“Update Worker" for data managed in Windchill (e.g. Solidworks 2014 -> 2015)?

[sprosser]

As Solidworks needs to convert files to the new file format after a major version upgrade to ensure performance and stability we thought about the need to have an “Update Worker” to convert at least the catalog parts to a new Solidworks version.

We thought about a queued processing with multiple workers just bringing up the files in Solidworks, save to UWGM Workspace and check-in with admin permissions including a comment that there should be no change to the geometry.

Has anybody done something similar already?

How to ensure to touch a file only once if it is used in multiple assemblies and added to the queue as a standalone part as well?

Any help would be appreciated,

Stephan

[BineshKumar1]

Hello Stephan,

I can't think of any out of the box way to do it. The OOTB SW CAD worker just opens the file, translate it to different format and upload  the derived objects to Windchill. It will not modify or save the original SW file. So this is not an option.

A possible solution is to build a custom application using WGM Tool Kit. You can provide the list of files to be checked out and checked  in as an input to the application. https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS112406

Regards

Binesh Kumar

[LoriSood]

HI Stephen,

As Binesh Kumar‌ says, there is no way to do this out of the box and would require some sort of custom application or batch utility to go in, retrieve/save and check in all the files back to Windchill.

PTC Global Services or other consulting firms may have something ready-made that may help in this requirement. It could be worth checking with them.

[rnoah]

Stephen,

We have built such an app for one of our customers.

it wasn't such a fun ...

however, today the migration are easier for them.

i think this should be pushed to PTC to be OOTB functionality.

Besides, another option  to support this will be support of solidworks "task scheduler".

[sprosser]

Hi Rami,

Can you elaborate a little bit on what you did for your customer?

From my perspective there are two challenges...

1. Identify and queue the objects that need to be updated.

You need to make sure not to process objects multiple times. Also packing the objects in junks and submit these junks over the weekend to a set of workers sounds reasonable.

2. Having a Worker that automatically add to Workspace, open, (probably regenerate) and save objects to Workspace. After that a check-in to Windchill with admin permissions would be fine for us if it includes a check-in Comment stating that the check-in was done by a robot. Others might want to initiate a mass change...or individual change requests....

Supporting the Task Scheduler would partially solve challenge 2, but not the whole thing. The Windchill Visualization Service might be the right tool to take care of challenge 1 ....so we just need some minor peace’s that are missing.

Thanks, Stephan