View workspace as a structure

phurschler · ‎Aug 13, 2014

It is often difficult to keep track of all the objects in a workspace. Therefore it would be useful if the objects could be shown as a structure. I am thinking of something similar like the view "As a Structure" or "As a Structure with Associated Objects".

scleary · ‎Aug 18, 2014

Yes I agree. I think the default view for the workspace should match the structure of the assemblies/sub assemblies within it and not just a "blob" of parts, sub assemblies and top level assemblies. It is more logical to view assembly structure (ie. as you have created within the creo model) because you can see which parts are present in which assemblies vry easily. This format would also reduce refresh/load time as when the workspace is opened only level1 and 2 are open as default. If more detail is required down the assembly structure then the user can expand the desired sub assembly and so on.

StevenDumon · ‎Sep 23, 2014

I understand your idea, but I think you'll have to specify a solution to some special cases, such as an object visible in two different assemblies. Would you like to have that part shown as two separate lines in your workspace ? We already have workspaces with several thousands of parts, this option could makes things even heavier...

phurschler · ‎Oct 03, 2014

Maybe it could be possible to select which assembly is shown. I am thinking of something similar to the structure browser in the CAD system.

nahamed · ‎Nov 24, 2014

The product designers will be delighted if this feature is provided.

ywyffels · ‎Mar 23, 2015

Creo Elements/Direct Model Manager has a simular functionality. there only last modified and last loaded elements are shown. you can browse down the structure if it's an assmembly. This provides a way of quickly finding the stuff you are working on. And in case you need to modify somthing in the workspace, that is part of a structure, but not yet in the list, you can browse down the structure. every single Model Manager user finds this a great way of working,

phurschler · ‎Jul 17, 2015

@PTC: Are there any plans to implement this in the future? If yes, at which release?

BillRyan · ‎Jul 17, 2015

There are a few other workflows that may be acceptable work arounds. (We have multiple unrelated assemblies in workspaces)

Option 1) Go to the Information page in Windchill browser for assembly of interest. Select "Structure" tab in the Windchill Page to see structure. (In this page, you can see the structure of objects from the workspace or the original structure residing in WC server.)

Option 2) Select Assembly of interest in workspace, Use Remove From Workspace, this table can be viewed as a structure if the collector settings are set to required dependents.

If a solution was applied to the workspace table view, I still think the first step in the process would require a selection of the assemlby of interest prior to viewing the structure.

phurschler · ‎Jul 20, 2015

Thank you for suggesting possible workarounds. Option 2 is new to us.

Both options are possibilities to show the assembly as a structure. However, the problem we are dealing with is, that it is difficult to keep track of all the objects in a workspace. The workspace is just a sequential list of objects. Therefore working with objects can be confusing and cumbersome.

It is possible to search in the workspace table or use the CAD integration for check-in / check-out operations. But it also does not solve the problem.

BillRyan · ‎Jul 28, 2015

We are in WC10.1 M020 and have done extensive time studies for workflows with different workspace views after reading Craig Pater's recommendations. Below are images of the columns in the workspace that provides best performance and sorts the most important information to the top for visibility...IMO. The pictures do not include all the columns...but what is shown is the sorting and of note that compare and out of date status are not included. I'm just taking a wild guess...but maybe the sorting function could help alleviate your issue?

I do like the Concept Sean alludes to which would only show the top level assemblies in the first workspace view and if the user wanted to see more,then they could expand on the assembly to see more levels.

These two pictures are for customizing the WS table view.

phurschler · ‎Aug 12, 2015

Thank you for the feedback, Bill. The settings improve speed and visibility but IMO there is still room for improvement (from PTC).

PTCModerator · ‎Jan 01, 2018

PTeckentrup · ‎Dec 16, 2019

Our biggest problem is seeing which CAD documents belong to a part. We can currently only solve this, if the part and the CAD documents have the same number. Therefore we would like to have the possibility to display the CAD documents as a structure for a specific part in the workspace.

SteveShaw · ‎Apr 12, 2022

PTC acknowledges this idea and has added it to our backlog for future consideration. Unfortunately, I do not see this request being addressed in the near future and am therefore closing the idea as No Plans to Implement.

bmr · ‎Apr 13, 2022

@SteveShaw thanks for your feedback. The customer which opened the idea years ago, still has the problem to see the workspace information structured. The numbers are continued increased and WTPart and CAD numbers are completely different. The problem they have is to see the "groups" of WTPart, Model/Assembly and Drawing(s). E.g. Which model has no drawing and which model has no WTPart attached. Stuff like this is not possible to see without navigation and comparison.

To see the structure in Workspace would be nice, but it is understandable that this is a performance problem. We also tried to create alias attributes to sort it by a column (but unfortunately alias and calculated attributes are not supported in the Workspace). Navigation is ok, but it takes 5 clicks to open the drawing from a model/assembly. The connected CAD is Inventor, but this shouldn't matter. The same problem exists also with Creo.

Do you have any other plans to get this important information?