The combination of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 and Windchill PDMLink or Pro/INTRALINK 9.1 is very powerful. The functionality gaps with Pro/INTRALINK 3.x are effectively closed, and many advanced and improved capabilities are available. Designers are able to collaborate very efficiently, they are free to explore design alternatives while maintaining configuration control.
Windchill can support heterogeneous data management and offers optional workgroup managers with a unified user-interface for use with mainstream MCAD and ECAD systems. With Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0, this component is seamlessly integrated to enable PDM functionality for use with Windchill-based solutions.
The techniques in this article apply 100% to Pro/INTRALINK 9.1 as well, which is a pure subset of Windchill PDMLink specifically focused on managing Pro/ENGINEER designs.
This tip will present the very common practice of integrating data into the Windchill repository after a new implementation or migration. It is also common when vendor parts need to be introduced into the system.
Understanding Retrieval Precedence
When retrieving objects into a Pro/ENGINEER session, there is a very specific and predictable search order for source files. This is important to understand and can be used to your advantage when loading a design from the hard disk that may also be partially or entirely in the Commonspace. The use case could be when a design was exported from the data management environment, and now needs to be re-integrated as the next iteration.
The search / load order is as follows for the specified object AND DEPENDENTS:
1. In Session
2. Retrieval Directory (folder browsed to; may be same as #5)
3. Workspace (active only)
4. Commonspace (automatic search into contexts that user has access)
5. Set Working Directory
*Note: search_paths are ignored when registered with a Windchill server.
Showing Model Retrieval Path
First object found “wins” and is loaded In Session. It is sometimes helpful to see where objects were loaded from. The trail file shows extended information about load times and source. In addition, the following config.pro option will update the window title, and paths reported in reports, like Model Info.
display_full_object_path yes
In this example, an assembly drawing was exported, and the following changes were made:
Trail file retrieval details
Info > Model > Top Level
If the entire assembly was opened from a single hard-drive folder, then saved to the Workspace, there would be many conflicts and unmodified objects could potentially be iterated.
Moving ONLY modified objects to a sub-folder for retrieval forces Pro/ENGINEER to search in the Commonspace for pre-existing [unmodified] objects. The Add to Workspace is automatic and occurs in the background.
Save the Assembly to the active workspace (default).
Compare Status
The table displays can be customized by the system admin or individual users to include various columns and filters. The status columns are very important to understand and determine the state of an object. By default, the Compare Status is not shown (in order to improve performance). A conflict here is often the cause of upload / check-in failure(s)!
Select Customize… in the drop-down View list, and add the columns as shown.
Resolving Conflicts
After saving the design, notice that the BASKET and END CAP indicate a File name conflict. That is because these objects already exist in the Commonspace, but the WorkManager doesn’t have local metadata to recognize that they are truly the same objects, that is up to the designer!
The status columns indicate the following:
1. the item is NEW
2. the item is LOCALLY MODIFIED in the cache
3. the item name CONFLICTS with an existing item in the Commonspace
4. the Number field is not populated until initialized with Windchill (upload, etc.)
There are a few ways to address this… conceptually, you need to preserve the local file content, while linking with existing metadata. The desire is to have a locally modified object which represents the next iteration.
1. With NO objects selected, pick Add to Workspace
2. Search for the top-level assembly
3. Activate the Advanced tab to see collection
4. Remove or exclude objects that have NO status (no action required)
5. Set the selected objects to REUSE and CHECKOUT.
(Of course, you must have adequate permissions to Check Out the existing object.)
Notice that the metdata is now synchronized, and the END CAP can be checked-in as A.8. The BASKET is Released, so it must be Revised to enable check-in as B.1 | In Work.
Check-In
As a best practice, it is a good idea to perform an upload at regular intervals. This will protect your new and modified data prior to sharing with others. This copies the files from the local cache to your personal cabinet on the server-side. The file content is actually vaulted at this point, so if the upload is successful, the check-in will be trivial. Check-In just makes the object iterations visible to others and removes the exclusive lock.
Select Check In from the in-line actions for the top-level assembly—it will automatically process dependent objects. You can also explicitly pick all items with status, and use Check In from the tool bar. Design changes integrated successfully!
Portable Workspaces (introduced in Windchill 8.0 + Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0)
As an alternative to exporting data from the workspace, portable workspaces provide a means to share both file content AND metadata. Data is exported as a package and can be re-imported to accurately track and control changes. Please review this old but good article on the Pro/INTRALINK Advisor site:
Additional Enhanced Capabilities to Explore
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