Possibility of exporting all CAD files from Windchill in one shot

[rjaganatha]

Hello Guys,

I have a requirement where I want to export a long list assemblies from windchill to local computer.

Steps I follow,

- Search for assembly number,

- Add to workspace,

- Export from workspace to local drive,

As you can see, this way is not feisable for a list of assemblies.

So, i want to export the whole set of data (CAD files) from Windchill at once.

Is this possible?

If I understand right, we cannot get the dump from Windchill server as the files are encrypted (Not sure).

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Rajesh Jaganatha

[MikeLockwood]

Could create an assembly just for this purpose and add all that have to be downloaded to this assembly. Bring up this assembly, then save to disk, then delete that assembly. For the new assembly, can use default assembly condition, no constraints.

Note: The vaulted files are not encrypted, but the file names on disk are hash names (e.g. 0000F56EAC43). They have to be downloaded thru Windchill.

[rjaganatha]

Thanks for the response Mike!,

Adding all the assemblies to one assembly is not a practical thing for me, as I have to do this for about 5000 assemblies. That is the reason i am looking to get a whole dump of data from windchill server.

As i understand there are some limiations like you said, file names are hash names in server.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas.

[GregoryPERASSO]

Hi

With a correct SQL script, it is easy to get the good corresponding filename for a hash in the vault.

So you can directly copy the hashed proE files from the vault and rename it.

I've alrady done that kind of thing for CADDS, Catia or Office files ...

but since 9.1 , with the file synch mechanism (that's why PTC disallow a direct download of CAD files now), if you proceed by direct copy from vault. You may not have some attributes synchronised from Windchill to CAD parameters ...

regards

Gregory

[MikeLockwood]

May want to check out Site, Utilities, Import/Export. Haven't used much but may allow what you need.

[dschenken]

From what I've seen, another problem with direct file extraction is that references are not corrected in Windchill files. Not only are the filenames hashed, but the names internal to the files are bounced against a table. That way, when you have 5000 assemblies that refer to a part, and you rename the part, Windchill doesn't have to alter all 5000 files. It just keeps track of the change and fixes the name references when you ask for the file. I'm not even sure it does this when files are copied to a workspace; it may delay it until the file is opened.

If time is not a great factor, a script that just opens them in Pro/E or Creo directly and then does a backup may be your best bet. Scripting the CAD tool is pretty easy, and you get the benefit of finding out about whether the models are any good. There's no need to add to workspace as the link to Commonspace will be used by the CAD tool to retrieve items as required.

[GregoryPERASSO]

Yes David,

think that the rename is like parameters ... file synch is done during download in the workspace.

[rjaganatha]

Thank you all for the responses!

Hi David,

A script could solve my problem. Could you please share with me a url or pdf or any thing where i can find more detials about scripting in Pro E/Creo?

[HRodarte]

Using a CREO trail file is probably the easiest method to achieve success.

You would begin with a clear cache, define your backup directory, then

go through all your steps: 1. "open in CREO" 2. File -> Backup 3. Close File, Erase Not-displayed and Close CREO

You can then take the trail.txt file, and modify it for each assembly file, and run them one at a time or string a few assemblies together.

You'll have to be careful on how much data you can process for each session, because you could exhaust your allocated cache space.

[Matheswaran]

Yes, I am also facing the same issue. Is it possible to export the windchill cad document to local drive?

If yes please let me know the way how can do it?

Thanks,

Matheswaran S

mathes1010@gmail.com

---