I'm wondering about a couple things regarding the Windchill database that PTC is hosting for us. First, I notice that under the full list of projects, I can only see my own. That's great, and expected. But it looks like I can't create separate projects to represent my team's projects—instead, a project seems to represent an entire team. Is this just a workaround to avoid PTC having to administer several separate instances of Windchill for the FRC? Given this, does that also mean that part numbers are not unique to a team (i.e. project), but are instead global to the FRC instance of Windchill? (Also, is it correct to assume that Windchill part numbers are just sequential and non-significant, and not assignable directly? I'm just curious.) On the other hand, doesn't this provide a convenient place to add a globally-readable project containing commonly-used FRC parts, that can be shared between teams? (Files might have to be read only, except to their creators.) The FRC KOP CAD models could also be placed there. (Will Windchill or Pro/E have any associativity problems if using files between projects?) Also, since PTC is hosting the server, and teams may be depending on it to store data that is critical and/or confidential, what sort of uptime, backup and data-protection strategies are in place? Although I have no particular reason to distrust anyone, I have to assume that administrators can override file permissions (even when set to deny). Can we be assured that data won't be accessed without good cause, as a matter of principle? Regarding the uptime needs, in order to be able to trust the system, we need to be sure that PTC will ensure continual access for a defined period of time. What is that period, and is it at the very least, until the end of the 2009 FRC season? If the service is being suspended or terminated for any reason, you've got to advise the teams in advance, and let them get their data out. In case of (PTC's) system failure, is PTC maintaining backups that can be restored, or distributed to teams? Or is there a convenient way for teams to make regular backups themselves? While this seems like a lot to ask for a donated service, teams need to be able to depend on their data management provider. Otherwise, teams might as well host their data themselves (e.g. with Subversion, Autodesk Vault, etc.). I figure that the best reason to choose Windchill would be the added value of all of these things.
