Copy and Rename Model, leaving original alone

[ptc-4084107]

Can anyone help me with this, what should be simple, task of copying and renaming a model?

For example:

I have a model called A.prt and it has an associated drawing A.drw. I would like to make a new part "B" that only has different dimension from A.prt. I want to make a copy and rename it(kinda like the duplicate command worked in intralink) and also have it make the drawing as well. How do you do this in windchill.....it should be so simple shouldnt it??????

Thanks,

Matt

[BrianMartin · Accepted solution]

Hi Matt...

Pull the part, assembly, and related drawings into your Workspace. Select the objects you wish to duplicate and select File>Save As from the Workspace menu.

This works best if you grab the top level assembly you wish to copy. Windchill can automatically identify and grab all the related components and drawings. During the "Save As" process, you can selectively rename objects (drawings, parts, and subassemblies). Or, you can rename SOME of them and REUSE others making a new assembly configuration.

It is actually very easy. The process is much simpler if you bring everything you want to copy into your workspace first and perform the "Save As" there.

If you need pics and a more step-by-step set of instructions, let me know.

Thanks!

-Brian

[ptc-4084107]

Thanks Brian, I was trying that before but it was not working because I didnt have the border form marked as reuse. Marked it reuse and it worked like a charm.......Thanks again!

[BernieHayden]

Thanks for posting this, and to Matt for asking. I thought that if you selected the parts you wanted to change this would by default exclude the parts you wanted to leave unchange. Silly me! I should have guess from the very helpful error message, "java.lang.NullPointerException". I'm sure if I read the the 1454 page Windchill Customizer's Guide suggested by PTC Support I'd have figured it out. I guess the old Rename->In Session->Save was too complicated :=

[BrianMartin]

I feel your pain Bernie, truly.

Yeah, you have to explicitly exclude things you want to leave unchanged. This is the same for many other functions in Windchill. For example, bumping a revision using the "New Revision" icon. If you select an assembly to bump the revision, depending upon your config options you may also get a listing of all the related parts. By default, your assembly and all the parts will be bumped to a new revision. You have to explicitly exclude items you don't want bumped.

There are options to control this behavior... but if you don't know about them, you can get into trouble quickly. Sometimes it feels like the software developers assume the users automatically understand all the options, switches, settings, and weird nuances of each command. Or, it feels like they absolve themselves of trying to make the tools easy to use by reasoning that if the users don't understand then "Well, the users need to be trained!"

There's not enough training in the world that could familiarize one person with all the nuances of such complex software. It needs to be more intuitive, self-explanatory, and easy to use... with less complexity. And if there is an error, it needs to be clearly spelled out with steps to fix it.

But hey that's just my opinion!

Regards,

-Brian