Question regarding Product & Project Interaction and sharing.

[davehaigh]

We've only really used Project for sharing a copies of files with end consumers. For example the manufacturing shops.

We are now looking at using it for a more collaborative process.

We have two classes of users.

A. Those that have access and modification permissions to files in the Product

B. Those that only have access to a Project

User A will share files to a Project from a Product. That user B will use to develop other files. Typically they would not have modification ability to the files shared from the Product.
When these additional files are done and we want to manage them in the Product, they get Sent to PDM.

Now the question come up when user B wants to make a change to that object how to we give them permissions to do that without giving them permissions to the Product.

David Haigh
Phone: 925-424-3931
Fax: 925-423-7496
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
7000 East Ave, L-362
Livermore, CA 94550

[SteveVinyard]

Hi David, ProjectLink handles this pretty well.


1- User A shares Drawing 12345.drw - B.2 to a Project

a. Instead of just doing a "Share" you can select "PDM Checkout" instead

i. [cid:image001.png@01CFA755.939D44D0]

ii. This doesn't actually check the object out, it just allows other PROJECT users to perform a checkout/checkin

2- User B can now check out the drawing, edit it and check it in.

3- User B's modifications ARE NOT published to the PDMLink Product...yet

a. They remain ONLY in the project at this time

b. Multiple iterations are made and they are tracked differently if I recall correctly

i. B.2.1

ii. B.2.2

iii. B.2.3

iv. The iteration in bold is the PROJECT iteration

v. When B.2.3 is finally checked back into PDMLink via a "PDM Checkin", it will only show B.3. All of the other ProjectLink iterations are not kept. It just checks in the latest modification.




[cid:image001.gif@01CF7046.C96AB930]

Stephen Vinyard
Business Development Manager/Solution Architect

[mdebower]

We have over 150 active projects in ProjectLink right now at various stages of development, and I think Steve sums it up pretty well. I really wish PTC would have used a different term than Check Out, for giving a project control of an Object. It is just too confusing to users. Plus, you don't "Check In" from a Project, instead the command is called "Send to PDM" which is totally confusing to most users.

Something else to watch out for is old or unintended relationships between CAD Objects, especially drawings and assemblies. If care is not taken when modeling, unwanted relationships are forged between objects, and then when the user wants to "Send to PDM" they get models they didn't expect or want. Explaining to an Engineer why Windchill isn't letting them check things into PDM when they are under a deadline is not much fun! (:

I am including a PDF of a training slide I use to explain the data flow in Windchill when working in a project. I still get dazed looks, but I think it helps.

-marc
TriMark Corporation
CAD / PLM Systems Manager

[CaitlinWheeless]

Hi David --

I'd encourage you to read the Windchill Help Center topic "Use Case Scenario for PDM Checkout." It covers several possible scenarios for using PDM Checkout. (I've also attached a slightly updated copy below)

One example of how you could use PDM checkout :

1. Product User A shares File1 to a project.

2. Project User B uses File1 to develop a related document, File1-2

3. User A performs the Send to PDM action to add File1-2 to the product

Option 1 -- From the Send to PDM window, select File1-2 and click the Keep Checked Out option.

User B can continue to modify their project-specific version, but the File1-2 object in PDM won't be affected until/unless you explicitly perform the Send to PDM action again. If you later decide that you don't want to include any of User B's work, then you can perform an Undo PDM Checkout action or the Convert to Share action.

Option 2 -- From the Send to PDM window, select File1-2 and click the PDM Checkin option.

Convert to PDM Checkout action.

Regarding access -- You would still need User A to perform step #1 and step #3. But after the initial Send to PDM action is completed, and provided that the object is being shared or is checked-out to the project, you can grant ad-hoc permissions on an object-by-object basis.

This would allow project users to perform various PDM checkout actions, including Send to PDM, without granting them access to the product or allowing them to view product-specific information. See the "User Permissions" section in Permissions and Valid Object Types.