WTpart must always be revised with the CAD document

[TommyRasmussen]

In our PDMLink configuration, the WTpart is automatically created and associated to the CAD document when it is created.

We have set the collector preferences to collect the WTpart automatically in the revise process.

But the user can manually remove the WTpart from the revise list (or he could forget it in case he selects the CAD drawing to be revised instead og of the CAD Model).

The result is that the new revision of the CAD model has no Associated WTpart, and after checkin will PDMLink automatically create a new WTpart and associate it.

Please make it possible to configure PDMLink to make sure that the associated WTpart is not lost when the CAD document is revised.

[gmehta]

We have had similar issues. The CAD and WT should somehow be locked so they alway revise togehter, assuming they have same lifecycle and a revision state exists for both the objects from the current state they are in now.

[MorganBelais]

This preference will definitly prevent from broken links when revising only a WTpart, a EpmDoc or a Drawing only

[jsmith-10-11-12]

We have implmented the below customization , it allows us to set up custom rules to ensure that parts and the associated epmdocs are promoted together.

[bmr]

We also have customized the auto associate, so no new part is being created. If an older version is being connected to a WTPart, this part is being showed in the dialog. If the part is in the state released, it's not possible to connect the new CAD revision to it. So the user is being forced to revise the part first before he connects these two new revisions.

[DarrenStorey]

We are also working on a customization to address this.

When the user revises CAD and forgets to also revise the part, not only is the link to part lost, but it requires an administrator to fix up. When the part is retrospectively revised in isolation, it carries the link from previous revision of CAD Doc. Previous revision of CAD is however APPROVED/RELEASED. User is hence not able to address the fact that the first revision of CAD now describes 2 revisions of part. Stalemate!

This one's a no-brainer.

[JenniferPierron]

Hello.

In Windchill 11.0 M020, we have added a new feature such that auto-associate can MOVE the owner association.

For example:

- Create CAD Doc A.1 and Part A.1 (Design)

- Revise ONLY CAD Doc to B.1 (not related to any Part)

- Check it out, modify it and check it back in.

When you check in and choose Auto associate Parts to CAD Documents, you get a conflict asking if you want to MOVE the association to the matching Part from the version  currently associated to the one being checked in.

The system will also successfully move the association if the user uses the Auto Associate UI.

I hope this will help your users when they have chosen to revise ONLY the CAD Document.

Thanks

Jennifer

[cmilligan]

There are use cases where you would not want it force them to always match. For instance my company frequently does not have a one to one relation between parts and CAD. Only the geometric information is provided on the drawing, and the part supplies the material, processes, and inspection/QA requirements. This means that a single CAD model (drawing number) might be associated with hundreds of parts (with differing materials, plating, paint colors/types, heat treatment, mag particle, etc). The part revisions do not match the CAD revision in any way, and because of that forcing the revision of associated items would cause issues.

That said, I also have the same situation where I have a particular sub-type of WTPart that has a one to one relationship. In that case your request would be very useful. It is a huge pain to fix messed up associations, and frustrating because it is easy to not collect the right objects and make them incorrect.

I think if such a feature were implemented it would need to be controllable at the type level, or maybe only certain association types would enforce it. Not just a system or context wide preference.

[JenniferPierron]

Hello Courtney.

Thanks.

1. I understand the comment to make the behavior controllable at the type level.  It is a good suggestion.

2. Not sure how you are managing the use case when 1 CAD Doc is related to MULTIPLE Parts.   The system has 2 possible functions today:

• If you are using Content association, then you can use a new preference introduced in 10.2 M020; Revise > Carry  Forward Content Association for CAD Document Revise to Yes:
  • 
  • This preference can be set at Site or Org level.
  • I think this preference will be useful for the use case when you revise ONE of the Parts and the Drawing (e.g. you want to add a new row to the table that lists the Parts for the new Part).   In this case, it will carry forward the content association to all the released Parts.  We have some customers using it precisely for this reason.
  • I would highly recommend you check this one out.

• If you want the association to be one that participates in the build process (but it doesn't sound like it, because you are associating a drawing), you can investigate using multiple Owner or Image associations:   Operations > Auto Associate > Allow CAD Document To Build Multiple Parts to Yes.
  • 
  • ** Note: this preference is supported as of 10.2 M030; but you need to manually load it.  In 11.0 M020, you can see it in an out of the box install.
  • This preference can be set at Site or Org level.

I hope this helps.

Thanks

Jennifer

[DavidCobb]

Hi, follow-up question for @JenniferPierron:

The capability that you mentioned to MOVE the association when CAD object is revised and checked in separate from the Owner associated WTPart - is that only applicable if you are using Auto Associate? If the WTPart and CAD model are already associated and released, then the CAD model gets revised by itself, modified and checked in not using Auto Associate, is there any opportunity to move the association?

(I'm not sure that we have a use case where we would want to do this, just trying to understand the capability mentioned.)

Thanks!

David

[JenniferPierron]

Hello David.

You asked:

If the WTPart and CAD model are already associated and released, then the CAD model gets revised by itself, modified and checked in not using Auto Associate, is there any opportunity to move the association?

Yes, in the same release, we improved manual move of associations:

You can use the Edit Associations or Auto-Associate UI and you can manually move the association:

In the past, this set of actions would try to add both versions of the CAD Doc to the same WS and fail.  Now it should work without a conflict.

Thanks

Jennifer

[AL_ANDERSON]

@JenniferPierron Thank you for the information in this thread. The improvements you describe will certainly help. -Al

[JenniferPierron]

All,

I would like to make you aware of an additional enhancement implemented in 11.1 M020:   Revise and Check Out from the CAD tool will follow the Revise > Collector server-side preferences.

For more information, please see this idea:

https://community.ptc.com/t5/Windchill-Ideas/Enable-quot-Revise-and-Checkout-quot-in-ProE-Creo-to-ut...

Thanks

Jennifer

[bsoerensen]

@JenniferPierron will it be possible somehow to search for all CAD Document which have been revised without the WT Part? To be able to solve all the link.

[JenniferPierron]

Hello.

There is no out of the box query to find this.   It would be hard to know if the CAD Document is purposefully not associated vs. independently revised and dropped their association.

Instead, PTC's focus has been to enhance auto-associate and edit associations to easily relate the CAD Document to the same WTPart again.  

In 11.0 M020, we introduced new capabilities to automatically and more easily manually move associations from an old version of the CAD Document to the latest version of the CAD Document.

If you automatically auto-associate upon check in AND the CAD Document was revised independently, then auto associate upon check in will move the association from the old CAD Document version to the new CAD Document version.  This is done with or without confirmation based on the setting of the  server-side preference Operations > Auto Associate > Modify Already Associated Parts On Check In.

See this help center document

Please try this functionality and let me know if you have any feedback.

Cordially,

Jennifer Pierron