Getting Started with the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Community

[#1]

Welcome to the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Community!

The ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps are easy to deploy, pre-configured role-based starter apps that are built on PTC’s industry-leading IoT platform, ThingWorx. These Apps provide manufacturers with real-time visibility into operational information, improved decision making, accelerated time to value, and unmatched flexibility to drive factory performance.

This Community page is open to all users-- including licensed ThingWorx users, Express (“freemium”) users, or anyone interested in trying the Apps. Tech Support community advocates serve users on this site, and are here to answer your questions about downloading, installing, and configuring the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps.

A. Sign up:

ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Community:

PTC account credentials are needed to participate in the ThingWorx Community. If you have not yet registered a PTC eSupport account, start with the Basic Account Creation page.

Manufacturing Apps Web portal:

Register a login for the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps web portal, where you can download the free trial and navigate to the additional resources discussed below.

B. Download:

Choose a download/packaging option to get started.

i. Express/Freemium Installer (best for users who are new to ThingWorx):

If you want to quickly install ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps (including ThingWorx) use the following installer:

Download the Express/Freemium Installer

ii. 30-day Developer Kit trial:

To experience the capabilities of the ThingWorx Platform with the Manufacturing Apps and create your own Apps:

Download the 30-day Developer Kit trial

iii. Import as a ThingWorx Extension (for users with a Manufacturing Apps entitlement-- including ThingWorx commercial customers, PTC employees, and PTC Partners):

ThingWorx Manufacturing apps can be imported as ThingWorx extensions into an existing ThingWorx Platform install (v8.1.0). To locate the download, open the PTC Software Download Page and expand the following folders:

ThingWorx Platform | Release 8.x | ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Extension | Most Recent Datacode

C. Learn

After downloading the installer or extensions, begin with Installation and Configuration.

Follow the steps laid out in the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Setup and Configuration Guide 8.2

Find helpful getting-started guides and videos available within the 'Get Started' section of the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Portal.

D. Customize

Once you have successfully downloaded, installed, and configured the Manufacturing Apps, begin to explore the deeper potential of the Apps and the ThingWorx Platform.

Follow along with the discussion and steps contained in the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps and Service Apps Customization Guide  8.2

Also contained within the the 'Get Started' page of the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Portal, find the "Evolve and Expand" section, featuring:

-Custom Plant Layout application

-Custom Asset Advisor application

-Global Plant View application

-Thingworx Manufacturing Apps Technical Lab with Sigma Tile (Raspberry Pi application)

-Configuring the Apps with demo data set and simulator

-Additional Advanced Documentation

E. Get help / give feedback / interact

Use the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Community page as a resource to find documentation, peruse past forum threads, or post a question to start a discussion! For advanced troubleshooting, licensed users are encouraged to submit support tickets to the PTC My eSupport portal.

[rvuta1]

Hi Steven Marchessault

Thanks for this information.

If we are going with second option of downloads ,that is 30 days development kit trial

Can we install this in a machine,where we already installed thingworx 8?Does it creates any problem to licensed Thingworx installation?

Regards,

Raji.

[stmarchessault]

Greetings Raji,

I can see Varathan assisted with answering your question in this post, here:

Can I install Manufacturing apps trial version in existing Thingworx 8 server machine

If his reply answers this question for you, please take a moment to mark the reply as the "Correct Answer." If a different method was used, could you share some insight into that method? Or, if your original question is still unresolved, let us know and we can continue troubleshooting. This feedback is a key step toward ensuring Community users with a similar issue are able to locate the information they need.

Thank you for your time and interest in learning more about the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps!

Best regards,

Steven M

[rad1]

I have Windows 10 1709 and when I tried installing ThingWorx-Manufacturing-Apps-8.1.1-00-DevKit.exe I got this error.

Can you relax OS requirements or let me know how to pass this point.  There is no reason it should be prohibited from running. I already run Thingworx on another Windows 10 machine.

[abhkumar]

Greetings Rad,

ThingWorx-Manufacturing-Apps DevKit is only licensed for 30 days to get the preview on ThingWorx Manufacturing-Apps and Composer. ThingWorx-Manufacturing-Apps DevKit can only installed on supported platforms. Windows 10 is not a supported platform for ThingWorx-Manufacturing-Apps DevKit. I am sorry, we can not relax OS requirements. Please install ThingWorx-Manufacturing-Apps DevKit on a supported platform. Please find link to ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Setup and Configuration Guide for Freemium

Best Regards,

Abhishek

[vranganathan]

Dev-Kit is only for trial. If you are using it for development of apps, you are likely to have the full license. With that 30 days license limit doesn't apply.

Similarly, dev-kit is intended for someone to try quickly. If you are using other OS or Database, you can install Thingworx Platform and add manufacturing extensions to it. In practice we support what platform supports. Only limitation is you cannot use the manufacturing apps installer.

Thanks,

Varathan

[vranganathan]

Rad,

The installer installs Postgres Database, Servlet Engine and extensions.  Postgres and Servlet engines (and their specific versions) have their own requirements. We need to use the common denominator to get the install work.

You can overcome the limitation by installing the Thingworx Platform on the supported platform and adding Manufacturing apps as extensions.

Thanks.

Varathan

[asemle]

Rad,

I'm a Solutions Manager for the apps. I apologize for this, and we're working on it. Windows 10 is not officially supported by the ThingWorx Platform, which means it doesn't go through the same amount of QA testing. That said, it's Java based and does work on Windows 10 and Windows 7. We just ran short on time in the 8.1 release and had to exclude this. In general we see the apps installed on Windows Server in production, but I completely understand the need to install on Desktop versions while trying it out.

We're planning on adding support in 8.2 which is a few months away. In the meantime if you need this working sooner, please reach out to me (asemle@ptc.com) and we'll get you up and going.

We appreciate you sending in this feedback.

[rad1]

@Varathan Ranganathan

I did install Thingworx 8.1.1 with SQL Server 2017 on Windows 10 and it is working fine.

My problem is that I don't have access to Thingworx-ManufacturingApps-8.1.0 extension to install it

on my TW instance. My company has only TX license.

I would like to see what is the level of customization for Mashups and Masters.

As a new developer I don't have much examples of how to compose a good GUI for Assets/Devices.

I dodn't necesserely have a factory/plant, but I like how the UI looks like.

I wanted to check how a develper can customize asset viewer application like in this example:

https://community.thingworx.com/external-link.jspa?url=https://learningexchange.ptc.com/tutorial/5651/workshop-for-developers-2-custom-asset-viewer-application and for that I need to successfully run

Thingworx Manufacturing Apps extension. But if I understand well If I don't have an enterprise license,

I cannot modify and even cannot see mashups.

So with freemium (Express or Dev) packages it is not allowed to see/modify mashups so I cannot

try customizing asset viewer as explained in above link.

Guys we need to have examples of well designed GUIs and finally with these Manufacturing Apps we have something decent.

I am only 2 months into Thingworx and I should soon start delivering some POC masters and mashups and I don't have

good real examples of bundling an app will all artifacts to deploy like Manufacturing Apps can do.

Let me know if I can make this working in Edit/View mode on Windows 10.

[rad1]

@Aron

Yes, I would like to be a beta tester for Windows 10 installation. You can provide one with that specific label so developers will know it is not thoroughly tested. It is not easy to find another server (machine) where I work.

See my answer to @Varathan Ranganathan

I am not happy as a beginner developer due to the lack of good reference applications with a modern GUI design.
One has to go over many obstracles before he can try something out. I know you need to protect your Intelectual Property,

but how do you help your developers.

Thingworx need to provide some nice reference apps like Manufacturing Apps:

Asset, Controls and Production advisor apps.

There is also a product called: ThingWorx Asset Advisor for Service Solution.

What is that? Is this a licensed product? How to install it or try it?

I installed Utilities and I cannot even see mashups that come with it.

How are we suppose to learn how to make good GUI interfaces.

And BTW you link to Connected Field Service stays on https://www.ptc.com/en/products/service-lifecycle-management/thingworx-asset-advisor page. Is this an error?

I would be available for a Webex session to resolve this issue.

Thanks,

Rad

[asemle]

Rad,

Asset Advisor for Service is for "Smart Connected Products". PTC customers that design and build products use this app to connect to those products in the field. This is a fairly new offering.

Asset Advisor for Manufacturing is for "Smart Connected Operations". This is for factory owners to monitor their machines/processes internally. We price and package these two offerings differently.

I'll send you an email and we can sync up. We'll get you going.

[vranganathan]

Thanks for your input. I see Aron already responded regarding the access. I would also encourage you to take a look at the Learn section of the Portal where you can download some of our sample extensions ( I do recognize this has dependency on Manufacturing apps).

As part of our enablement initiative, we are doing weekly webinars. You can sign up for that as well. If you are looking for any specific topic, let us know, we should able to cover that in the future.

[rad1]

Varathan,

Where is a signup page for webinars?

I would like to see a webinar on adding a new Menu item on the left (below Performance,

Monitored Properties adn Additional properties) in Asset advisor and addign a new page/mashup

One cannot learn much by only following this:

Tutorial: Workshop for Developers 2: Custom Asset Viewer Application

Also how to add new tiles in FactoryConsole and to create a whole app like asset advisor?

I would suggest creating a webinar devoted to understanding existing Manufacturing apps and ways to create your own (like I explained above):

-Explain from GUI development stand of point how are exiting Apps Layout and mashup built and how data bindings work and how to see what you are getting back in data sources, I mean how to services are build and tested and how  return values are defined in the best way that can be bound to available built-in controls and what is that that Manufacturing apps builds/adds to controls toolbox?

Rad

[azadoorian]

Hi Rad,

Regarding where to sign up for the Mfg App webinars, once you login into the ThingWorx Manufacturing App portal ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps | PTC , the webinar registration link is in the banner on the top of the page. You can view the previously held Mfg App webinars here in this community site:

ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Tips & Tricks November 17, 2017 (MP4)

ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Tips & Tricks - 10Nov2017

Regarding the rest of your questions, we will reach out personally to you with information.

Andrea