File name , name and number

[ElkanJHIRAD]

Hi All,

We are planing to move to new system, I have qusetion regarding the file name.

In the curent system, File name=name= number

In the new system, the plan is, the name will the "item description"  and file name and number will be the same.

I think the our current system is better and not confusing in windchill. for descreption we have a parameter.

We are using Creo 5  and windchill 11.1 

I will happy to see your feedback.

Thanks

Elkan J

[Tdaugherty]

We do the same thing. File name = name = number and description comes from a parameter. The users are used to changing information in CAD so we decided against using name for description. It also means that we can change description without having to rename. I have a feeling that if we went the other route, we would have a lot of checked in files with default (start part) values for description.

Ty

[ElkanJHIRAD]

Thanks!

[BenLoosli]

This is how we do it here.

Filename = Number (1234567.prt)

Name is a descriptive name (Tee, Reducing)

This is from what I send out to new users (and users who forget):

1. Creo requires 2 pieces of information when creating a new file:
   1. The Name field (Limited to 31 characters with no spaces)
   2. The Common name field (Tested with 123 character name length)
2. These get mapped to 3 items in Windchill:
   1. The Name gets mapped to Number and File Name
   2. The Common name gets mapped to an internal parameter, PTC_COMMON_NAME, which is displayed in Windchill as the Name
3. The File Name is what shows up in your Model Tree.
4. The File Name MUST be unique in Windchill.
5. The Common Name field when mapped to PTC_COMMON_NAME shows up in the drawing title and in the Name field of an assembly BOM table.

We also have 2 lines for addition description information that are parameters and passed back to Windchill.

We have 8 parameters that go from Creo to Windchill in total.

[d_graham]

Elkan, hi

I'm not sure how long your descriptions are but one thing to consider is that in Windchill 11.1, 11.2 and 12.0 name is limited to 400 characters in while a String attribute is limited to 500. And with a String attribute you can keep adding additional values, so an additional 500 characters per value.

David

[jvonzastrow1 · Accepted solution]

Keep in mind Name and Number are master attributes. This mean when changed it will update all versions. Often a description may include dimensions. Dimension may change during the life of the object. EX Revision1. is Tube 22mm. In revision 2 it is changed to 24mm, and name will be Tube 24mm. If you now try to open revision 1 you will have name = Tube 24mm, which is wrong as revision 1 is 22mm. It could also be a description that include what it is used for. Tube for packer assembly. Later this tube will then be reused for another assembly, and name must be updated.... If the Name is shared with Title Block on the drawing - it will change the drawing without any warnings, when open in CAD. You may say it is not a problem, because we have the published pdf. But you may need to republish for some administration purpose, and the pdf will be replaced 😞

So if you use Name for Item Description it should, in my view, be a description that never should be changed during the object life. EX Tube. Users should only be able to change the name until first release. After first release only administrators should have the access to update the name, as users often do not know the consequences - they expect it will only be for the latest iteration.

I will recommend to use a attribute like Description for Item Description - And share this with Description field on the drawings title block.

Name = Number = File name

Item Description = New custom attribute

[ElkanJHIRAD]

Thanks for answer.

[mdebower]

If you are changing the part that drastically, it should have a new number.

[jvonzastrow1]

Agreed. It was just a simple sample to explain my point on why I do not recommend to use a master attribute like name as description attribute. We can't assume users will know the different between a master attribute and a "Instance Based Attribute (IBA)" attribute.

[PatrickChin]

It really depends on your expectation of Windchill as an engineering solution.  If you expect Windchill to replace your BOM functionality with Number and Name OOTB reports then you have an issue where you don't have version history in name.  Take a look at the solution we did 15 years back.  We created a data utility to point to an IBA instead of Windchill Name.  For this, you have to decompile these OOTB class files:

$WT_HOME\src\wt\doc\WTDocument.java
$WT_HOME\src\wt\epm\EPMDocument.java
$WT_HOME\src\wt\epm\EPMDocumentMasterKey.java
$WT_HOME\src\wt\epm\EPMTypeDefinitionEventsHandler.java
$WT_HOME\src\wt\epm\TheEPMDocumentMasterKeyEpmDocumentMasterKeyType.java
$WT_HOME\src\wt\part\WTPart.java

so, where you have calls for OOTB Windchill Name, you direct it to the data utility instead.  Thus you don't have to change the entire Windchill UIs (tables, BOMs, structure, etc) where the business change items (i.e. WTPart, WTDocument and EPMDocuments)