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msteffke15-Moonstone
15-Moonstone
February 28, 2012
Question

Managing your Windchill

  • February 28, 2012
  • 19 replies
  • 5913 views
I'm curious as to how many companies out there manage their own
Windchill Intralink systems, as opposed to hiring it out. Was your
training effective enough? Been relying on calls to our implimention
providers, and to PTC. I have never seen a system like this that no
one seems to fully understand.


Mark Steffke
Engineering System Administrator
The Delfield Company


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19 replies

R
RichardBorders1-Visitor
1-Visitor
February 29, 2012

After hiring somone to install Intralink 9.1 and migrating our 3.4 data we are attempting to manage our own Windchill environment.


The training in no way was effective enough. But that was not the fault of the company that did the training,they just followed the PTC training plan.

B
BenLoosli23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
February 29, 2012
PTC does not have an official training class on installing and configuring Windchill. They would rather keep that data secret and charge you outlandish fees for their GSO to come in and do the implementation. There are some VARs who have hired ex-PTC people who have the knowledge to do it.

The system administration and business administration training classes cover the basics, but they don't cover the details needed to implement and configure Windchill fully. The material MAY be in the manuals, but the convoluted structure of them makes it very hard to follow. You almost have to read the manuals on a computer because every fifth line is a link that jumps you to a different section or manual.

Thank you,

Ben H. Loosli
USEC, INC.
D
dgschaefer21-Topaz II
21-Topaz II
February 29, 2012
I absolutely agree with Ben's conclusion. Having just come from
attempting a PDMLink trial on our own, I can say it's very difficult.
The docs are a nightmare; I must have spent 40-60 hours poring over
docs. There's a lot of info out there, to PTCs credit, but it's such a
mess and scattered over so many docs it's nearly unusable. Part of it
is that WC is a huge and diverse package with thousands of different
configuration possibilities so it's not simple software. But, in
typical PTC fashion, it seems that there's been little attempt to
simplify the process for DIY customers.



We've realized that even if we did pay 5 figures for install and
configuration, if it ever went down we'd be dead in the water and at the
mercy of our VAR or PTC to get back up and running. It's not a dead
issue for us yet, but it's in the ICU and the prognosis is not good.



Doug Schaefer
R
RichardBorders1-Visitor
1-Visitor
February 29, 2012
Ben,


I fully agree,I took both the System an Business Admin classes and left
there totally confused. I was in no way prepared to install and configure
Intralink 9.1 and migrate our 3.4 data.
That is why we had to pay over 100 k to have a VAR come in and do it.



Thank You,




Richard Borders
CAD Manager - Komatsu America Corp.
North America Research and Development Division

US Technical Center 1
Chattanooga Mfg Operation
Newberry Mfg. Operation
(423) 757-0364





RE: [proesys] - RE: Managing your Windchill

Loosli, Ben H
to:
Richard Borders, -
02/29/2012 09:01 AM




PTC does not have an official training class on installing and configuring
Windchill. They would rather keep that data secret and charge you
outlandish fees for their GSO to come in and do the implementation. There
are some VARs who have hired ex-PTC people who have the knowledge to do
it.

The system administration and business administration training classes
cover the basics, but they don’t cover the details needed to implement and
configure Windchill fully. The material MAY be in the manuals, but the
convoluted structure of them makes it very hard to follow. You almost have
to read the manuals on a computer because every fifth line is a link that
jumps you to a different section or manual.

Thank you,

Ben H. Loosli
USEC, INC.
D
DonSenchuk12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
February 29, 2012

This part is one of the most frustrating things I've run into so far. Many of their instructions will start off good for 3 or 4 steps, giving specific instruction on what to do or what commands to use, then the 5th step might as well read, "Now, finish the work." And then it moves into the next chapter.


Ok, that's an exaggeration, but not by much.



In Reply to Ben Loosli:


The system administration and business administration training classes cover the basics, but they don't cover the details needed to implement and configure Windchill fully. The material MAY be in the manuals, but the convoluted structure of them makes it very hard to follow. You almost have to read the manuals on a computer because every fifth line is a link that jumps you to a different section or manual.
M
msteffke15-MoonstoneAuthor
15-Moonstone
February 29, 2012
Agree. When I started this thread I was referring to administrating as
'after the upgrade'. We had a VAR come in and do the migration and
setup. Now I'm left babysitting a system. People here call me the
administrator, but to be honest I can barely scratch the surface on how
to do anything systemwise on this. I feel like a pretender, unconfident
I could solve any issue myself.


Mark Steffke
Engineering System Administrator
The Delfield Company
Manitowoc Foodservice
T 989.775.9215 or 989.773.7981, ext 12484
Integrity, Commitment to Stakeholders, and Passion for Excellence

A
Anonymous
February 29, 2012

We (me) took the cheap route by doing all the implementation and migration (from 3.4) ourselves, and used PTC University online training only. It was a long process (a year) to learn all the ins and outs, but I have a much better understanding of WIndchill because of it. I concur that PTC’s manuals and training materials are terrible, especially in regard to customization (triggers/listeners).
My biggest complaint is that nearly all of the manuals assume you are using PDMLink, whereas we deployed Windchill Intralink 9.1 for PDM only. The result is that we wasted a lot of time configuring things that are not applicable to Intralink 9.1. Similarly, much of the documentation describes obsolete legacy stuff that should no longer be used, but is not clearly stated. Again, much time was wasted.


Gerry Champoux
Williams International
Walled Lake, MI


In Reply to Richard Borders:


I fully agree,I took both the System an Business Admin classes and left
there totally confused. I was in no way prepared to install and configure
Intralink 9.1 and migrate our 3.4 data.
That is why we had to pay over 100 k to have a VAR come in and do it.






L
Lohbauer1-Visitor
1-Visitor
February 29, 2012
Mark,

I’m in the same boat. We had the migration done, was provided good mentoring, then I was left with a new system to manage our Intellectual Property. I think I peed my pants a little when the reality struck me. But there are many resources out there to help you. This group, for one. Also PTC Tech support has been a big help for me. I’ve asked some pretty basic questions of them and they’ve come through, not as timely as the PTCUsers exploder but it is a resource. Also network, network, network.

Ben and Richard are correct about the Business Admin course too; it is full of good stuff if you can get through it. I’m sure War and Peace and Finnegan’s Wake are fabulous too.

Hang in there and keep reading and talking to people.
B
BenLoosli23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
February 29, 2012
I originally replied to Mark directly after his first exploder message yesterday. This is what I put in that message:

This is the third company that I have been the system administrator for their Windchill PDMLink implementation. Started installing Windchill in 2003 with Windchill 6.2.6 and then moved to Windchill 7. There is a lot that is not documented in the setup of any Windchill implementation. I have tried to document what I can along the way, but it gets frustrating to try to keep up between help desk issues with PTC on some aspect of their code failing. I have done 3-6 installs here of 9.0, 9.1 and 10.0 on development systems to learn more of what all is required. I still don’t have it all down.

Training is only from an administrator viewpoint. I don’t know of anyone who trains from the system installer and setup view. PTC either wants you to use their Global Services or a VAR that has been trained. My VAR, TriStar, has some people who really know Windchill and its inner workings, but I can’t use them for my production system, since it is on a classified network. I do open a lot of calls with PTC whenever I have an issue. My unclassified test systems help, but they aren’t duplicates of the production environment and never can be when it comes to the amount of data.

People on the PTC/User exploder that, in my opinion, have a good understanding of the Windchill process are Mike Lockwood at Alcon Labs and Al Anderson at Solar Turbines.

I would also add Gerry Champoux at Williams International as one who has learned the ins and outs of the system. As with any system as complex as Windchill, not everyone knows each portion to its fullest. We all use it a little differently so we have different modules that get our attention and intense study.

PTC Tech Support has been great in answering mundane questions. They usually get back with something that works, but it is like implementation instructions. They tell you how to fix it or what command to run, but they don’t tell you why to run it or what it does. WebEx is a tool for them to see what you are doing, but doesn’t help when they can’t have access to your system.

Thank you,

Ben H. Loosli
USEC, INC.
B
breiter1-Visitor
1-Visitor
February 29, 2012
100% agree with everyone else, I am STILL in the process of migrating
our 3.4 system to Intralink 10.0/PDMLink/whats the difference. I took
the PTC University class also and it seemed to go ok until I realized
most of the class was dealing with PDMLink. It has been over a year
since I started this project and honestly feel no better about it than I
did when I first began. I keep thinking it will get better but its not.
I am 98% thru the first trial migration but I have forgotten every
little thing I had to do to get to this point. (Use this TPI here, no
use this TPI for that) So I will have to relearn everything again to get
to production migration.



I think it's crazy to have to pay someone 50k+ to migrate to a new
system and pay the same amount in maintenance a year. But it would have
been done by now and probably would have saved in the long run. I guess
I'm the idiot.



Just another day in PTC Paradise!
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