Number of decimals displayed for real type attribute in Windchill PDMLink

[Pekholm]

We need a way to control maximum number of decimal values for real type attributes in Windchill. When real type values are published from Creo, they have14 decimals, which is confusing and mess up the UI.

I propose that you should be able to set a limitation of maximum decimals in the type-manager per real number attribute.

[BjoernRueegg]

‌that's something which should actualy be a basic feature. I've tried to implement some datautility,  but it's not that easy to show the value on all layout's and tables.

[Pekholm]

Hi Björn

I agree. The users think is a bugg. Hard to explain that is "working to spec". Even harder to explain that we  need to customize to get the system readable. Hope PTC will implement a solution asap.

[nmiller]

As you say. Not a "Product Idea". It's a bug!

[SvenR]

Even in my old TI calculator I can set

* Engineering Notation

* Scientific Notation

* 'normal'.

I would suggest a preferences item that allows us to set this to one of those settings.

[OliverDroop]

Obviously a common requirement after working with Windchill and choosing data model which suits the digital twin.

[magnus.salomons]

What did the PTCModerator acknowledge? Has there been any updates to this request or when can we expect it to be implemented?

[BjoernRueegg]

Sometimes it's hard for user to understand why such an "easy" features takes yeeears until it's been realized. I understand that it takes more than just two lines of code but this would make some user really happy.

A solution could look like, that in the type and attribute manager a new constraint for the formatting is being created. Like in Excel to show also some separator: #'##0.00

or

0.0000 for four digits after

@magnus.salomons : this is only an indication that PTC has this idea on their monitor. Perhaps the idea is being realized in the next release, or not...

[G_U]

HI, 

PTC should consider this it should be basic features.

[MMoraes]

I don´t know what is the complexity to implement this option. It´s simple and extremely necessary. It´s not a Product Idea. it´s a bug !!

[BjoernRueegg]

@PTCModerator can you please forward this idea to a PTC Windchill product manager. This basic idea or bug is already 5 years old and nothing happened. Thanks

[G_U]

Hi, Can anyone tell me how to highlight this to WIndchill product manager.

[BenLoosli]

A couple of things to consider.

Windchill Product management has been notified as indicated by the acknowledgement.

Does this change bring in new sales of Windchill? That is a driving factor in getting items like this 'fixed'.

There should be an easy fix by applying a mask field to an attribute of type real and then using that for the display. BUT, do you store the full  14 character length in the database and display only the masked values or do you store the value after it has been shortened to match the mask.

[TomU]

---

@BenLoosli  wrote:

Does this change bring in new sales of Windchill?

---

That is the real driver.  Unfortunately the number of votes an idea receives means very, very little.  There are thousands of product ideas and almost none of them ever get implemented or even commented on by product management.  If a product idea doesn't align with an upcoming release's 'theme' or 'new functionality', it's probably not going to happen.

The best chance of getting something like this changed is through face to face conversations with the appropriate product manager.  Hopefully those face to face opportunities will return at future LiveWorx and PTC/USER events.

[BjoernRueegg]

It will for sure not drive up the sales for PTC, but sometimes the end-user also needs to get a little extra. It's not always catching new fishes, sometimes you also need to listen to the community. Otherwise the system will get so many negative comments... I do like Windchill a lot, I think it's one of the best system out there, but for a SME customer it's really hard to understand, that some "basic/bug" features are not touched even if many other companies have the same request.

I do not have a problem to write some code for a custom data utility, but it is still a customization. I think the development would take no more than two days for PTC (Except testing). But then at least 95 customer would get a small extra in the next version and are happy that PTC is listening to their community.

Otherwise we can stop creating new ideas when PTC is not listening. My thoughts...

[pkgna]

This is a real requirement in classification when we enable auto naming. We would like the user to use exact prcision while inputing the data

[uai]

5 years.... and going

[jschramm]

It's mind-boggling that such a basic function has not been implemented for over 5 years. 😩

[BenLoosli]

I have been using Windchill/PDMLink since it was first released at Windchill 6.2.6 in December 2003. The display has always been the full 14 character value. The 'bug' has been there for 18 years. Only this request for a change has been 5+ years.

Like I said earlier, unless it drives sales (income to PTC) there is little incentive to change the way a value is displayed in the UI.

[TomU]

Need to figure out how to tie this in with some upcoming "release theme".  Ideas like this are at the mercy of product management and their desire or willingness to fight for them during the development funding cycle.  Unfortunately only a very small fraction of community ideas ever make it to production.  Even though they improve the end user experience, they don't sell more seats or contribute to 'the next big thing'.

[ailli]

It cannot be true that such a basic function is not available in PTC.

It should be possible to specify a constraint in the type and attribute manager. 

Preferably with the desired formatting. 

Our customers, who for example had not rounded the mass in Creo, have no way to format the values without customizing and duplicate attributes (mass and mass_rounded).

[RobertH]

6 years and counting..

(have to post anything otherwise it will be closed for not being an active topic...)

[G_U]

Yes, 

We are waiting for these features for a long time commenting again to get them implemented.

also, I have contacted PTC earlier they told me please open this as a product idea.

[RuedigerScholz]

Good to see still some discussion on this. One thing which makes this tricky (at  least for me) is handling different units. For example: if attribute formatting set to 2 decimals, for users using mm attribute would show up as 25.00 mm. Same value for users who want to have length values in inches, this would be displayed as 0.98in (instead of 0.984252 inches). So someone might think that conversion between units might be wrong.

Should there be an indicator that this value is rounded by a specific set of decimals?

Regards,

Ruediger

[RobertH]

My first thought is that it's again a good reason to get rid of the imperial system but that would be to childish 🙂

As we don't use the imperial system I'm not familiar with it. They who do use it, how do you do this in Creo? In my opinion it would only be a problem if you use both systems, you probably have a solution for this already. I can also imagine that this is not really a problem at all because for me it sounds unlogical to put imperial and metric values into the same attribute.

I would prefer to have at least a possibility to set the number of decimals, then for most attributes (like weight for example) this would be fine.  Best solution would be the ability to put more intelligence in it so you can set a rule that does set a certain number of decimals for metric but not for imperial. Most important is that the attribute is stored without a reduction in decimals but only the display on the layout would be display rounded, on this way there is never data lost.