switch can be used to start SpaceClaim without looking for add-ins in the usual locations