Cadkey conversion utility

[dpryor]

Back in the early 90's, Cadkey made a change that required a conversion utility to upgrade older files to their current format. I'm not sure what version it was at the time.
We still have Cadkey19 around for quick 2D work and accessing old jobs. We have recently found the need to pull up some old jobs done in 1988-1992. Our current Cadkey installation will not read them.

Does anyone have a conversion utility still for this?

[moldcore]

I’m not aware of such a utility but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one, I just don’t recall one. I’ve been using Cadkey, now KeyCreator, since the late 80’s and I believe the file format (.prt) didn’t change until long after Cadkey 19, so 19 should read the old files. What is the file ext. that you’re trying to read?

[beege]

Look up "CADUTIL" and "CADTOV4".. could be some answers there.

[dpryor]

Here is the message I get when I try to open any Cadkey files created before 1992.

http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/42...425x425Q85.jpg

[beege]

In your cadkey directory should be "CADTOV4.EXE" and "CADUTIL.EXE". Are they there? It's probably a C prompt command. (Like "c:\ckdirectory\cadtov4.exe path\filename.prt)

Use CADTOV4 first, then CADUTIL second.

[dpryor]

Beege,

That's exactly what I had to do. The files are in my root Cadkey folder. They are ".exe" files that only work at the command prompt (DOS) level. Boy, this is a real flash back! For some reason when I try to do it as a batch using wildcards, it errors out after only 3 or 4 files. I will probably end up doing them individually but at least I can get them.

FYI, they won't run on a 64-bit machine but we still have plenty of 32's around.

Thanks for you help!!!

[beege]

Glad to help! Isn't it good to have old folk around here that remember the old DOS days?

[mactec54]

Hi dpryor

What version cadkey were you trying to get your files from

[dpryor]

Mac,

I don't really remember what version is was at that time. Cadkey went a few years naming their versions 2.0, 3.5, and so on. Somewhere in the mid 90's they switched to Cadkey 97 & 98. When it hit the new millenium, they called it Workshop 20 I think. That was a total disaster. We went back to version 19 which was right before 20 and that was about the time Cadkey got sold.

[beege]

I believe that "CADTOV4" implies there was a break from old file formats starting with version 4.0, and you needed a converter that brought old files over that threshold, so his files were probably pre-V4.

[djconklin]

How about a conversion utility that would convert Cadkey 7 files (prt format?) to any format TurboCad could read?

[bostosh]

I would go from cadkey r7.prt to cadkey19.prt to IGS, STEP, Sat or other upwards format. Send me a file.