ProductPoint and cache

[Marc-AntoineLem]

Hi all,

I just started using PP. If a user works on ProE on the PP server and exit ProE (or ProE crashes). Can we load the saved files from the cache ?

Thanks

Marc

[ChrisBergquist]

When you work in Pro/ENGINEER and are connected to a ProductPoint server, all files that you open in Pro/ENGINEER from the server are first saved to a local cache on your client workstation and then opened in Pro/ENGINEER. All files that you save in Pro/ENGINEER are first saved to your local cache and then the saved files are uploaded to the server in a background process by default (under the Synchronize Automatically option in Pro/ENGINEER).

The local cache is located by default under the user application data area. On Windows 7 for example, my cache is located at: D:\Users\<myusername\AppData\Roaming\PTC\ProductPointService\<myProductPointserverURL>

If you use the option Synchronize Manually, the files saved to the local cache are not uploaded to the server until you select the Synchronize action in Pro/ENGINEER or if you exit Pro/ENGINEER normally.

Whenever you open a file in Pro/ENGINEER that you previously saved to the server, Pro/ENGINEER first checks to see if the file needed is in your local cache. If the file you want to open is in your local cache, AND if the file version in your cache is the same as the latest version on the server, then Pro/ENGINEER will open the file from your cache.

The files in your cache are given numerical names that are interpreted by Pro/ENGINEER so you cannot work direclty with these files.

If you had saved a model in Pro/ENGINEER and then Pro/ENGINEER crashed right after the save, the file would have been saved to the cache and will be uploaded to the server in the background even if Pro/ENGINEER is not running. But if Pro/ENGINEER crashed before the save of a change in Pro/ENGINEER is complete, then you will not be able to recover the file.

If you disconnect from the network or lose network connectivity following the save of your changes in Pro/ENGINEER, the system will automatically continue the upload of your saved changes from your client to the server when you regain connectivity.

You can set the location of the cache by setting the client environment variable: PTC_WF_ROOT

You can limit the cache size by setting the client environment variable: PTC_CACHE_LIMIT Specify the limit size in Megabytes.

See the document Getting Started Using Windchill ProductPoint with Pro/ENGINEER for more details. I also attached the English version of this document that is relevant to ProductPoint 1.1 M030 (the latest release as of this posting).

[Marc-AntoineLem]

Thanks for the complete answer. That's what I was expecting from PP but I was doing something yesterday and thought I lost it.

Can you tell me if we can login as a different PP user on the same machine being logged in as the same user on the windows Domain?

Thanks

[PierreMALOCHET]

Hello

no don't do it because the cache files go to the user profil.

best regards

[KonstantinSount]

Hello,

WPP client is authenticated by WPP server using the Windows Network credentials.

There's no impicit Logon dialog, however the 'default' one is not restricted by the client.

If the goal is to share the same client cache among all users then PTC_WF_ROOT can be used. See the other reply from Christopher T. Bergquist.

What is not recommended is to work in parallel on the same PC using for example Remote desktop.

In other words, the cache has to be accessed only via one instance of WPP agent ( a residential background program, ProductPointAgent.exe), which runs only for one active user and it's not shared among active user connections. No other programs must access the cache at that time (for example, you shouldn't manually delete the cache when the Agent is running).

Regards,

Konstantin.