Add to workspace collector for Inheritance models (Try #3)

[JoshuaHouser]

It's been 8 years and Windchill still doesn't make it easy to collect models related by merge/inheritance.

Below includes additional detail as well as the other "Ideas" that are now archived.

1. Describe your environment: What is your industry? What is your role in your organization? Describe your stakeholders.

Sr. Business Analyst at a global energy equipment supplier. Stakeholders include MANY engineers working on complex designs in office locations across the globe.

2. What version of Windchill are you currently running?
windchill pdmlink 11.2.1.0

3. Describe the problem you are trying to solve. Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video.

Add ability to collect models based in Creo Merge/Inheritance references.  Collector should be able to collect "parent" or "child" models created by the Creo "Merge/Inheritance" functionality.

4. What is the use case for your organization?
Inheritance/merge functionality is to development of many different operations including casting, molding, simulation, variable design, etc., etc. Oftentimes, a change in a parent also includes a change in all children, or would at least need validation that a change in a parent model does not impact the child model.

5. What business value would your suggestion represent for your organization?
A proper collector option would enable users to identify impacted documents and quickly navigate to and/or include objects in a local workspace requiring attention. This is a time saver as well as having the potential to reduce errors.

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Add to workspace collector for Inheritance models 

 Status: Archived Submitted by JoshuaHouser   on ‎10-16-2019 12:21 PM 

3 Comments (0 New)

Add ability to collect models based in Creo Inheritance references. Collector should be able to collect "parent" or child models created by the Creo "Merge/Inheritance" functionality.

Functionality should include "Revise" collector idea..."REVISE-Collector enhancement..."

REVISE - Collector enhancement to include Inherited models

 Status: Archived Submitted by fklink   on ‎05-15-2014 03:14 AM 

5 Comments (0 New)

When revising a CAD Doc, the collector should allow to include the inherited models (as a format comes with a drawing).

9 times on 10, the inherited model must be updated at the same time as the "master". If you don't go to the Related Objects tab and brows to the Referenced By section, you never know you're forgetting something very important.

[JoshuaHouser]

Add ability to collect models based in Creo Inheritance references. Collector should be able to collect "parent" or child models created by the Creo "Merge/Inheritance" functionality.

Functionality should include "Revise" collector idea..."REVISE-Collector enhancement..."

[JoshuaHouser]

When revising a CAD Doc, the collector should allow to include the inherited models (as a format comes with a drawing).

9 times on 10, the inherited model must be updated at the same time as the "master". If you don't go to the Related Objects tab and brows to the Referenced By section, you never know you're forgetting something very important.

[olivierlp]

Hello,
Thank you for your idea and the information provided.

[JenniferPierron]

Hello Joshua.

I understand your problem statement and agree there is no functionality as you describe it out of the box.

I just want to make sure you understand a couple of workarounds:

1.  If the file name is similar, there is a collector control that you can enable to collect any object (CAD or Part) with a "similar" name.   

2. In 12.0, we started to support collector customization where you could implement your own collection button that would not be overwritten as up upgrade/update Windchill.

For the collector customization, I now recommend you read this section in the help center:

Collecting Configurable Links (ptc.com)

For #1:

The collector definition is: "SIMILARLY_NAMED"

The configuration of the Include By Name button is defined in:
  · File: NamingConventionAttributes.xml
  · Located: %WT_HOME%\com\ptc\core\collectionsrv

There is an out of the box example there.

For #2: 

You could copy the definition for "COLLECT_CONFIG_REFEFERENCE_LINK_PARENTS"  and try to  modify it to use the EPMReferenceLink instead of the configurable reference link and it should be rather simple to change the soft-type of the role A and role B objects.

Thanks

Jennifer

[JoshuaHouser]

Thank you for the feedback @JenniferPierron. While not the response I was hoping for, it is refreshing to have a helpful response from PTC so quickly.

1.  If the file name is similar, there is a collector control that you can enable to collect any object (CAD or Part) with a "similar" name.

  Response: This does not meet our normal criteria for naming conventions.

2. In 12.0, we started to support collector customization where you could implement your own collection button that would not be overwritten as up upgrade/update Windchill.

  Response: This is a potential work-around. I am a little concerned about unintended consequences and how they may impact other      configurations/customizations we already have implemented.