Edit specific attributes of released WT-Parts

[CHENAMA]

Hi all,

We are looking for a way to adapt specific attributes on released WT-Parts.

One example: our assembeld products are getting weighed after assembly. Now this measured weight always differs a bit from the inital calculated one, which we enter before we release the part for production.

At the moment there are two possibilites for us. We either ask our Admin to set state back to in Work and we can change it or we have to revise the part. In my understanding both of those possiblities are actually wrong, setting back a released part to in work can be very dangerous, as then production don't have any released reference anymore and revising I see as wrong as  we don't change something on the part but to add the measurments of this specific revision. 

Did anyone of you face a similar challenge? We are thankful for any approach.

BR

[BrianToussaint]

What you could do is setup a special change type workflow that would set the wtPart back to "In Work", make the change, and then set it back to "Released" when done. This does not require you to do a Revise. The only word of caution is to have someone checking it before it goes back to "Released" so that they make sure that is the only thing that is happening to it. Users have a tendency to try to sneak in changes when they shouldn't.

[BenLoosli]

Someone someplace has to CHANGE the part/assembly to drive the actual weight into the WTpart! As system admin, I can change a released part/assembly but this is also a change, just not documented. It shows up as an iteration change. If these are production run lots of parts/assemblies, why can't you take the actual weight from a prototype build and enter that value into the file before it is submitted for release? If you only build one-offs or short run parts, how critical is the weight to be 100% accurate in the WTpart? How far off is the calculated weight from the actual weight? Do you have proper densities assigned to your materials and materials assigned to the parts so Creo can give a reasonably accurate calculated weight. We use a dummy density in our start parts of 99 pounds per cubic inch so you can see immediately that the designer did not set it. We also use a model tree with the density and weight columns showing.

[CHENAMA]

Hi,

Thanks for your input. Weight is only an example of attributes we have to maintain afterwards. To our background we are now changing from SAP to Windchill, where in SAP it was always possible to maintain attributes afterwards. Don't get me wrong we like the approach that we get a freezed state, but there are attributes we have to maintain afterwards. And this shouldn't be with admin rights.

To your questions, we have proper densities and for parts and sheet metals this is also fine, but we are an electrical company which uses a lot of cables which aren't all designed in CAD. To improve our data quality and  our weight assumptions we started to weigh each product and then document it directly in the system.

What do you mean with a prototype build? In Windchill there is only in-work, under review and released state. So did you create a new life-cycle state for prototypes? At least for the weight this would work for us. But as I said there are other attributes e.g. preferred parts, this can change monthly, but only gives the engineers an indication if a part is preferred to use or not. There is no actual change on technical point of view of this part. In our understanding this should be possible to edit on the same revision (as you said iteration can change) but for a member and not only for an admin but to not allow to edit everything in this part.

I've just wanted to ask if there are any others who had to implement anything similar and how did you do it?

BR

[BjoernRueegg]

It would be very nice in Windchill, that attributes are also under access control. If you give the user modify rights, he can do practically everything. Disconnect and connect documents, etc. I think the solution to set the state to a modify state is the wrong concept.  I know we have to live with that problem.

What I did is, I programmed a new wizard to change just some of the attributes. I created a new Layout with all the possible attributes the user needs to change.

The wizard action does only appear, if the state of the part is released and the user has a defined role.

For processing the attributes, I did turn off the access control mechanism for that moment. So he is able to iterate the part in the release state.

I know it is a customizing. But as long the system doesn't provide any possibility...

[BenLoosli]

We have modified our states so instead of the standard 3, we have 6. That is one of the easier modifications to do and no programming required. 

I do like the wizard approach to changing attributes ONLY if the object is in the Released state. This would take some customized programming, but good to know that it can be done. I would hope that the system would also update the Modified By field to whomever runs the wizard.

[BjoernRueegg]

Since the edit is actually a new iteration, you will see the user who modified the object. The customizing will turn off the right management temporary for the user. So the user will be able to iterate the object also in release state (not manually, rather just with the wizard)