PDMLink 9.1 M050 & 10.1 M010 : two instances at same company

[alexknelson]

We currently have 9.1 M050 and are using it for WF4, WF5, Solidworks 2009 & 2010.

We're needing to use Creo 2 soon as well as Solidworks 2011 and 2012....to accomplish this are considering a 2nd PDMLink instance. Basically keeping 9.1 and 10.1 around to support the wide variety of versions we need to support.

Has anyone else considered this? Other than server cost and possible user confusion are there any reasons not to do this? Other possible solutions?

Thanks!

[HugoHermans]

So you are going to have an 9.1 instance, and a 10.1 instance of Windchill? Are you going to merge both together afterwards? Or do you intend to keep them separate to the infinity? Apart from confusion, you need double of the licenses.

Btw, I think 9.1 M070 is compatible with WF3 - WF4 - WF5 and Creo2? I've no idea about SW.

[alexknelson]

Our thought was to keep 9.1 and 10.1 separate. I'll have to look into the licensing as that may certainly be an issue. 9.1 M070 sounds interesting, but we've seen a lot to like about the new 10.x interface.

[MichaelEspinosa]

This is interesting.

A few questions:

1. What data do you currently manage in your WC 9.1 M050 system? CAD Objects, Part (WTPart), EBOM, Documents?
2. Are you using Change Management in WC 9.1 M050 to release these CAD Objects, WTPart, EBOM and Documents?
3. Is your WC 9.1 M050 system integrated with and ERP System (SAP or Oracle ERP)?
4. How many different Product Lines are you managing in WC 9.1 M050 system?
5. Are you managing the CAD Objects, WTParts, EBOM, and Documents for these different Product Lines using Product containers?
6. If you go to WC 9.1 and WC 10.1, will all the engineering content for a Product Line be distributed across these two WC systems, or will all the engineering content for a Product Line be in one, or the other WC 9.1 or WC10.1 system? If both, what will be the process to release changes?
7. The WC user communities, do you plan to have different teams working on each individual WC system, or are the thoughts to train the WC user community to work with both WC 9.1 and WC 10.1 systems? These two GUI are very different, for heavy uses on both systems, this may not be an issue, once you get past the learning curve, but for casual uses, this may be an issue.
8. Does your company use COTS parts within work designs? If yes, will these COTS parts have to reside in both WC systems?
9. How does your ITS department charge the business for WC infrastructure and support team? Will the business be willing to pay to support both instances of WC 9.1 and WC 10.1?

More than anything, I am asking these questions to help you think this through....

[alexknelson]

1. WCAD only at this time; ProE and Solidworks. Cadence and Mentor may be added in the future.

2. Not currently.

3. No.

4. We are 100% contract to hire so at this time any of projects using ProE are contained with 9.1, and soon the Solidworks projects will also be in pdmlink 9.1

5. WE're not using product containers to the best of my knowledge

6. The thought would be to have the product/project existing in either 9.1 or 10.1 depending on which version of ProE or Solidworks needed to be use. Application version is 99% dictated by our customers.

7. The thought would be for the engineerrs to use both 9.1 and 10.1 depending on which version of CAD tool they need to use.

8. I believe we use COTS and yes they would likely need to exist in both.

9. The thought would be for engineers to use either 9.1 or 10.1 depending on which version of CAD tool they need to use. I believe COTS parts would need to reside in both systems. I am in IT and the primary support person for WC; having another set of servers to supoprt for 10.1 isn't my dream, but I don't see many other options given the wide variety of CAD tool versions we need to use.

[rkayasth]

Is there a reason not to upgrade?

But technologically, its possible to have n number of Windchill running parallely.

Rgds,

Ravin