Supporting multiple instances of CATIA in WGM

[spetras]

Automotive OEMs specify exactly which CATIA-Version we have to use.
These CATIA-Versions differ from OEM to OEM. (e.g. R24-SP03-HF88 vs. R26-SP03-HF42 vs. R26-SP05-HF24)
From Windchil 10.2 M030 the WGM checks for exact version match of CATIA integration (down to hotfix-level).
Windchill also supports only one instance of CATIA on one client.
Taking the "supportet way" would lead us to to different clients for each of our customer!
As mentioned in #CS131209 we want to place this highly recommended feature-wish as an "idea" 

[mschulze]

I had a simular problem with NX. Due to this limitation (autoregistration, which im most cases is good) it was not possible to use a second / manually defined startup command to create a paralell installed TEST-CAD-Worker on the same maschine as the PROD-CAD-Worker.

I would also prefer to optionally continue to use the old feature of manually register individual startup commands.

[schulzo]

We are also affected by this problem. We have currently 13 different CATIA and 2 NX environments in use. These are currently installed on the CAD workstation because the designer has to jump between the environments several times a day. An import or export is currently not possible. Therefore we support this idea 100%.

[Ruediger_Scholz]

Dear all,

working with automotive suppliers, this requirement is common for me and the usual solution for it is to integrate the wgm into one of the many startup tools that are available, e.g MyPLM from Transcat, CENITFlex from CENIT or even homegrown solutions. This way it is also ensured that the correct version of CATIA V5 is used and the wgm has the correct abstraction dlls. For sure, one have to create the abstraction libraries (dlls) for each ServicePack and HotFix combination in use, but this is due to the fact that there are also fixes to the API in some SPs and HFs.

Furthermore the CATIA V5 wgm also supports storing the environment used to create the CAD data in Windchill, so one can make sure that CAD data is only changed in the environment in which it ws created. This setup is described in the reference documentation.

Feel free to contact me (via pn) if you would like to discuss this topic further.

Kind Regards,

Ruediger

[YodaKim]

Changes were made in Windchill 12.0.0.0. See the Windchill Help Topic, "Runtime CATIA Environment Check", to see information about running Windchill Workgroup Manager for CATIA V5 with CATIA service pack version mismatch with CATIA abstraction library built on different CATIA service pack version.