Hints on the Communication Programs 

The following overview contains special information regarding each of the four programs.

Program

Note

sapftp

saphttp

ConvUtil

ConvServSamp

ConvRfc2Corba

Under WinNT, the program librfc32.dll must be accessible.

ConvUtil

Before calling the program, set the path to that sapftp, saphttp, and ConvServ can be accessed and be started by the program ConvUtil.

When you select the option Start for when defining the RFC destination you will only have a very basic path set. In this case use shell script to set the path and then call the program ConvUtil.

Program for communication between the SAP System and the converter
such as ConvServSamp, ConvRfc2Corba

When you start the program using ConvUtil you write a shell script with the name ConvServ (or ConvServ.bat when using the operating system Windows NT). You call the RFC server for communication with the converter in this shell script (Examples: ConvServSamp, ConvRfc2Corba).

If you use a CORBA server from Engineering Animation, Inc. (EAI) for conversion you will need the SAP program ConvRfc2Corba.

  • In addition to the parameters stated here the program also needs the parameter for CORBA communication with the CORBA server. These parameters can be found in the installation guide from EAI.
  • The program ConvRfc2Corba must be started with the parameters that are used to start the conversion server from EAI for example:

CatiaTranslatorServer -hostName iw1027
-TranslatorName CAT1 -namingContext DefaultNamingContext -portNumber 10000
  • The following parameters are needed as well:

-sessionFactory <sessionFactory> - listFactory <GeneralListFactory>

The values of these parameters must be identical to the parameters used when calling the program VisDSSessionMgr.
Here is an example of a complete call:

ConvRfc2Corba <RFC Parameter> -hostName iw1027 -TranslatorName CAT1 -namingContext -sessionFactory sessionFactory -listFactory GeneralListFactory -portNumber 10000
  • Start the program ConvRfc2Corba after the other CORBA programs from EAI have been started.

The program ConvRfc2Corba must be closed and restarted in the following situations:
    • Another CORBA program has been started.
    • The SAP System was restarted.

The program runs better on a UNIX machine and when maintaining the RFC destination (transaction code SM59) select the option Start or start the program using ConvUtil.

The program ConvRfc2Corba does not have to be run from the conversion server. The other three programs do.

  • If you encounter communication problems between the CORBA programs you must add the –Oanumeric parameter.
    A communication problem can occur when the     nameserver ( ConvRfc2Corba, nameserv, VisDSSessionMgr and the translator server, such as CatiaTranslatorServer or ProETranslatorServer.exe) cannot be found in the CORBA programs.
  • You can also start the CORBA programs from EAI from ConvRfc2Corba. In this case the parameters are automatically selected for consistency.
    To do this you must set the path for     nameserv and VisDSSessionMgr so that the can be found before calling ConvRfc2Corba.
    Set all environment variables for ConvRfc2Corba as required by the converter.
    Also enter the parameters     -corbaTranslatorServerName <TranslatorServer> when calling ConvRfc2Corba.
     <TranslatorServer> is required for your conversion. The translator server path must be entered. /usr/converter/CatiaTranslatorServer or c:\converter\ProETranslatorServer.exe .

Optionally you can reroute the output of VisDSSessionMgr and <TranslatorServer> to other files by using the parameters
–corbaTranslatorServerLogFile <corbaTranslatorServerLogFile> -corbaSessionManagerLogFile <corbaSessionManagerLogFile>.

The program ConvRfc2Corba was created with ORBacus for C++ from Object-Oriented Concepts, Inc..

If you require another converter, verify whether a connection to the SAP System is possible.
If no connection is currently available you can easily program your own.

Often it is necessary to make small modifications to the batch file. A detailed guide on connecting the converter can be found under: Connecting the Converter