CN, CR, PN and similar object management

[Dobrisa]

I'm working on testing a relatively straight forward set of workflows and life cycle states to get us to start using Windchill functionality we've not been taking advantage of for the last 17 years. What this looks like is that I'm planning to have users navigate thru different life cycle states with promotion requests, change requests, etc. Each of these create objects (a Promotion Notice, a Change Request, a Change Notice, etc.). How are different people managing these? That's a lot of files to start adding to Windchill. Do you put them in the same folders as the CAD documents they reference? Do you put them in a single folder? How do you manage the size? 

[BenLoosli]

I put all of the change objects in separate folders under the product and then additional folders for the year. I have to modify the OIR each year to update the folder name.

Product

     Change

          Change Activity

               2018

          Change Notice

               2018

          Change Request

               2018

          Promotion Request

               2017

               2018

     Main

          <Folders/Sub-folders for CAD files>

I do the same for each product and the various Library items.

[Dobrisa]

Thanks Ben! How large do those folders get every year? Are you looking at a few thousand files or is it closer to tens of thousands? 

One of the concerns the team has is with the number of objects in a single folder getting excessive and it then becoming difficult to navigate. Have you run into any of those issues? 

[BenLoosli]

The change notice folders do not get excessively large, at least for us. We might do promotion release on 400-600 items a year these days and maybe about 1/4 of that number of number of change requests, etc.

We have our product folders separated into main components, so the largest folder is still less than 5000 items.

For Windchill vaults, we have them set to roll over at 50K items and are approaching 50 product vaults. I do unreferenced file purges a couple of times a year.

As with anything in Windchill, you company's implementation may generate more or less objects than any other company.

[Mayur]

@Dobrisa ,

You might want to check the PTC's Rapid Outcome Offering below:

https://www.ptc.com/en/Success-Services/pdmlink-container-strategy