Can I save files to my computer instead of my workspace?

[erutherford]

I'm a brand new Windchill user, so I'm still figuring out a lot of things. In particular, is there a way to still save files to my computer instead of to my workspace? I have an assembly saved to my computer, and I edited it a bit today, and now it won't update the file on my computer, it only saves the revision to my workspace.

[BineshKumar1]

I think you need to use save a back from save as to save to your computer

[BenLoosli]

WHY are you trying to save to your computer when you have Windchill?

Windchill should be the main repository of all your CAD work.

You can do a Save As - Backup and select a local location. but that can also lead to issues if you open that assembly from the local location in the future.

Saving the active work to a local location would get my users the Broken Finger award for going against company best practices.

[bwegmann]

When saving to your computer, CREO creates object_name.object_type.version_number for every save. I save a lot, especially when CREO is prone to crashing when a part gets complicated. Every save is available to me on my hard drive. 

For example, let's say I just saved bracket.prt.267, but marketing wants to see a iteration of the part I presented on several months ago. It happens to be bracket.prt.13. All I have to do is change the name of bracket.prt.13 to anything else, and I am able to see and edit prt.13 and .prt.267 at the same time. Or, I want to completely revert back to prt.13, all I have to do is change the version number to a number higher than 267.

Every version of Windchill before 10, after pressing the CREO save button, will over write the previous file of the same name. Unless you take the time to check things in and out. 

[STEVEG · Accepted solution]

@bwegmann Are you not checking your files in to Windchill?  If you did then you can go back to that version.

However, what happens if you hard drive crashes and you can't get anything from the drive?  No files what so ever.  That is why I tell my users at the very least they need to check in at the end of every day.  They don't always listen but that is what I tell them they need to follow.

And if you need to have an iteration for every save then check the files in after each save.  I believe in Creo there is a Save and Check In option.  Write a mapkey that first saves it then checks it in.

DO NOT save to your local hard drive is our advice.

[STEVEG]

This is not to say there are never reasons for saving to your hard drive.  Of course there are.  What I am talking about is in your normal course of working.

[STEVEG]

@erutherford You should never save files to your hard drive once you have Windchill.  See my comment to bwegmann about this.

[DB_10483676]

This irked me enough to log in. Answer the question. Don't entirely ignore questions on a forum because it's not standard practice for people with Windchill. Moving an assembly locally....explain that or don't respond.

[IF_9244715]

I have the same issue as you, and I believe I've found the real solution. (I think the other folks replying probably knew the real solution too, but think they know better than you, so instead of helping you they just tell you to keep working in windchill, while withholding the solution).

In order to work on files locally, and save them on your hard drive instead of in a windchill workspace, you need to completely disconnect from the windchill server.  On my system, I go into "server management" and then set <NO SERVER> as my primary server.  Hope this helps.

[BenLoosli]

Saving files to both Windchill and to your disk as a backup is not a good idea! The files can cause all kinds of conflicts if you try to open them from disk while the same named files exist in Windchill.

The real question is: WHY do you feel you need to save the files locally?

[IF_9244715]

In this most recent case it's because I experienced an error in Windchill with not enough information to resolve it, so I had to perform the needed operations outside of Windchill. 

I have a large assembly with 500+ parts/assemblies/drawings (and many inter-related references) that I'm trying to take a "snap-shot" of, so I can compare it to future iterations of the assembly (and by "snapshot" I mean a copy of all parts/assemblies/drawings that have a slightly different name - for example "_snapshot" added to each file name).  I spent about a week trying to accomplish this using the "save-as" functionality in Windchill, but was unsuccessful.  The error that finally stumped me was "One or more objects being copied to workspace are not in workspace..." So I backed up all the files to my hard drive, disconnected from the windchill server, did the appropriate renaming of files using Creo, and then checked the new "snapshot" files back into Windchill.

I do 99.99% of my work in Windchill, and I know enough to not try opening duplicate files from my hard drive while I already have them open from Windchill. But there are times when Windchill throws undecipherable errors, or can't handle backup/renaming tasks while maintaining the appropriate links between parts/assemblies/drawings, so it can be useful to know how to do this work outside of Windchill.

If I want to open and compare two assemblies in Creo/Windchill, one being a current version, and one being an older version (say from a year ago, with all the same file names), how would you suggest I do this?

[Hari_Vara]

Hi,

If your use case is comparision of current Assembly vs the assembly when it was a year ago, I would suggest using the PLM only as its the best manager for versions, having said that, Windchill stores what is known as "As Stored" configuration.

So, easily you can compare current version vs "As Stored" version .

Lets say current version is C.7.

You need to compare this with A.5.

What you need to do is.,

1. Go to windchill and go to the CAD document A.5 

2. Use the config filter and set it as "As Stored" (Default is Latest / Latest Released  as per your company standard)

3. Now you will have the CAD structure of the file with its "As stored" (Snap shot of when it was created with its children in their respective versions at that time (a year ago) )

4. The use compare with CAD structure >Select your C.7

5. You will clearly see the differences in structure and any additions, deletions.

6. Visualization will make it easy to spot the geometrical differences

You can use Creo/View to get the differences highlighted in the geometry.

Am I missing any of your requirement here?

Cheers

Hari

[DB_10483676]

This irked me enough to log in. Answer the question. Don't entirely ignore questions on a forum because it's not standard practice for YOUR company. Moving an assembly locally....explain that or don't respond. Some don't have Windchill. Some entities charge licenses so singular people have to pass down assemblies to other local engineers for them to do their work. Some aren't making any changes to configurations but need several models for reference to check something. Why I even have to explain that the world operates outside your personal environment is insane. You people need to learn to answer a question instead of talking down to everyone like their question doesn't still stand. Some of your answers have been "the solution to do X is don't do X......and end up exactly where you started: incapable to do a job."

[avillanueva]

TL/DR: Change connection to "No Server" in Server Manager and it will operate like you expected without workspaces.

@DB_10483676, this is an old thread but topic is still relevant today. The original poster indicated they were a new user. Working within Windchill with CAD is different than working locally in normal folders. @BenLoosli and @STEVEG were giving good advice to a common misperception that you can operate like you did before using Windchill and straddle both worlds. I find no fault with their advice. I generally tell users, if you are in, you are in. If you are out, you're out. The design workflow breaks down (or is much much more complex) if you export data from Windchill, work locally, then try to re-import changes back in sometime later. 

Understanding how the things operate when connected to a workspace is key. When connected, anything that is loaded will get saved to that workspace (including files open from local folders). That is the biggest change. If you want to work locally, you must change your server connection to "No Server" and essentially disconnect. If you want to work locally with Windchill data, you have to save a backup or export from workspace to get the files to a local folder. Best practice is to not do this if your intention is to later want to reintroduce those changes. I would argue the license costs dwarf labor costs of having unlicensed folks work offline and hand it off for check in. 

Better?