So Tom and Mike are suggesting that one of the most reliable ways to accomplish this is by only sending data that has come from the publisher. Here are some follow up questions.
1. What if I want to send the data now? Do I have to wait for a publishing routine? That sometimes takes our system several hours. I know you can do a custom check in and force the viewable to be created on the fly but what about other files (i.e. STEP, PDF, etc.)? Can the publisher be set up to do those too? Will that work with a custom check in on the fly in order to keep from waiting for hours? Plus we only need the extra files of items we're outsourcing, so I don't really want to publish these files for everything.
2. What if the publisher is not set up to create the files in the way they are needed (i.e. one particular vendor of ours often requests IGES files instead of the standard step files)?
It seems to me that PTC would be able to add functionality to drawing mode (and assembly mode too) that would warn users upon opening a drawing (or assy) that would say something like "WARNING: some of the sub-models have been modified since this file was last saved". I'm no programmer but that doesn't sound very complicated. Even better would be for the drawing (or assy) to receive a new version number immediately upon retrieval if any sub-models have been modified since the last save and then the warning could pop up. That would eliminate the chance of printing a drawing off that is the same version as a prior one but looks totally different.
Steve Pikaart
