What Is An Environment?

What is an Environment?

An environment is a set of runtime environment variables in a text file. Each variable points to a path searched by the software when you start a session. 

Note that the default installation path can be:

WindowsInstallPath (Windows XP Pro)
WindowsInstallPath (64-bit code on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition)
WindowsInstallPathx86 (32-bit code on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition)

Commands used for illustration purposes are for 32-bit Windows XP Pro.

All Version 5 product lines share the same environment management mechanism.

For example, on Windows, the CATDocView environment variable is set by default, for 32-bit Windows XP Pro, to:

WindowsInstallPathdoc

meaning that the online documentation files are installed in the folder WindowsInstallPathdoc. When you want to access the online documentation, the software will look for the files in this location.

The term environment also includes its graphical representation, in other words how it is represented to the user on the user's desktop.

  ENOVIAV5VPM
  On Windows, for example, the environment is created in a text file located by default in:

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

and the environment file name is:
CATIAEnvironmentName.txt
ENOVIADMUNavigatorEnvironmentName
DELMIAEnvironmentName
ENOVIAV5VPMEnvironmentName
ENOVIA3dcomEnvironmentName

Note: the environment file name does not necessarily contain a "." (dot).

You can also specify during the installation procedure the location of environment files on both Windows and UNIX.

What are Global and User Environments?

A global environment can only be created by a Windows administrator, or the root userid on UNIX. For example, the default environment created at installation is a global environment: "global" means that it is visible to and can be used by all users on the computer on which it has been set up.

Global environments can only be created, edited or deleted by a Windows administrator, or the root userid on UNIX.

A user environment is visible to and can be used and manipulated (customized or deleted) only by the user who created it.

How are Environments Managed?

Environments are managed:
  • by the installation procedure, which creates a default global environment;
    the default environments created at installation on each platform are described in About the Environment Created on Windows and About the Environment Created on UNIX respectively.
  • using the catiaenv command (Windows) or CATIAENV command (UNIX) to run the Environment Editor, a GUI-based tool which creates, edits, copies and deletes environments
  • using the setcatenv command: this command creates and edits user and global environments (if you are administrator or root, you can edit the default global environment)
  • using the delcatenv command: this command deletes environments
  • using the lscatenv command (to list the names of environments)
  • using the chcatenv command (to edit one or more environment variables)
  • using the readcatenv command (to read the variables of an environment).
Please use the official tools provided to manage environments. Do not attempt to edit the environment file using a text editor.

What Does Customizing an Environment Mean?

Customizing your runtime environment means providing different values for the runtime variables in your default environment, or setting up new environments.

For example, you may install the online documentation at a location different from the default location. If this is the case, you need to specify where the documentation files are located by modifying the value for the CATDocView variable. This is an example of what we mean by customizing your runtime environment.

When customizing runtime environments, you can:
  • create new environments
  • edit existing environments
  • copy existing environments
  • delete environments

but you cannot rename existing variables.

You can ONLY create, modify and delete LOCAL environments: the creation, modification and deletion of REMOTE environments is not supported. This means that if you customize a local environment, and the same environment exists on other computers, you have to edit the environments on all of those computers if you want the environments to be identical.
 

Locales Whose Use with Version 5 has been Validated

The language locales whose use with Version 5 has been validated are listed in your Infrastructure Users Guide, sections "Starting a Session in a Language Other than English on Windows" and "Starting a Session in a Language Other than English on UNIX".

List of Official Runtime Variables

The runtime environment variables for all product lines are listed in the table below:

Variable Name Description Introduced in Release..
PATH Executable code search path V5R1
LIBPATH Library search path (AIX) V5R1
LD_LIBRARY_PATH Library search path (Solaris) V5R1
SHLIB_PATH Library search path (HP-UX) V5R1
CATInstallPath Installation path V5R1
CATDLLPath DLL search path (internal use only); on Windows, DLLs are loaded from the directories referenced by the variables CATDLLPath and PATH (Windows mechanism). V5R1
CATICPath Search path for product identification (internal use) V5R1
CATCommandPath Command search path V5R1
CATDictionaryPath Library dictionary search path V5R1
CATDocView Online documentation search path V5R1
CATReffilesPath Reference file search path V5R1
CATFontPath Font search path V5R1
CATGalaxyPath Search path for User Galaxy online information files V5R1
CATGraphicPath Graphic and icon search path V5R1
CATMsgCatalogPath Application message file search path V5R1
CATKnowledgePath Knowledge search path indicating the location where Knowledge resources have to be searched for while using an application. It can point to a concatenation of directories containing the knowledge Structure. V5R16
CATFeatureCatalogPath .OSM file search path V5R2
CATDefaultCollectionStandard Default standard collection path V5R9
CATStartupPath Sample file search path V5R1
CATW3ResourcesPath ENOVIA Portal search path pointing to HTTP resources visible to ENOVIA Portal clients; set by default to CATInstallPath/docs ENOVIA V5R4
CATReferenceSettingPath Default reference setting search path; also used to store settings locked by the administrator V5R1
CATUserSettingPath Permanent user setting search path V5R1
CATCollectionStandard Standard collection path V5R9
CATTemp Temporary user setting search path V5R1
CATMetasearchPath ENOVIA 3d com search path pointing to location where ENOVIA 3d com MetaSearch stores data required for metasearch engine operation. ENOVIA V5R4
CATW3PublishPath ENOVIA Portal search path pointing to location for storing HTML documents created by the ENOVIA Portal Snapshot command. ENOVIA V5R4
CATSharedWorkbookPath Points to shared workbooks for ENOVIA Portal ENOVIA V5R8
CATErrorLog Error log search path: points to the default files error.log, SessionInfo and AbendTrace files. The syntax is, for example, on Windows:
CATErrorLog=%CATTemp%\error.log
The error log file will be:
%CATTemp%\error.log

You can deactivate the creation of error.log, SessionInfo and AbendTrace files by setting CATErrorLog to the special value OFF (UPPERCASE only) like this:
CATErrorLog=OFF

V5R1
CATReport Conversion trace report location V5R2
USER_HOME Points to home directory of generic user for server-type ENOVIAV5VPM environments ENOVIA V5R12
DB2INSTANCE DB2 environment variable (for server-type environments only)  
TNS_ADMIN TNS environment variable (for server-type environments only)  
ORACLE_HOME ORACLE environment variable (for server-type environments only); on Windows, set by the enoviadbsetup process  
  For the DB2INSTANCE, TNS_ADMIN and ORACLE_HOME variables, in an installation using CATIA and VPM interoperability, you should create these variables using the Environment Editor, depending on which database you are using.  
ORA_NLS33 ORACLE environment variable (for server-type environments only); on Windows, set by the enoviadbsetup process  
JAVA_HOME_aix_a
JAVA_HOME_hpux_a=
JAVA_HOME_solaris_a
JAVA_HOME
Java runtime path specified at installation ENOVIA V5R8
CLASSPATH_JDBC_aix_a=
CLASSPATH_JDBC_hpux_a=
CLASSPATH_JDBC_solaris_a
CLASSPATH
JDBC classpath for ENOVIAV5VPM server ENOVIA V5R8