Windchill Tips

Check out this video on Using Search in Windchill from PTC Application Engineers Presenters: Donna Fedeli (Technical Specialist, Principal) and Ryan Butcher (Technical Specialist, Fellow) Original Date Presented: August 10, 2021 To dive deeper into the subject, check out Windchill PLM Search - PTC University.     (view in My Videos)

Windchill Document Management has been presented at the PTC Live Global and Planet PTC Live events for many years. If you'd like to get copies of those presentations, click on the links below.Managing Documents with PTC Windchill Desktop Integration - PTC Live Global 2015Document

Check out this video on Using Windchill "Save As" in Windchill from PTC Application Engineers Presenters: Donna Fedeli (Solution Consutlting, Principal) and Ryan Butcher (Solution Consulting, Fellow). Original Date Presented: May 17, 2022 To dive deeper into the subject, check out Windchill Save As.   (view in My Videos)

We are holding another Tech Tips Webcast this week on Thursday, December 3 rd at 10 am EST and we want to invite you to join!     Please join Robbie Morrison, Product Management Senior Manager for PLM, on Thursday, December 3rd, 2020 10 am EST for our Windchill Tech Tips webcast: Enterprise Visualization for Model Based Design with Creo View 7.1.  In this session, we will explore the new improvements that have been built into Windchill Visualization Services 12.0.1.0. Engage with your design early and avoid downstream problems later with Creo View 7.1.  Accessing visual product data means faster decision making and ultimately faster time to market.  A product demonstration will be shown for the new MBD Analysis package, improvements for dynamic visualization of downstream structures, and updates for document collaboration in Windchill.   Please register for this event by using this link:  https://www.ptc.com/en/resources/plm/webcast/tech-tips-creo-view-7   Stay tuned for other upcoming Windchill topics, such as Upgrades and Migration, Concurrent Manufacturing, Windchill SaaS on PTC Cloud and many more! Looking forward to your participation!

Good day Everyone, I have added content from the event in Stuttgart - PTC Forum Europe 2016 In addition to the presentations, you may also watch keynotes and session recordings from your computer. I hope you find the content valuable. Best, Toby

Recently a customer asked if it were possible to disable Owner association, and instead have the system default to using Contributing Image association between WTParts and CAD Documents.  I figured there might be others interested so I thought I would post the solution, as the steps to achieve this desired behavior might not be entirely obvious. Before doing so, however, I have to give credit to my colleague, Jennifer Pierron, for providing me with these steps. Here we go… In this case, the goal is disable Owner association for CAD assemblies and parts and display Contributing Image as the default association type in the Edit/Auto Associate UI.  You configure a set of Site preferences to accomplish this task.  I repeat - Site preferences.  These preferences cannot be set on a per-user or organization level basis. They apply across your entire installation. First, you need to establish which attributes you want to pass from CAD Documents to WTPart via the Contributing Image association.  This can be done by setting the Site preference EPM Service Preferences > Build Service Preferences > Contributing Image Attributes to * for all attributes, or you may specify individually using a list of attribute names.  If you do not specify any attributes, then the system defaults to using an Image association instead of a Contributing Image association. In effect, the preference settings in the following figure enable Contributing Image associations in your system. Next, configure the CAD Document types for which you do not want to build structure (disallow Owner associations).  In this example we disallow the building of structure for Creo Parts and Assemblies.  To accomplish this, we add CADCOMPONENT and CADASSEMBLY to the list of types for which building structure is excluded.  This is done by editing the preference Operations > Auto Associate > Disallow Structure CAD Document Types > Creo as shown in the following figure. As a final step, If you want to allow Auto-Associate to create parts, you need to set the value of the preference Operations > Auto Associate > Create New Part to Owner and Contributing Image as shown in the following figure. The default is to allow this for Owner association types only. Once these preferences have been set, when you perform an Edit Association, you should be presented something similar to the following. I hope you found this useful.

Last time, I showed you how security labels can be added to your table displays for CAD workgroup managers (here).  In addition, a new capability for setting security label values for newly created CAD data has been introduced.  The implementation is quite different from how it is done for Documents and Parts (wizard based approach).  It is also not enabled by default even when security labels are configured, so I thought I would show you.   It is often the case where new CAD documents in Windchill are created directly from the CAD tool itself (using File > New) and then saving these files to the workspace. At this point, access to these objects is only available to the user that owns the workspace.  Other users do not become aware or have access until these new CAD documents are checked-in.  So, this is where we introduced the ability for setting security labels on newly created CAD documents.  You do this by adding your security labels to the table view of the workspace Check In window. Hmmm… The security label "Training Required" is listed and shows its default value, but I don’t see a way to set its value.  This is where additional system configuration is required.  We have introduced a property setting that enables you to set the security label value during this step, similar to how you change its location.  To configure this behavior you will need to add the following property to your wt.properties file:   com.ptc.windchill.uwgm.cadx.checkin.SecurityLabelEditing=true   This of course should be done by following the standard procedure of adding this property to your site.xconf file and then propagating it via the xconfmanager command from a Windchill shell.  Here’s the syntax of how this should be added:   <Property name="com.ptc.windchill.uwgm.cadx.checkin.SecurityLabelEditing" overridable="true" targetFile="codebase/wt.properties" value="true"/>   Now that the property has been set and the method server has been restarted, let’s take a look at the Check In window again. As you can see in the previous figure, the cell value in the security label column consists of a drop-down allowing you to select from the available security label values.  Once you select the appropriate value and check-in the new CAD document, its security label is set accordingly.  Note that this is only available when objects are initially created/checked-in.  To change the value of an existing object (one that has previously been checked in) you need to use the Edit Security Labels action.  

This is a quick video tip demonstrating how to add the Attachment and Structure column indicators to the folder browser in Windchill 10.2. These columns are not on by default and often go unnoticed since there is such a long list of columns that can be displayed. When added, any document containing Attachments or Structure will be identified by either the Attachment or Structure icon in the respective column. The icons are links which will bring you directly to the Content tab or the Structure tab.     (view in My Videos)

Check out this video on Using Windchill "Thingworx Navigate Apps" from PTC Application Engineers Presenters: Steve Ashley (Solution Consulting, Fellow), Ryan Butcher (Solution Consulting, Fellow). Original Date Presented: August 16, 2023   To dive deeper into the subject, check out Thingworx Navigate Apps  

Check out this video on Using Windchill "Windchill Extensions" from PTC Application Engineers Presenters: Ryan Butcher (Solution Consutlting, Fellow) and Donna Fedeli (Solution Consulting, Principal). Original Date Presented: December 21, 2022   To dive deeper into the subject, check out Windchill Extensions Website  

SPN-2395-F- Windchill Info*Engine Java Adapter Development is about to end its life.  Do someone know by any chance how we could replace it in the future?  Thank you 

Check out this video on MFG Process Management in Windchill from PTC Application Engineers Presenters: Steve Ingham (Technical Specialist, Principal) and Ryan Butcher (Technical Specialist, Fellow) Original Date Presented: October 19, 2021   To dive deeper into the subject, check out Windchill MFG Process Management - PTC University.   (view in My Videos)

Are you looking for better alignment between engineering tools, processes, and teams? Accomplishing this would lay a solid foundation for your ‘digital house’. The key building block to achieving this is PLM, with a digital thread at its core.   In our PLM Virtual Conference on June 8-9, we will outline the steps it takes to ‘get your digital house in order’. Both our customers and PTC experts will show how to deliver greater engineering excellence with improved efficiency, reduced lead times, and reduced operational costs.  The event will highlight speakers from Volvo CE, J&J, Steelcase, Toro, and Solar Turbines, in addition to Live Q&A, an Ask the Experts forum and a Networking Lounge. Take a peek at our agenda below:    Day One: Keynote: PLM Strategy & Vision (20 min) Keynote: PLM Fundamentals at Volvo CE (25 min) Closing the Loop on Quality: Establishing Digital Product Traceability, Change Management and Regulatory Submission Compliance (20 min) Building Your Modular Product: Reaping the Benefits of Dynamic Platform Visualization (20 min)         Avoiding the Parts Duplication, Search and Reuse Woes in Engineering and Beyond (20 min) Live Speaker Q&A Day Two: Panel Discussion: Creating a BOM-Centric Foundation for the Digital Thread (25 min) Unifying the Development Environment with One Shared System for Concurrent Engineering (20 min) PLM Adoption Across the Digital Thread: Simplifying the User Experience to Drive Expansion (20 min) Reaching New Heights with PLM SaaS (20 min)           PLM Product Roadmap (20 min) Live Speaker Q&A Click here to register or feel free to reach out with any questions – can’t wait to see you there!   Katie

The On-Demand System Scan for Windchill PLM and RV&S allows system administrators to manually scan their system files for similar recommended improvements on an ad hoc basis. Admins can upload system files to be scanned and receive recommended actions for any known issues or improvements that are detected. The utility will provide you with recommendations to apply on your Windchill installation in order to aid in expediting resolution of existing issues, as well as discovering issues before they become problems.       As of today, 260 checks are evaluated for Windchill PLM, and we are constantly adding new detections. We also have a specific support for WinDU – we will add new detections soon! For Windchill RV&S (formerly known as Integrity Lifecycle Manager), we currently have more than 150 detections.   Try it today! This service is free for all PTC customers.   For the future, we are working on several options: one is about providing with a tool that helps collecting all the files to submit for a scan. Another one is to  show all the errors/exceptions that the scan has detected – but that means that you will have to filter the impactful ones from the ones that can be ignored. We are also exploring some AI technologies to map the errors in your log files with the articles in our knowledge base. If you have some suggestions, feel free to comment this post!   And you can find out more about PTC’s Proactive Support Services by visiting the FAQ page.  

Windchill PLM Tech Tips Webcasts are back!  Started back in 2018 as a series of webcasts set to deliver product tips, they are scheduled to launch in November 2020.     These technical webcasts are intended to deep dive, give you more product info and additional details so you’ll gain the most value from your PLM software.     Two of our upcoming webcasts are:   Enterprise Collaboration with Thingworx Navigate: Thursday, November 19th @ 10am EST Creo View 7.0 (And Beyond): Thursday, December 3rd @ 10am EST Event registration details to follow!   Check out two of our Tech Tips Replays from March and July 2020: Configuration Driven Visualization and Intro to Windchill Rest Services

For Whirlpool Corporation, innovation is inspired by the impact it will have on their consumers. Products need to be easier, faster, and better – improving the customer’s home experience. Whirlpool Corporation is leveraging PTC products to achieve its vision by reducing overall system and product complexity, improving its lifecycle processes and efficiencies. In these demos, see how Whirlpool Corporation is exploring technology – such as digital twin, augmented reality, and data-driven design -- to extend PLM across the enterprise and bring innovation to its consumers. https://www.ptc.com/en/products/plm/everyday-innovation/innovator-spotlight-whirlpool/whirlpool-plm-demonstrations

LiveWorx and PTC/User are now offering an entire day focused on Creo and Windchill content with the addition of CAD & PLM Technical Day on Monday, June 10. This is an additional 25 breakout sessions with all of the Creo and Windchill tips, tricks and insights necessary to get the most out of your PTC Products. Here’s what you need to know:   You can take a look at what to expect for sessions here CAD & PLM Technical Day is included with your purchase of an All Access or DeluX Pass Explorer Pass holders can add it on for an additional cost of $250 until March 27 and $350 through June 13 If you are already registered it is not too late to add this to your registration: Log In to your account Enter username and password Select “Registration” Scroll down and click “Purchase Additional Event Offerings” and add the CAD & PLM Technical Day to your account   Seats are filling fast for this dedicated content, don’t miss out on learning from some of our Creo and Windchill super users (and fellow Community members) on best practices and how other organizations are utilizing these solutions.   Please email concierge@liveworx.com if you have any questions.      

When there are a large number of objects in a Windchill workspace, it is difficult to identify the object representing the top-level object of a large assembly without any clue of its identity information.With the same or similar intent, the featured object live has been provided

PTC is happy to announce the new HTML5 based drag-n-drop file upload utility with Windchill 10.2_M020. This new utility will replace the existing Java based drop target and give people a much simpler and more intuitive way to upload new documents and attachments. This video demonstrates how easy it is to create multiple documents using the new drag-n-drop upload utility.   This video does not contain audio, yet...     Unable to play video. Please try again later. (view in My Videos)

The following video illustrates some of the workspace upload improvements expected with PTC Windchill 10.2.   (view in My Videos)

Windchill can display menu items / table headings / actions, etc. in several languages. Each user can decide at any time which to display from those installed.   Windchill can display menu items / table headings / actions, etc. in several languages. Each user can decide at any time which to display from those installed.   This example has only one language installed in addition to English – French. Install         Every Windchill file that are used to display English words now has an additional similar file with the language (fr for French in this example).       Because these exist, each user can select their desired language (of those installed) at any time.   Default English:     Each user has this choice (list will include those language(s) which have been installed). Does not affect any other user. By moving English back to the top, it will revert to English at any time.             After browser refresh:                       Many multi-national companies are not aware of this and don’t take advantage of it (no cost / no performance penalty / no issues for upgrades).