Hotlinks to the latest version of an object

mrößner · ‎02-13-2017

Our shop-floor workers use the Hotlink functionality as an shortcut to the drawings they need. So far so good. The problem is that the Hotlink points exactly to the object-version it was created with. When there is a newer version of the drawing, the Hotlink is connected with the older one and does not point to the latest version. Of course the details page gives the info that there is a newer version availabe but it can be overlooked easily. It would be great to have the chance to choise if the Hotlink should point always to the latest version or to the version it was created with. An other great thing would be if there is a possibility to export and import Hotlinks or to create a group/selection of Hotlinks for a group of workers.

mlockwood-2 · ‎02-13-2017

Two comments:

A) There is the possibility of a relatively simple customization in which a JavaScript routine intercepts the request from the hotlink, looks up the latest version and substitutes it. We in fact had this in place for some time at Alcon. Preeti Gupta (I'm sure she'll see this) put this in place and may be able to provide the how-to.

B) If instead of using hot links, you configure a query builder report to be run, and set the report to get latest (separately Revision and Iteration), then this avoids any customization and is a very elegant way to handle. You can run the report, then get the URL of the executed report and use that as the link given to users. Can run from inside Word, or Excel or pretty much anywhere else. I set this up many times.

lscheeler · ‎12-13-2017

@mlockwood-2, Are you saying that using the query builder report in MS Office you can How do you specify to get the latest version (the latest iteration within the latest version)? If so can you please let us know how to specify that in PDMLink/Windchill? Maybe with an example? Thanks, Lawrence

lscheeler · ‎12-13-2017

@mlockwood-2, And just to be clear, is this a way to get the latest iteration within a revision (which is not necessarily the latest version), or the latest iteration within the latest revision (truely the latest Version)?

mlockwood-2 · ‎12-13-2017

I believe it was to the latest version, not the latest iteration of a specific Revision. I actually don't know how to do this - have to contact Preeti. It seems to be a relatively common thing to do and others may also know how.

lscheeler · ‎12-14-2017

@@PreetiGupt's customization would be very near ideal, if she posted how she did it.

However you mentioned that you set up the Query builder many times, and that is the one I was referring to in my previous questions. After playing around with the tool, what we figured out so far is that we can create a link to a query builder search that is set to display the latest version of an object with a particular file name. So we could give a link to that search engine and they would then have to fill out what they are searching and then generate the list and then open the resulting objects. If I understand that correctly, it certainly helps insure the latest objects are used, but it still contains a lot of steps. Do you know of a way to reduce the number of steps to get these in open in CreoView?

Thanks, Lawrence

munruh · ‎04-24-2018

I also have setup something that does what you are asking. I created a query builder report that has as its output a list of all the iterations and revisions of a certain document type. Using the link below, I was able to have the report results imported directly into Excel.

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS162869

I then created a "configurator" style spreadsheet that allows the user to drill down BOM. You can make your front-end look and work however you need in Excel. This is just what works for us. Engineering, production, customer service, etc. all use this document to find BOM information and access prints quickly and easily.

As each BOM level is created and displayed, I included a cell in the output that looks like a link to a PDF. When the user clicks on the "link", a macro looks at the sheet with all the document information and determines which iteration is the latest. It uses the ID to form the URL. After determining the URL of the latest revision/iteration, the macro opens a browser and points it to the URL that was formed. All the user needs to do is login to Windchill and the document is downloaded or displayed. If the user does not have login information to Windchill, they are unable to access the requested document.

This spreadsheet is updated several times a day in the background by another computer to keep the Windchill and BOM data up-to-date. It is setup to be opened as a read-only file for everybody except the computer and username that keeps it updated.

Matt