Using Windchill as a practical OneStop repository for Creo training curriculum material

[erivas]

Dear PTC Community Members,

I just realized after trying many different options, that what we can perform without any special process with Google Drive or Dropbox by only unzipping the "How to Model Almost Anything.zip" and "How to Develop a Product.zip" one can immediately begin the tutorial sessions using Creo Parametric if not constrained to the Windchill environment or workspace.

Now if I try to incorporate these lessons within WindChill, first I need to grab all the files within these different lessons and consolidate it into a SINGLE folder. After this, I need to upload all these mixed files into the the Windchill workspace tio then follow up with a CheckIn process. As I would expect, as soon as I tried this task errors started popping up left and right. Now if this process would be finally successful, then I would still have lost the context of having the CAD files and the structure of the original zip files just in order to be able to have Creo play nice with Windchill. OUCH, this has been a sad discovery in my part tonight. Is there some Windchill-Creo magic that can overcome what I think to be a considerable limitation to this process I am faced with?

Seems like the easiest and more practical workaround would be to have tutorials accessible through Google Drive or Dropbox and perhaps everything else maybe in Windchill. Please correct me if there are other alternatives.

-Emil

[sm]

Emil,

Please don't think of Windchill as Google Drive or Dropbox. That is not what it is. You can put the ZIP in Windchill, but that will not let you access the content of the ZIP.

If you want to work with the CAD files, you'll need to upload them to Windchill using Creo. CAD files cannot be uploaded as Documents using the HTML interface. You must connect Windchill to Creo with a workspace, open the CAD files into Creo, save them to the workspace and then Check In to a Windchill folder.

You have a good point. All the CAD files could already be in Windchill and I will try to take care of that this weekend. For now, please look at some of the older RoboTalk sessions on Windchill, read some of the Documents and try to get yourself familiar with Windchill before you go too deep.

[erivas]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the feedback. I was looking at Windchill as a potential superset of Cloud based file systems but while trying to migrate existing data from Google Drive I found hree things that are major hurdles to using Windchill as our sole FTC and FRC intelligent data depository.

As I am sure you are aware, we must not forget that FTC and FTC teams are evolving entitities that gain more know knowledge year after year with mixed media and data sets. There might be additional CAD file or assembly that might have originated from GrabCad, Inventor ( and translated to Creo, I can only imagine trying to upload that into Windchill and undefined features and references) or even your excellent tutorials that are mixed media of PDFs and CAD data. Windchill at its present state is not as freeflowing to easily allow for the incorporation of mixed media data in one central zone.

Presently I have run into considerable 3 obstacles within Windchill. Which I believe could still make us highly dependent on Google Drive. My fear is that people's general nature is following the path of least resistance, so if we have on one side Google Drive and on the other Windchill, over time people will start leaning more towards Google Drive. If something is throwing errors when uploading, well just dump it in Google Drive if we can't figure it out.

The three obstacles I have run across....

1) Extreme difficulty in pushing additional CAD training files that are not directly associated with the robot project. Yet this data is instrumental to the team members if they were to become future PTC experts while trying to learn Creo Parametric, yet this CAD data that should be accessible should not intermingle with the real project.

2) I have a laundry list of great Youtube (ProE and Creo tutorials) html shortcuts uploaded into Windchill, but Windchill does not recognize them as html shortcuts.

3) A series of video files that are not recognized as videos, Creo View cannot launch them nor the can the PTC Desktop Application Interface, neither can these direct them to the proper application to launch them. Bottom line is that it is not possible to just click on a file and have the corresponding player automagically launch itself after downloading and playing the file.

I have been reviewing your Robotalk videos extensively and I understand that one cannot upload the CAD files, without using Creo. As this is not possible, I was trying to find a viable way using the Windchill workflow methods to easily upload and reconstruct your Creo tutorials without taking days to achieve this task.

It would be nice if Creo Parametric would have a Creo-Windchill connection in "unrevisioned mode" that would allow it to open files out of regular folders for tuturials etc (like a Dropbox or Google Drive) and even allowing one to set Creo's working directory to one of these folders while still not jeopardizing the revisioned project or its workspace. I tried hard to make that happen but I could not get out of the Windchill workspace sandbox.

It just hit me. Windchill is a PDM in all strict sense of the word! It is not a complete robotic data ecosystem like I was intending to use it as originally. When in Robotalk you mentioned we have our videos and our Google Drive stuff in it, I really went to town, didn't I? Sorry :-(.

Regards,

-Emil

[sm]

PTC has never delivered the training content via Windchill as native CAD files. This is an interesting idea, but would also require all the students to be connected to the internet to perform the training. This is always a challenge for schools and teams and the primary reason its easier to work with local files for the training.

I do like the idea and will start looking into getting the training materials in Windchill. The trick will be to set them up as Read Only since we don't want people to Upload or Check In the files they are working on during training. That is the second big reason its easier to work with local files for the training.

In the mean time, you could easily create new Windchill documents for the curriculum and the CAD files by uploading the PDF and the ZIP. This would give your teams direct access to the files at anytime.

[erivas · Accepted solution]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for considering the option. I really think PTC through its power of comprehensive integration and excellent tutorials along with seasonal Robotalks, is creating an ideal ecosystem for STEM promotion, and Robotics. I think Winchill is VERY close in functionality to being a comprehensive wharehouse for all robotics virtual design necessities. An all-in-one powerful, comprehensive and elegant solution. A place to go to get the job done. An ecosystem ideal for budding future STEM professionals and one we need to make things shake and roll. A cloudy place whose time has come.

[JoshH]

Hey Emil, great comments and questions!

I've been using PTC tools in mentoring FIRST teams for several years now. Scott probably gets tired of hearing from me, so it's great to see another voice out there!

My teams have used and abused Windchill in many ways. I will do my best to chime when I see stuff we've run across. It looks like you have some great ideas that I might be able to use in the future as well! Keep them coming!

Thanks!!

Josh

[erivas]

Thanks for your words of encouragement and your willingness to chime in.

[erivas]

Joshua,

I tried messaging you internally, and I got a message the your mailbox is full. Any chance we could chat a little?

-Emil

[JoshH]

Absolutely Emil,

let me clean out my mailbox a bit