Rename the File Name of a document

[STEVEG]

Can you rename the File Name of a document in PDMLink like you can for CAD files?  Not through accessing the database.  I want it through the UI of PDMLink.

[kpritchard]

Why not download the file, rename it locally and replace content?  Is it a permissions thing?  How many need to be renamed?  Are you trying to avoid iterations?

In theory, a custom action could be created to do the above (since the filename property does not seem to have a set Method) and add to the UI

[STEVEG]

Then the history of the File Name is not correct.

There are not that many and so far we have resorted to exporting the file, deleting it from PDMLink, then the user re-imports it as the correct File Name.

I don't want results from a search to show a file when the File Name was once what they entered to be searched for.  If that makes sense.

[kpritchard]

Do you mean the "Name" of the WTDocument Object or the filename?  I was assuming filename...  Or are you deleting to get rid of the "fingerprints" of the erroneous filename in older WTDocuments?  Purge and/or Delete non-latest iterations should be able to take care of that and save you deleting and recreating the WTDocument.

... In other news, I was able to set the filename of a secondary content (attachment) as part of doing an automated upload of an attachment, so I would expect that developing a small utility to find and adjust the filename would be doable... just not sure of the results so test, test test.  The use case I was working on was to capture the text in the "Proposed Solution" Attribute of a Change Request and upload as an attachment to capture the initial value so the attribute could evolve as the Change Request progresses.

[STEVEG]

I am talking about the "File Name".  I.e.

The history of the document will look like this.

File Name                 Version

123456.docx               A.1

789123.docx               A.2

The "Name" and "Number" fields can be changed but you can't use the Rename command in PDMLink.

[kpritchard · Accepted solution]

So for a limited number of Documents why not Delete non-latest Iterations to get rid of your A.1?  This would get rid of the "fingerprints" of the bad file name.

[STEVEG]

We have decided, at least up to this point, not to do that.  I started another response but then it got me thinking.  I never tried it.  So on my test server I did.  I tried it on a CAD file.

What was really interesting is this CAD file has revision A through H.  Each revision has several iterations.  I went to the detail page of version F.12 and used that command and it deleted iterations 1 though 11 on revision F only.

I never really noticed that command in the Actions menu before.  Either that or I just thought it worked differently than it does now.  I might have thought it deleted all non-latest iterations of all revisions.

Thank you Keir.  That just might be the answer depending on the situation.  But I would still like PDMLink to allow renaming the File Name of documents.

[MikeLockwood]

It's interested to take a step back and consider this.

In general, a business doesn't care if a Document is CAD or non-CAD but Windchill has to - and has to force users to work in very different ways for CAD Docs vs. WT Docs.  Why?  Fundamentally because the CAD files "know" what other filenames they are dependent on - but non-CAD doc's don't have this relationship (except in the case of OLE object relationships in MS Word, Excel, etc. but these are not accommodated by Windchill).

he CAD file relationships are created by the CAD tool (e.g. a DRW references a PRT; an ASM references a PRT).  Windchill needs to essentially duplicate these relationships as the links between CAD Documents, adding more functionality such as As-Stored and Occurrences, links to viewables, etc.

If one changes a CAD filename without telling Windchill about it by changing the CAD Doc Number, then the CAD relationship will fail.  One can easily see this by using File, Backup from CAD and then changing filenames on disk directly (outside Windchill).

For WTDoc's that are Renamed / renumbered, it seems to make sense that the files remains in place for each History version; can't be accommodated for CAD though.

[ScottMorris]

Was a Product Idea ever submitted for this topic? I could not find one, but it should be there.