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Rename many + Revise many

MikeLockwood
22-Sapphire I

Rename many + Revise many

We acquired a company with mature SolidWorks design data - now bringing into Windchill.

They had no data management - just stored in folders.  Filenames include Revision.

All comes in very nicely.  But - Need

A) A mass Rename / Renumber effort

Thoughts / advice on how to rename / renumber efficiently?

B) Also need to Revise all to the current correct Rev (or bring in at correct Rev - does not seem possible)

Thoughts on how to bring each to correct Rev efficiently?

thanks in advance

15 REPLIES 15

You could create a java class that would do the following:

  1. query for the solidworks epmdocs
  2. parse the existing name to extract the actual name and revision
  3. rename using the actual name extracted in step 2
  4. change revision using the revision extracted in step 2

There is no default way to rename.  Although they are considering it.  There are product ideas out there for that and other commands.

I haven't tried this but the problem comes in because not all the objects may be related.  What if you put all the models in an assembly.  Then when you do a rename of the assembly you can collect all the related models and their drawings.  I know that is extra steps but it was just a thought.

MikeLockwood
22-Sapphire I
(To:STEVEG)

Thanks for the info on this.


In fact, there are only a few large assemblies, so executing Rename from one of them and then selecting Dependents Required or All and collecting Drawings gives us all CAD objects.  There is no typing - just copy/paste from a spreadsheet into the Rename UI.  So - Maybe this is as good as it can be but still very laborious.  Was hoping to be able somehow to load a spreadsheet (CSV >> XML) with IS / CHANGE_TO fields.

We may try to tackle with the custom class suggested by Randy.  If anyone has a sample of this to Rename one object (using an input file), would appreciate.  This may be something that I can contract to a consultant and throw at least a little bit of $ at.

thanks again

BenPerry
13-Aquamarine
(To:MikeLockwood)

Rick Passolt‌‌ from Fishbowl Solutions has something that we have used at our company.  It is simple and works great.  Several other people in the community have used it as well, and can vouch for it.

Just like you say, give it a CSV file with 3 columns and it will renumber or rename it.  WTParts, WTDocs, or EPMDocs.

Mike - I'm coin operated (no job too small) and see this as doable.  Willing to go fixed $ that we can negotiate.

One concern though... Are you wanting to rename the filename or just the WC Name/Number?  Concern would be in terms of Solidworks understanding the files it's looking for.

Mike,

A).  I have a very simple mass rename tool that I had developed for a recent Pro/I 3.4 --> WC 10.1 migration to rename CAD due to duplications.  As it exists now, this renamer takes a CSV in the format "<currentNumber>,<newNumber>" one line per entry.  It searches WC on EPMDocument number for a match to <currentNumber> and then updates the number and the file name to <newNumber>.  It does not modify the "name" field, though it would likely be very easy to do that.

B).  For the same project I mentioned in A, I also had to do revision modification post load, in which I update all docs given a revision mapping (revision 25 --> A, 26 --> B, etc).  For your case you'd be looking to set specific EPMDocs to specific revisions, which is definitely possible with a slight tweak to my process.  What is nice about this is that it doesn't require actually creating another revision - it just updates the revision, and we may be able to do this in a way if you had to "back-revise" objects as well.

Both A) and B) tools I described above can be applied to WTPart as well, in case WTParts are being used.  Let me know if you're interested!

RandyJones
19-Tanzanite
(To:bsindelar)

B).  For the same project I mentioned in A, I also had to do revision modification post load, in which I update all docs given a revision mapping (revision 25 --> A, 26 --> B, etc).  For your case you'd be looking to set specific EPMDocs to specific revisions, which is definitely possible with a slight tweak to my process.  What is nice about this is that it doesn't require actually creating another revision - it just updates the revision, and we may be able to do this in a way if you had to "back-revise" objects as well.

If you are using wt.vc.VersionControlHelper.service.changeRevision() to change the revision then you should warn people this will change the last modified timestamp on all the iterations of the revision getting changed to the current time. So in other words the history of when items were modified has just been lost. IMHO this is a very serious bug however PTC doesn't seem to think so.

bsindelar
6-Contributor
(To:RandyJones)

I am not using that method.  The method I am using does not modify timestamps.

RandyJones
19-Tanzanite
(To:bsindelar)

Bob Sindelar wrote:

I am not using that method.  The method I am using does not modify timestamps.

What method are you using?

I would be very interested to know. My current workaround for this bug is to save the lastmodified timestamps and put them back after using wt.vc.VersionControlHelper.service.changeRevision(). Works but should not be needed.

bsindelar
6-Contributor
(To:RandyJones)

It is more of a direct DB modification method which updates the revision while keeping the record of that revision's ordinal place intact, so the system will properly use the "next" revision in the sequence when next revised.

RandyJones wrote:

If you are using wt.vc.VersionControlHelper.service.changeRevision() to change the revision then you should warn people this will change the last modified timestamp on all the iterations of the revision getting changed to the current time. So in other words the history of when items were modified has just been lost. IMHO this is a very serious bug however PTC doesn't seem to think so.

Update: The changing of the last modified timestamp by wt.vc.VersionControlHelper.service.changeRevision() seems to have been fixed in Windchill 10.2 M030. At least on my 10.2 M030-CPS05 system this is no longer an issue. Apparently PTC changed their mind about this not being a bug.

We faced similar problem and since mass rename / renumber was only one of the many tasks we would like to perform in bulk, we decided to develop custom tool for it.

It allows you to perform bulk admin tasks directly from Excel.

Apart from other functionality, it supports rename / renumber  for WTParts and EPMDocs, however you can easily add mass revise functionality too.

The tool works in this way:

1. You define your custom report in the report manager ( the report defines the data set you want to perform the bulk action on)

2. Using excel data from web you retrieve the data into spreadsheet

3. Then you  highlight portion of the data you want to perform bulk action on. Our simple custom vba add in then  allows you to generate info engine task file.

4. The task can be executed directly on the the server from within excel (requires admin shares enabled on the server), or it can be copied manually to server side and executed / scheduled later.

5. The task uses windchill server side JAVA API to perform the bulk actions.

6. Results are logged  so you can review the outcome.

Tested on Windchill 10.1 M040, however it should work on other  versions with no problems .

I can provide you with complete tool (server side java code, vba add in plus some example rm report), if you are interested.

MikeLockwood
22-Sapphire I
(To:pmateju)

Wow - impressive.

We are being strongly advised to only pursue "published" tools for this, and so are currently talking w/Fishbowl Solutions" as the first step (as iniitally recommended above).  Would like to be able to take you up on the offer to see and play with the complete tool if possible, but likely won't be able to throw any $ your way for it.

We have in fact put a bunch of very sophisticated Excel spreadsheets in place with extensive vba code for a variety of reports and comparisons - happy to share those in trade

thanks!

Pavel,

I am interested, if you are still able to share.

mjenkins
5-Regular Member
(To:MikeLockwood)

Delete from Windchill.

Bring the file folder home and open on your Mac.

Use Name Mangler to rename how you like.

Reimport back into PDM.

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