Work instruction not starting

Question

Hey,

I'm new to Thingworx and I was studding on how to use the CWC extension and got a problem and few questions about it.

Firstly the problem,

1. I'm trying to execute a work instruction created on CWC, I’ve done all steps and when I’m trying to start the work instruction from the execution tab, I’m getting the error "Serial number already started on another station of the same work cell".

I'm the only one using the system and never started any work order.

2. Also when selecting the work station on the plant I’ve created based on the explanation on how to fill the spreadsheet, it show an error that "equipment 'bottling machine 1' is currently in use by .".

Any ideas on where's the problem?

Then to the questions,

1. I've seen on another post here that I need to configure ProductionEventQuantity and WasteEventQuantity values to a work station, there is any way to see that on the UI? All I see on the equipment tree (Configuration: Equipment page) is name, Equipment Type and parent name. There is a way to see more information on the UI?

2. I did a typo when importing from the spreadsheet on equipment type at work center display name and couldn't fix it. It's bugging me, there is a way to fix it? (tried re-import the spreadsheet, change the EquipmentTypeSettings table on the thing PTC.FSU.CORE.GlobalConfiguration.GlobalConfiguration_TG and it didn't change).

3. There's is a few thing that i couldn't find the delete button to do so. When I try to select the work station on the execution page even the disabled ones shows up, and i didn't find a way to delete anything on the equipment tree (Configuration: Equipment page), there's a way to delete something here?

4. If I need to remove the CWC extension from Thingworx can I do it without a clean reinstall?

And when I was installing the CWC I typed the DB from Thingworx (which is wrong I need to create one just for it, I know), do i need to reinstall the Thingworx just to retry to install CWC again? When I tried to redo it detects the older installation but didn't went trough (got an error that i solved by reinstalling the whole thing).

5. My main goal is to create a work instruction to show some of Thingworx capabilities on a product that we are developing here, mainly I'm going to use a Raspberry Pi to get some sensor information and send it to Thingworx (that bit is covered from others documentations and discussions), but I also need to control some guiding lights based on the actual step of the work instruction. So my uncertainty is can I create service or something that goes by the actual step and then send a signal to the raspberry and then control what need to be controlled? Similar to what can be done on Vuforia Studio (write a script that get the actual step and then do something). Or maybe there's a better way to do so?

I've seen an old PTC presentation called X-Factory, something similar to that should fit perfectly on what I'm aiming for. There's anything on that project besides the showcase videos?

A few details about the environment where I'm working on, that I think can have some impact on something:

I'm connecting and creating using the default Administrator login.

I've installed only CWC (trough CWC Clean Installer) and foundation.

I don't usually post here, so I don't know if I should make separated posts for the questions and one for the problem.

mstarnaud · Accepted Answer

Hi VR

#1 Can't start execution of serial number. The error message specifically mentions "of the same workcell", so this leads me to a big suspect. I think what happened is you have multiple WorkcellStations under the same Workcell, you started executing the serial number under WorkcellStation #1, you left the execution (like putting it on pause or just going back to the menu), and then you selected the WorkcellStation #2 and tried to start that same serial number. This is not allowed : if you start a work instruction on a WorkcellStation, we have to finish it on the same one.

#2 : Can't select a station. There's a screen in the menu called Station Dashboard, can you check what it says for this machine in the username/last column? And for the machines that you connected on, can you confirm if it shows your username on them? I've never seen this message giving an empty name before, so I'm assuming either it didn't save your username correctly on the machines or somehow it left the "bad" machine with a broken value.

Q1 : production & waste quantity. Correct, you need those 2 otherwise you won't be able to finish the execution of your work instructions. Here is what the configuration screen looks like, this example is complete :

Also note you need to select a Subtype in the Advanced Settings tab. If you need more information on this, Here is the documentation link, look at the "Stations" section under the big pyramid image.

Q2 : Fix equipment type displayname. I've never seen this issue before, but you're right, there's no screen to modify this. Here's a query that you can run in SQL :

UPDATE equipmenttype SET displayname = 'NEW_DISPLAYNAME_HERE' WHERE displayname = 'OLD_DISPLAYNAME_HERE'

To my knowledge, this should change the way it appears in the screens and not break anything. But I never tried this before, so I can't offer a guarantee it will be 100% safe, if it breaks something we can change it back.

Q3 : Deleting disabled equipments. Deleting equipments can't be done, we can only disable. I checked and it's true that in the Execution Station Selection screen, it allows choosing disabled equipments. I think this is a bug in the software, I raised a request for the software team to fix it (PSPT-78160). But often what happens in this screen is at the beginning of their shift the users select their few machines using the popup, and then they will be in their drop-down as long as they don't get removed from it, so the users only keep their few machines in the dropdown.

Q4 : Re-installation issues. I asked our installation expert and the answer was that clean re-installs are much easier. It should be possible to do what you're asking without re-starting from 0, but it would be pretty complicated. If you really want to try it, you should open an actual ticket for this.

Q5 : Connecting with other systems. There's 2 pieces that I think you should really look into. The first one is called Smart Tools. Smart Tools are essentially a series of tags and we can have steps of type Smart tool. The tags can be read, write, or read-write. In a Smart tool step, we define a list of tags to read or write and the order. So for example you can have a step that reads a "Ready?" tag and then write to a "Execute" tag, which would trigger something in your other system, and then you could add a 3rd tag to return a result. This is just an example, you can specify the actions you want. First you need to configure the smart tool (tags) in the Configuration -> Smart Tool screen, then in the Authoring screen you can create steps of type smart tool, finally in the Routing screen you will have to associate the step with the specific smart tool. The second stuff to look at is the endpoint, see documentation here. So with the endpoint system, you can call a Thingworx service in specific situations, mostly when finishing a step or serial number or job order, and the service receives corresponding parameters (serial number, job order, etc.). The goal of this service is that it can then transfer this information to any system you want. So one idea is that the service could check if you're in the correct situation (like completing step X on machine Y) and then the service could reach to something on your Raspberry or Vuforia.

Posting multiple questions isn't ideal but don't worry about it. Ideally we would separate them in smaller groups, so in the future when we want information on issue X we can direct to a specific post and not have to say "this post, and then in the 2nd reply go to question #4".

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