Managing Creo Material Files (.mtl) in Windchill

[pwilliams-3]

Hi Everyone,
Could anyone please share with me their Windchill configuration for managing Creo material files (.mtl)? I am interested in EPMDocument soft types and/or IBAs. Additionally if you are managing a WTDocument that contains more information about the .mtl file I would like to know how you are relating the two objects and what is the process for changing them. Thanks for all your input.

Patrick Williams | Engineering Systems | c: 616.947.2110
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[DavidCobb]

Hi all,

Three of our business units are in process of moving from an Enovia/Matrix product to Windchill 10.2 for CAD Data Management and I also would very much appreciate hearing about the best practices used by other customers for managing Material (.mtl) files.

Thanks!
David

[jellis]

Hi David.

Current;y we're running 10.1 with near future aspirations to update to 10.2. We're not doing anything real sophisticated with our material files but we do keep and manage them in Windchill. The .mtl files reside in our standards library in a Material folder. This library folder only permits Admins to write to with read only for all other Windchill Users. We have the pdm library path then in our config.pro files. As I'm sure you know this means all users must be running a "linked' Creo session and if they go "off line" for any reasonsthen they'll not have access to any server side actions.

Regards, Jim

[pwilliams-3]

Thanks everyone for your responses. They have validated what we are doing here at Steelcase as it pertains to the .mtl files.

One more question: Where are you managing the material specification documents that match the .mtl files?

Patrick Williams | Engineering Systems | c: 616.947.2110
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[jellis]

We have those as Document managed in Windchill. They are not unique document types.

Regards, Jim

[DavidBrand]

Do you have any information that you can share? I have some questions.

1. Do you have a WTPart (CoGPart) for the mtl files?
2. Do you attach, for example, PDF datasheets for the material to the CoGPart? Do the data sheets have their own CoGPart, are they attachements to the mtl CoGPart or documents in their own right (with or without CoGPart)?
3. Do you show material parameters on drawings?
4. Do you designate any of the material parameters to PDMLINK to enable searching, i.e. all parts that use Acetal?
5. Do you have a seperate OIR, lifecycle etc. for the mtl or CoGParts?

I'm sure there are other questions, but this will do for a start.

Regards

David.

[manjunathrv]

David, see my answers for few questions:

1. Do you have a WTPart (CoGPart) for the mtl files?  - NO. As Jim has clearly mentioned in the above posts, we store the .mtl files in our Library and point this location in our config.pro
2. Do you show material parameters on drawings? NO. We just call out Material Name on drawings.
3. Do you designate any of the material parameters to PDMLINK to enable searching, i.e. all parts that use Acetal? NO.
4. Do you have a seperate OIR, lifecycle etc. for the mtl or CoGParts? NO. We as admins put them all in Released State.