CAD Worker question

[bbailey]

Hi All,

I have a question regarding CAD Worker set up. Does anyone run CAD Workers
on the Windows Server platform, or do you stick to the PTC Support Matrix
for Creo and use XP or Windows 7?

Our IT Security Policies seem to interfere with Workstation OS's much more
that Servers.

Thanks,

Ben

[rporzel-5]

I have run CAD Workers on Servers in the past. What version OS are you
planning on using? Also, what CAD Workers do you intend to set up?

Thanks,

[bbailey]

Hi Ryan,

Currently, the plan is to use standard workers to publish Creo View
visualization objects. We are looking at Windows Server 2008. Probably
will use Creo Elements Pro 5 or Creo 2.0.

Thanks,

Ben

[rporzel-5]

I have installed and configured a CAD Worker for Creo on a Windows Server
2008 machine. It installs and sets up the same as XP and Window 7. The one
thing you can't do is install any Workgroup Managers on a Server platform.
Because Creo and Wildfire have the WGM built in, it will install and
publish correctly. Other CAD softwares will not work correctly on the
Server OS. Even though this functionality will work, PTC does not support
this and will not assist in the event something breaks.

Hope this helps,

[BrianGeary]

We've run into support issues with Windows Server 2003 where PTC refused to provide support because we were using a server operating system rather than the workstation version. Because of this, we've switched to using Windows 7 Professional -- and we have had issues due to our IT security policies and Windows Update automatically installing updates without any admin being involved in the process.

I remember hearing at Planet PTC something to the effect that Windchill 10.1 will include Server 2008 in the support matrix for CAD workers, but I haven't confirmed that.

Brian Geary
Java Architect
Information Technology
hermanmiller.com

[pwilliams-3]

Ben,
For CAD Workers you should look at the compatibility matrices for the ProductView Adapters and not the Pro/ENGINEER software matrices. I took a look at the ProductView Adapter 13.0 software matrix and found that Windows Server 2008 is supported:

[cid:image001.png@01CD9B1A.59CFAD90]

If I look at the Creo View 2.0 M010 Adapters Matrix (compatible with Windchill 10.0 and 10.1) I find that Windows Server 2008 is also supported:

[cid:image004.png@01CD9B1A.60BAC400]

Patrick Williams | Engineering Systems | c: 616.947.2110
[cid:image005.jpg@01CD9B1A.60BAC400]

[mbakke]

Creo 2.0 does show support for Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit with a note saying NOT Creo Schematics (if that even matters).

-Mike

[SteveVinyard]

In my opinion it isn't worth the risk going unsupported. If you rely on this portion Windchill to work well, go big or go home. Publishing is probably the MOST unstable piece of Windchill. I of course know of plenty of people where it works but more often than not it doesn't work well. Now this is attributed to a lot of things. Most people treat the publishers as an afterthought and pay for it later.

I would get a big Win 7 64 bit machine with a nice graphics card and plenty of ram/CPU. Have your backup script restart this entire machine when Windchill goes cold for a backup and you will have a bit more success in my experience. If you think about it, it makes sense. This one machine has to process successfully every single CAD document you put in Windchill and constantly update them. If it works well, it can really provide some neat solutions. If it doesn't no one will care and anytime you bring up PLM and its solutions they will say "Oh but visualization is a key component of this and it is a total fail for us already".

[cid:image004.gif@01CD9B04.A7868D80]

Steve Vinyard
Application Engineer

[davehaigh]

One thing that is a common misconception is that the cad worker needs a nice graphics card. I use to think that, but the documentation is clear, publishing doesn't use the graphics card. So that isn't an issue to be concerned about. It's all a matter of CPU speed, the amount of ram, and the speed of your network connection. Oh and hard drive speed also.

David Haigh

[ptc-2878357]

Juts to add one point here ...
PTC will not entertain if the configuration is not as per the standards...
Thus id becomes very frustrating at the moment.
Better and safer is to go as per standards....

If you are using the 9.1 + releases.. you can use the Replica servers as
well for this.

Hope this helps.......

Thanks
Mayur

[dpalmer]

David,

From what I've read in the PTC documentation, every component of the CAD worker is cover with the exception of the graphics card. I can't find a single reference about graphics cards. Since we are in the process of upgrading our CAD worker, I decided to opened a call with PTC for some clarification. Here's the exact reply from the techies email:

"There is no specific document which says that you have to install a high-end graphics card in the CAD Worker.
However, it is recommended by PTC that CAD worker should have enough graphics memory so as to support smooth functioning of the CAD worker."

When I called and talked to the PTC techie, he said two things about the CAD worker, one: it should have as a minimum, the same amount of RAM as the workstations you are supporting. Example: if your best workstation has 8Gb of RAM, your CAD worker should have at least that amount if not more. Secondly: The CAD worker should have at least the same graphics card in it as the highest quality graphics card in your users workstation. Example: if the best graphics card in a workstation is an Nvidia 2000D, that's what should be in the CAD worker as well.

When I pressed him for documentation that supported his claim, he repeated what I quoted above.

With that said, I'd really be interested in where you got your information from.

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards, Dave

David C. Palmer
BT/IT STG Design Tools System Admin Phone:1-919-486-0601
E-mail: dcpalm@us.ibm.com

3039 E Cornwallis Rd
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2195
United States




From: "Haigh, David A." <->
To: Steve Vinyard <->, Mike Bakke <mbakke@fishbowlsolutions.com>, "Williams, Patrick" <->, Brian Geary <->, Ben A Bailey <->, "-" <->
Date: 09/26/2012 05:05 PM
Subject: [solutions] - RE: CAD Worker question



One thing that is a common misconception is that the cad worker needs a nice graphics card. I use to think that, but the documentation is clear, publishing doesn’t use the graphics card. So that isn’t an issue to be concerned about. It’s all a matter of CPU speed, the amount of ram, and the speed of your network connection. Oh and hard drive speed also.

David Haigh

[davehaigh]

This document says the following:

[davehaigh]

By the way, our other division here has their workers all running as VM’s. So no graphics card at all.

Since we put together our publishing hardware a good 4 years ago, and at the time I was under the impression that we needed a graphics card, we have rack mounted dell workstations as our workers. That’s ok, because there is less overhead on our Windchill VM’s, but if I were to do it today, I’d go all VM.

David Haigh

[dpalmer]

Thanks David! U R da man!

I'm not surprise that the PTC techie wasn't aware of this, but I still find it rather odd.I also find it interesting that the worker runs on VMs as well. I don't suppose you know if there is any performance issue running the worker on a server or VM?

Best Regards, Dave

David C. Palmer
BT/IT STG Design Tools System Admin Phone:1-919-486-0601
E-mail: dcpalm@us.ibm.com

3039 E Cornwallis Rd
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2195
United States




From: "Haigh, David A." <->
To: "Haigh, David A." <->, David C Palmer/Raleigh/IBM@IBMUS
Cc: Ben A Bailey <->, Brian Geary <->, Mike Bakke <mbakke@fishbowlsolutions.com>, "Williams, Patrick" <->, "-" <->, Steve Vinyard <->
Date: 09/27/2012 11:31 AM
Subject: [solutions] - RE: CAD Worker question



By the way, our other division here has their workers all running as VM’s. So no graphics card at all.

Since we put together our publishing hardware a good 4 years ago, and at the time I was under the impression that we needed a graphics card, we have rack mounted dell workstations as our workers. That’s ok, because there is less overhead on our Windchill VM’s, but if I were to do it today, I’d go all VM.

David Haigh