Republish on state Change

[keithschm]

I am kind of getting the run around from PTC on this.

Here is the question.

When you change a drawing from In Work to Released Will it triggera republish of the the wvs.publish.republishonepmdocumentchange= true

But it still does not trigger a republish. One PTC support tech said yes, the other said no.

Should it? Does yours? What do you all do?

HELP!!!

Thanks

[MikeLockwood]

It may be possible to, but it should not.
Changing the State is the company’s control mechanism, and by definition needs to be done AFTER all editing is done and all approvals are done.
The current state needs to be represented in the watermark applied to by ProductView.

The fatal error some make is including the state INSIDE the drawing / document, requiring an iteration after changing the state.

[LakshmanEaswara]

I think below property should be “publish.publishonepmdocumentchange”. We have set it and it does republish EPM Documents on state change.

Thanks,

Lakshman Easwaran
Stryker
325 Corporate Drive
Mahwah, NJ 07430

[sdrzewiczewski]

We have it set and it does republish on state change.

Mike if the state is pulled from the system attribute there is no need to iterate the design.

Steve D.

[ssenthil]

I am almost positive that the feature for publishing based on the state change is part of Medical Device Template.

If that is the case then one can deploy a listener service that listens for the state change and fires the publishing activity.



Hope this helps





Thank you and have a great time.

Best Regards

Swamy Senthil

Principal Solutions Architect, Swasen Inc

swamy.senthil@swasen.com(Email); 909 800 8423(M); 973 324 2729(W); 866 908 6561(F);

[LakshmanEaswara]

Republish on state change is out of the box (not related to MDT)



Thanks,

Lakshman Easwaran
Stryker
325 Corporate Drive
Mahwah, NJ 07430

[MikeLockwood]

If only the state is changing and none of the information contained in the design definition, why you republish?

[LakshmanEaswara]

1) We permanently watermark viewable so that all users can open viewable in Reader. We do not use ProductView for watermark rendering thereby avoiding the need to install Adobe in user’s machine. We have added an action in document details page that will open viewable in Reader.







2) As we use Medical Device Template e-signatures are appended as the last page of viewable. This is triggered by the custom listener on successful publish event.



Thanks,

Lakshman Easwaran
Stryker
325 Corporate Drive
Mahwah, NJ 07430

[keithschm]

I guess I am just confused. How is this not a standetred feature? We have all of our drawings publised to PDF. The only way I know how to change the state is through PDM LINK directly not through Pro/E. So if I release my drawing I have to manually go in and say republish so I can send a drawing to production that has the words " Released ont it?

That just does not make sense?

[davehaigh]

The whole point of republishing on the state change is so you get a published version showing the release state and iteration of the released file. In ProE, our formats display the following pdmlink parameters ptc_wm_lifecycle_state, ptc_wm_version, and ptc_wm_revision.

Those change when the drawing is released without any user interaction. Having the system republish on state change allows you to get a new viewable showing the correct release and iteration. We are using pdf as our viewable.

This is an unreleased drawing.
[cid:image005.png@01CBDE5F.65E1D730]

This is a released drawing:
[cid:image004.png@01CBDE5F.186D0B50]

This is the other corner of the format that shows the version and iteration for the model and drawing:

[cid:image007.png@01CBDE5F.65E1D730]
All of these values update when the file is released. The user never has to touch the drawing.

David Haigh

[RandyJones]

On 03/09/11 14:29, keith schmitt wrote:
>
> I guess I am just confused. How is this not a standetred feature? We have
> all of our drawings publised to PDF. The only way I know how to change the
> state is through PDM LINK directly not through Pro/E. So if I release my
> drawing I have to manually go in and say republish so I can send a drawing to
> production that has the words " Released ont it?
>
> That just does not make sense?
>
Depends on if you show the State on the drawing or not. Some companies do and
some don't. We are in the "show it on the drawing" camp. So like Lakshman (and
probably several others have said) you need to set the following property:
publish.republishonepmdocumentchange=true
ie:
xconfmanager -s publish.republishonepmdocumentchange=true -t
codebase/wvs.properties -p

From the codebase/properties.html file for publish.republishonepmdocumentchange:

publish.republishonepmdocumentchange *Default Value: *false
*Synopsis: *Republish when an EPMDocuments meta data changes
*Description: *When metadata on an EPMDocument is changed and the EPMDocument
does not iterate, eg a lifecycle state change, the associated Representations
will be updated. In certain cases, eg where the CAD file on the EMPDocument has
an association to that metadata, it may be desirable to Republish the
Representation rather than just updating it.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Randy Jones
Systems Administrator
Great Plains Mfg., Inc.
1525 E North St
PO Box 5060
Salina, KS USA 67401
email: -
Phone: 785-823-3276
Fax: 785-667-2695
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[MikeLockwood]

Ah - The difference is whether people publish to PDF or HPGL. We’ve been so long using the latter I forgot about using PDF.

For PDF:

- Finish edits at a working state

- State change; Approvals at a non-working/non-released state

- State change to Released

- Need to have the system reach into and update the content of the drawing/document after each state change

For HPGL:

- Finish edits at a working state (watermark dynamically applied reflects current state)

- State change; Approval at a non-working/non-released state (watermark dynamically applied reflects current state)

- State change to Released (watermark dynamically applied reflects current state)

[davehaigh]

Mike,
When you say, “(watermark dynamically applied reflects current state)” Are you talking about sever side watermarks that you see in the ProductView client? Or are you talking about something you add to the hpgl file using some third party program?

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

From: Lockwood,Mike,IRVINE,R&D [

[keithschm]

"We had similar issues. You needed to modify some wvs properties to republish on a state change.

I believe it is described in the Business Administration Guide under visualization.

publish.republishonepmdocumentchange=true

2. In order for publish.republishonepmdocumentchange to work, a representation must exist. Ray Ray Drennen

WORKED LIEK A CHARM!!

Thank you very much. How can PTC tech support not know this?

Thanks

[DarrenStorey]

Lakshman

Your solution sounds ideal for us – no Acrobat standard or product view required to see state watermark. I would love to implement this.

I have a few questions

1. How do you add the state value as a watermark to the PDF, do you use a 3^rd party tool, or custom scripting?


2. How do you deal with the position of the watermark on different size outputs, is it relative distance from edges?


3. Is this solution suitable for CAD Doc and Office Doc PDF outputs?

Although we currently do embed “state" on our CAD drawings, and have learnt to live with the problems that causes personally I am in complete agreement with you and Mike Lockwood (Alcon).

When comparing now to yesteryear, I visualize lifecycle state in many ways as the PLM equivalent of applying an authorizing wet signature or ink stamp to a master printed copy of a document version….and one specific version

The viewable is our modern-day “non-editable” master printed copy. Reporting state in the CAD file is more a useful indicator that a process has been followed rather than proof.

As a company we make and buy to print (digital or paper) not CAD file. The viewable for us is therefore the resulting master output document and CAD is just a tool used to create it, so the viewable is what we should be signing….. Or rather state marking.

Regards

Darren

[MikeLockwood]

We agree and have enforced that the viewable is what we do business on. Doing so forces the entire chain of people involved pay attention the viewable, such that:

- The CAD Designer needs to ensure that the viewable publishes without errors

- The CAD Checker checks the viewable first, and only if all is correct, then looks at the CAD Docs

Be a bit careful with having the system change the content file in any way as the result of state changes. If all works perfectly when using Promote or Change Notices, etc., it's still possible that someone could Set State at some later time. The watermarking from ProductView correctly reflects the current state of the data, regardless of how it got to that state.

Applying watermarks via ProductView is essentially free. You get the benefit of having all ProductView client tools while interacting with viewables, and any PDF created from ProductView includes the watermark. Hard to justify other approaches.

Another relatively major consideration: On a rehosted system (used for training, testing, development, etc.), all of your data comes across as a copy of production. Any process here needs to be differentiated from production. It's easy (and essential) to change the watermarks on a rehosted system to say that the data did not come from production; not so easy with a process that systematically updates the content, but likely can be done.

[LakshmanEaswara]

1. How do you add the state value as a watermark to the PDF, do
you use a 3rd party tool, or custom scripting?

I used iText (free open source)

2. How do you deal with the position of the watermark on different
size outputs, is it relative distance from edges?

This was trial and error to find the right position but iText has the
required APIs to position watermarks. Yes, the position is relative from
the edges. We put "Do not Use" watermarks in the middle and "Released"
at the bottom. Also we put dynamic print dates (the same way ProductView
does) when the PDF is rendered in the browser.

3. Is this solution suitable for CAD Doc and Office Doc PDF
outputs?

Yes, it is suitable for CAD Doc and Office Doc PDF outputs.



Thanks,

Lakshman Easwaran
Stryker
325 Corporate Drive
Mahwah, NJ 07430

[DarrenStorey]

Mike



Our docs are locked down at any state other than WIP, so content change
or direct user state change is not a big issue for us.

Once a document is approved for use for a purpose then revise is
required to create further versions and the whole thing starts again
from WIP



It's my understanding that the watermark applied by ProductView to a PDF
is an overlay, which can be turned on/off by the viewer. Also you must
have ProductView and Acrobat Standard to apply the watermark, which is
an issue for us. Is this correct?



I perceive pros and cons to HPGL v PDF - My understanding here, not a
statement of fact, corrections welcomed



* HPGL has stroked fonts so no font substitution or text
searching (although we're not fans of font substitution anyway)

* I'm told there are issues with correct representation of line
thickness with HPGL - comments welcomed

* PDF does not support 2D compare in ProductView while HPGL does
- Shame this is a handy tool.

* Like it or not PDF is the default document exchange standard
and if we publish to HPGL then we would need to create a PDF as well
anyway - maybe this is not a big deal??

* State can embedded in viewable for HPGL but some fiddling is
required to make that happen for PDF

* HPGL is for OK drawings but no good for office docs - Our
experience with Office Integration tool is tragic. We abandoned it but
would still like to get metadata on documents.



Good tip about the additional environments had not occurred to me and I
will bear that in mind.



Darren



From: Lockwood,Mike,IRVINE,R&D [

[SteveVinyard]

One more thing...HPGL does give you a nice thumbnail. PDF doesn't which is a real shame.

[cid:image001.gif@01CBDFE3.A112B880]

Steve Vinyard
Application Engineer

[llie]

Mike,

You can lock options in Productview so the Users can not change things,
like the config.sup in Pro/E. I have completely removed the default PV
views so only the CAD Model views are shown in the drop down list.

Publishing PDFs in PDMLink does not create a thumbnail for the users like
HPGL does. Like you mentioned in your 5th bullet, State can be shown in
HPGL and the it will be on a PDF along with the watermark once printed
from PV.




Lance Lie
Sr Computer System Technologist II
310.334.1934 office
310.426.4968 cell
310-334.3078 fax
-





From:
Steve Vinyard <->
To:
"Storey, Darren" <->, "Lockwood,Mike,IRVINE,R&D"
<mike.lockwood@alconlabs.com>, "-"
<->
Date:
03/11/2011 09:58 AM
Subject:
[solutions] - RE: Republish on state Change



One more thing…HPGL does give you a nice thumbnail. PDF doesn’t which is
a real shame.



Steve Vinyard
Application Engineer

[MikeLockwood]

I'm especially interested in your statement: "Our experience with Office Integration tool is tragic. We abandoned it but would still like to get metadata on documents..."

What have you seen for this specifically? We have it on our list to (attempt to) implement this year.

From day 1 with Windchill, we've invested extra in Document Collaboration Option, in order to be able to apply watermarking to Word Doc's and be able to treat them like Drawings in this regard. We also would also very much like to get metadata on documents, and this is the (only) attraction of Office Integration.

From: Storey, Darren [

[DarrenStorey]

Mike

We experienced an array of problems related to MSI instability, MSI non-function, some serious slowdown of office app launch and sometimes even complete failure to launch office apps. Most of our efforts to get it working were with 9.1M030 XP32 and office 2003. I must admit we did not pursue these problems with PTC. There may be a simple explanation. At the time we had higher priorities and the functionality gain was not high enough.

Things have moved on now with new Windchill builds, Windows 7 and Office 2007/2010. So perhaps its not even relevant. I'm sure you have your eye on the latest related compatibilities.

One thing that bugged us was an inability to report windchill attributes in .ppt files 2003 without some custom scripting. I'd say this is more of an Office issue though.

Sorry I don't have much more to add, it's perhaps off topic anyway.

Darren