WF 5 no-failure mode...

[DarrinHiebert]

We're rolling out WF 5 today. We had training last week with our user base. One of the things that users were excited about was the no-failure mode. As an admin, I'm not so much excited about it.

We currently have it on, and we'll see how we get along with it, but at this point, I'm a little bit skeptical. My biggest fear is that I do NOT want any production data to have any kind of failure, period. In the past, this was easy enough, because you couldn't continue until you had successfully dealt with the problem. Now, you can circumvent all of that...

Of the companies that migrated to WF 5, what has been your experience with no-fail mode? Have you left it on? Have you turned it off?

[lococnc]

I understand your hesitation. However the power of this feature can not be overstated. It makes dealing with changes SO MUCH MORE effecient that you simply cannot deny access to this ability.
You are better off with rules about finalized data (model check etc.)

[TedOtto]

At the PTC Conference, they said there was a way to not allow objects that weren’t “fixed” to be checked back into Windchill. Users could save and do whatever, but until they fixed the failures they couldn’t upload/check items back in. I’m not sure how or where you do that, but it was possible…assuming you’re using Windchill…

Ted

[ptc-1932745]

I believe that if you use Modelcheck or similar in addition to PDM, you
can make sure that models cannot be checked in that have rolled back or
failed features.

Overall I believe that it is a good thing and will encourage more
thorough design concepts without the fear of being 'slapped down' by the
feature resolve dialogs in the middle of an inspiration.

Now, if failed features would save a 'quilt' example of what the feature
topology looked like before it failed, that would also be very helpful.

[mpeterson]

I do not like it as an experienced user. I am sure I would have liked it when first learning.

One think that came up here was you could have a failed feature/part that is in a group or pattern and the parent group/pattern doesn't high light in red, so not obvious when glancing at the model tree you still have failures.

We are using as is andbeing a small group we leave it up to the users preference.

Mark A. Peterson
Sr Design Engineer
Igloo Product corp
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[hippe]

Instead of turning off the feature, you canset Wildfire 5.0 up to prevent a model from being saved with failures. (Outside of Windchill) Use the allow_save_failed_model config option. The values are yes, no and prompt*.

[vmcdaniel]

We have been using the allow_save.. no option so users cannot save the model. We have 30 users and have been on WF5 for 6 weeks. Users love the No Failure mode, old and new.

PTC why did you not push the failure red highlighting up the tree? i.e. Feature->Group/pattern->Component->Assembly should all be red. Without that it is a PITA to locate features that are burried like example.

In Reply to Doug Hippe:

Instead of turning off the feature, you canset Wildfire 5.0 up to prevent a model from being saved with failures. (Outside of Windchill) Use the allow_save_failed_model config option. The values are yes, no and prompt*.

[DarrinHiebert]

We too are using the allow_save option, but at this point, we've left it at the default, which is just warn. Our users, so far, love the No Failure mode.

In talking about it with my users, the idea of putting everything at the top of the model tree, or automatically highlighting everything in the model tree came up. That definitely seems to be a great solution to the problem. Another user, had the idea of turning the background RED (or whatever color you like), as an indicator that you have a failed model. That's actually not a bad idea either, and then if you didn't want that option, you could turn that off in a config option.

At this point, my users general consensus is that the concept is great, but the implementation is a little lacking, and needs a little refinement...

[HugoHermans]

With the binoculars, you can search for failed features or failed
components. With this in mind, it should be easy to make a rule based
layer containing the failed objects, isn't it?

Met vriendelijke groeten,
Kindest regards,

Hugo Hermans

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[merrill.rosenow]

Can you suppress a failed feature and check it in still?

I have not used this version yet, but am excited about it. Not everybody makes a model robust enough to handle many changes. I believe it will be much easier to work with such models when you can go back and look at the whole model, understand the design intent then try to fix the failure as opposed to being limited to one single feature that you must immediatly resolve.

In Reply to Doug Hippe:

Instead of turning off the feature, you canset Wildfire 5.0 up to prevent a model from being saved with failures. (Outside of Windchill) Use the allow_save_failed_model config option. The values are yes, no and prompt*.

[vmcdaniel]

"Can you suppress a failed feature and check it in still?"

Yep!

In Reply to Merrill Rosenow:

Can you suppress a failed feature and check it in still?

I have not used this version yet, but am excited about it. Not everybody makes a model robust enough to handle many changes. I believe it will be much easier to work with such models when you can go back and look at the whole model, understand the design intent then try to fix the failure as opposed to being limited to one single feature that you must immediatly resolve.

In Reply to Doug Hippe:

Instead of turning off the feature, you canset Wildfire 5.0 up to prevent a model from being saved with failures. (Outside of Windchill) Use the allow_save_failed_model config option. The values are yes, no and prompt*.