IFX and Windchill

[MB_10701140]

Hi,

We have a new installation of Creo and Windchill., and I am setting up the system before rolling it out to our users. I want to be able to use IFX in a multi-user collaborative environment where everyone uses the same setup, thus having the same options. I also want to store the data in Windchill..

I have configured IFX to use catalogs of the fasteners we want to use, and I have created the dat and prt files to accompany this. The dat files contain all the instances that we need, and also adds specific parameters to the files on creation of the prt instance. All of this works perfectly when in a stand alone environment on my PC. (Thanks to Oliver of B&W for his help on this)

The problem occurs when I try and enable the 'Windchill' options in the IFX options. I have uploaded the catalogs and data files to Windchill, and pointed the options to these folders:

When I start IFX, it creates the folder ‘PATH_ABS_WINDCHILL_DOWNLOAD’ and populates the sub-folders correctly with the catalog files and the .dat files. However, none of the .gif, or .prt are downloaded, and so IFX cannot find the prt seed file in order to create the fastener:

If I manually copy the seed prt files in to the download location, everything works fine. I conclude therefore that for some reason IFX is not downloading the whole contents of ifx_fastener_data from Windchill to the download location, only the dat files.

Questions:

1) Is the above the expected behaviour?

2) How do I get IFX and/or Windchill to use/find the correct seed part files?

3) What is the preferred way to distribute the settings to all users, and how do I stop users changing the settings (e.g. is there something similar to the config.sup that's used for the main settings)?

4) Should I forget about using IFX with Windchill and store the ifx_catalog and ifx_fastener_data folders on a network share? I can put all the instances in Windchill of course.

5) Are there any other tips?

Thanks in advance.

We are using Creo Parametric 10.0.4.0 and IFX release 10.0.4.0-rc.1

[OliverGräbner · Accepted solution]

Hi,

here are the answers to your questions:

1) Is the above the expected behaviour?

Yes, this is expected behaviout. 

You only can download the *.txt and *.dat files from Windchill.

The images must already exist in PATH_ABS_WINCHILL_DOWNLOAD

The *.prt files should be removed to ensure that only existing parts (already uploaded) are used and IFX cannot create a new fastener on the fly.

If you use the PATH_ABS_WINCHILL_DOWNLOAD approach, you should use the IFX-Instance Creator and upload all your fastener instance prt to Windchill. 

2) How do I get IFX and/or Windchill to use/find the correct seed part files?

If the fastener instances from your *.dat file are uploaded to Windchill, then IFX can reuse the existing parts.

3) What is the preferred way to distribute the settings to all users, and how do I stop users changing the settings (e.g. is there something similar to the config.sup that's used for the main settings)?

If you use the environment variable 'IFX_USER_CONFIG_PATH' then you can point to configuration folder where the users do not have access to.

Inside your configuration you can use the PATH_ABS_WINDCHILL_DOWNLOAD to ensure that all users use the same fastener library.

4) Should I forget about using IFX with Windchill and store the ifx_catalog and ifx_fastener_data folders on a network share? I can put all the instances in Windchill of course.

This is also a good alternative. It might be a little bit easier to change those library instead of updating the files in Windchill.

But this is up to you how you prefere it.

[MB_10701140]

Thanks Oliver. It has finally clicked with me - IFX first looks in Windchill for the fastener instance name that is in the dat file, and if it can't find it then looks for the seed part to create the instance. Therefore, if all the instances have been created then my problem goes away.

[OliverGräbner]

that sums it up exactly.

You should not store a template *.prt file in your PATH_ABS_WINDCHILL_DOWNLOAD/ifx_fastener_data folder to make sure the file already exist.

Otherwise a new part might be created on the fly.