Creo 3 Intelligent Fastener Extension - Not in Windchill

[TomU]

Based on an earlier discussion about the behavior of the intelligent fastener extension, I had my doubts about it being compatible with Windchill. Today I did some testing and sure enough, they don't seem to play well together.

The first time you use the new fasteners, the models get saved to your workspace. This isn't a problem, and checking them in isn't a problem, but the next time you attempt to use the same fastener (or family of fasteners), you will get the following dialog:

Apparently the fastener tool is pulling the fastener from Commonspace instead of disk (which seems correct). Unfortunately, since the creation date of the model in Windchill is newer than what the fastener extension is expecting, it thinks you have improperly modified the library part and that's not allowed with the "Lite" version.

I have a case open with Tech Support. We'll see where it goes. At this point I think you simply can't use the new "Lite" version of the Intelligent Fastener Extension with Windchill. Hopefully I'm wrong...

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[TomD.inPDX]

That's the nature of spam... it reveals only the "good" aspects and the "hook" is in the fine print.

[JimBarrettSmith]

IFX Lite should work with windchill. Can you check that windchill has not appended any parameters to the part file during check -in.

When you checked in the library did you follow the procedure as outlined in this video http://learningexchange.ptc.com/tutorial/4154/loading-ptc-creo-intelligent-fastener-library-into-windchill

thanks, Jim

[TomU]

I did not pre-upload the fastener files, but neither did the video for the second fastener. They were able to pull from both disk and Windchill. That part works fine on my system.

I think you might be on to something with parameters being created. ALL cad models in the Windchill system are going to automatically have the Windchill parameters plus any company specific parameters added to them. As far as I know, this is unavoidable. If this makes IFX Lite fail, that is going to be a problem.

[TomU]

Here is the official reply from PTC technical support:

I have reconfirmed that the free version of intelligent fastener extension does not support this functionality. After using fasteners in an assembly and then saving them to Windchill, they can no longer be used again.

This works as per product specification. I tried finding out any workaround on this but wasn’t able to find any.

Summary: Intelligent Fastener Extension Lite (included with Creo 3) is NOT compatible with Windchill.

I wonder what percentage of Creo users use a PDM system...

You would think the people on the Creo side would be talking to the people on the Windchill side when writing the specs.

[TomD.inPDX]

I ran into this with Manikin Lite yesterday. It wouldn't let me save my assembly with the manikin. All I did was place it and the session is the default Creo install.

PTC Spam!

[dschenken]

There used to be some other problem with the free trial as well, like after adding a Manikin you couldn't save the assembly, even if the Manikin was deleted. The assembly had to be erased from memory or some such.

A little like shrink wrapped software with a 'can only be refunded if shrink wrap is in place' written on the inside of the box.

[Patriot_1776]

ALL parts (including library) should be in Commonspace if you are using Windchill, otherwise, like formats, you'll run into out of synch version issues.

[TomU]

As the learning exchange video shows, it is possible to add the fastener models to Windchill in bulk.

Frankly the behavior seems fine regardless of where the fasteners are. If they exist in Commonspace, they are pulled from their first. If not, then they are pulled from disk.

The root problem is that as soon as the Windchill parameters are added to the CAD models, the intelligent fastener extension thinks you have modified the files and won't let you use them anymore. Modifying the supplied fasteners is not allowed with the lite version.

[JimBarrettSmith]

Tom

Based on this conversation I am happy to say that in Creo 3.0 M020 the allowable parameters will be as follows.

"PTC_MODIFIED"

"PTC_ORGANIZATION_ID"

"PTC_WM_VERSION"

"PTC_WM_LOCATION"

"PTC_WM_TEAM"

"PTC_WM_REVISION";

"PTC_WM_PART_NAME";

"PTC_WM_PART_NUMBER";

"PTC_WM_NUMBER";

"PTC_WM_NAME";

"PTC_WM_ORGANIZATION_ID";

"PTC_WM_ITERATION";

"PTC_WM_LIFECYCLE";

"PTC_WM_LIFECYCLE_STATE";

"PTC_WM_IS_DRAWING";

"PTC_WM_PART_REVISION_FOR_DRAWING";

"PTC_WM_PART_STATE_FOR_DRAWING";

"PTC_WM_CREATED_BY";

"PTC_WM_CREATED_ON";

"PTC_WM_MODIFIED_BY";

"PTC_WM_MODIFIED_ON";

"PTC_WM_LAST_CHANGE_NOTE";

"PTC_WM_LIFECYCLE";

"PTC_WM_LIFECYCLE_STATE";

PDMREV

PDMDB

PDMRL

PROI_REVISION

PROI_VERSION

PROI_BRANCH

PROI_RELEASE

PROI_MODIFIED

!MODELCHECK

!----------

MODEL_CHECK

MC_ERRORS

MC_CONFIG

MC_MODE

I hope this improvement will go someway to helping you get the most out of the free version and demonstrate that we do listen to the community.

[TomU]

Excellent! I look forward to testing it.

[TomD.inPDX]

Ditto!

[DHLewis]

Jim,

That is fine if you have an unconfigured Windchill, but we actually have a lot more parameters for our EPMDocuments. Including the most important wich is Part Number. With the current limitations, IFX will not even let me equate these standard parts to an actual part number. Not very helpful.

Also I am looking for the information needed to point the Creo Session to Windchill for the library parts stored. Shouldn't it be tied to the Pro_Library_dir = wtpub://********/Libraries and then have an expected folder structure beyond that. I was unable to find these kinds of details in the KB.

Thanks

[huggre]

As DHLewis points out here, if parameters can not be tailored to your overall Windchill processes the tool is basically useless.

There's no such thing as a free lunch from PTC, right...