Create startup shortcuts with customized initializations

Tekla Structures
2018
Tekla Structures

Create startup shortcuts with customized initializations

You can use shortcuts to start teklastructures.exe with customized initializations. You can use this functionality to create shortcuts for different purposes, for example, to have customized setup files depending on the client you are working for in a project. The Tekla Structures installation automatically creates shortcuts for the selected environments.

Note:

We recommend that only administrators create the customization and the necessary shortcuts. Otherwise, your settings may differ from the settings defined for your firm, or for the particular project you are working for.

Create a startup shortcut with customized initialization

  1. Open the user.ini file using any standard text editor.
  2. Save the file with a new name, for example, customer.ini or project.ini.
  3. Modify the file by adding the required settings.
  4. Save the modified initialization file.
  5. Open the Windows Start menu and select All Programs > Tekla Structures <version> .
  6. Right-click Tekla Structures <version> and select Copy.
  7. Paste the shortcut to your desktop.
  8. Select the shortcut, right-click and select Properties.
  9. Modify the Target of the shortcut by adding the required project initialization information to it.

    First enter the path to the current teklastructures.exe , then the desired parameters.

    Use the quotation marks (") in the path to avoid possible problems if the path contains spaces. If you have installed Tekla Structures to a path that does not contain spaces, there will be no problems even if you remove the quotations marks, for example, C:\TeklaStructures\. If you have installed Tekla Structures to a path that contains spaces, the quotation marks are needed, for example, C:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\.

    The maximum length of a shortcut is 256 characters. If you have problems with the length, you can call all other necessary initialization files from your customized initialization file instead of adding them to the shortcut.

  10. To override the settings defined in the shortcuts, use the parameter -i <initialization_file> in the user.ini and option.ini files.

Available parameters in shortcuts

You can use the following parameters in shortcuts:

Parameter Description
-I <ini_file_path>

The given .ini file is loaded before the environment .ini files. This parameter can be specified multiple times.

This parameter could be used to bypass the Choose Setup dialog (the login dialog).

Example:

"C:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2016\nt\bin\TeklaStructures.exe" -I
"C:\ProgramData\Tekla Structures\2016\Environments\usimp\us_roles\engineering\EngBypass.ini"
-i <ini_file_path>

The given .ini file is loaded after the role .ini files. This parameter can be specified multiple times.

Example:

"C:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2016\nt\bin\TeklaStructures.exe" -i
"C:\TeklaStructures\MySettings.ini"
<model_path>

The given model is opened after startup.

Example:

 "C:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2016\nt\bin\TeklaStructures.exe"
"C:\TeklaStructuresModels\New Engineering model"
-m <macro_file_path>

The given macro is executed during startup.

Example:

"C:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2016\nt\bin\TeklaStructures.exe" -m
"c:\ProgramData\Tekla Structures\2016\Environments\usimp\macros\modeling\Directory Browser.cs"

These parameters can be used in combination, and they automatically bypass the Tekla Structures - Choose setup dialog box, open a model and run a macro, for example.

"C:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2016\nt\bin\TeklaStructures.exe" -I
"C:\ProgramData\Tekla Structures\2016\Environments\usimp\us_roles\engineering\EngBypass.ini"
"D:\Models\_TS2016\New Engineering model" -m "c:\ProgramData\Tekla Structures\2016\Environments\usimp\macros\modeling\Directory Browser.cs"

Example of an initialization file

Below is an example of a customized project initialization file that calls other initialization files.

MyProject.ini

The project shortcut for this initialization file:

C:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\21.0\nt\bin\TeklaStructures.exe -i \\MyServer\MyProject\MyProject.ini \\MyServer\MyProject\MyModel\MyModel.db1

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