Run Catia WGM with user privileges

[ptc-6419831]

Hello,

I am having an issue with running Catia WGM with user privileges. Can anyone please assist me running the same in user privileges as our network policy doesn't allow us to give full admin privileges to users.

Thanking you in advance,

Regards,

Abdul Gafoor

[GaryMansell]

What exactly is your problem - we run the WWGM on all of our user's CAD machines without them having Admin permisssions?

Admin permissions are required to install the Application onto the CAD machine from the Windchill Server as this requires writing into the C:\Program Files directory (we do this for the users whenever there is an upgrade to the Windchill WWGM version). Once this is done the users can run the WWGM with their own priviledges and register the Catia version they are running without issue.

Rgds

Gary

[ptc-6419831]

Thanks for your quick reply. Let me brief the steps we have taken.

Users have got Catia installed in their machine. When Windchill was installed in our network, we also installed WGM in each client machine and integrated it with Catia. Installation was done with Admin privileges.

Now, when we try to run Catia through the shortcut created while registering Catia in WGM configuration, it's throwing an error. It runs fine when run from a user account with local admin privileges.

I'll try to attach the image of error

[GaryMansell]

I know that when using Solidworks with the WWGM, PTC say that when you first register the SW application in the WWGM you must Right Click the WWGM startup icon and run it as Administrator - this is because of Windows UAC preventing files being copied to protected Windows directories. After the SW application has been registered for the first time in the WWGM you can quit from it and subsequently run the WWGM as a normal user from then onwards.

To see if this is a similarly related issue, then I would suggest trying this for Catia ie - Run the WWGM from the user's login session as Administrator by right clicking and Run As Administrator, register the Catia application in the WWGM, quit from the program and then see if the WWGM and Catia will operate correctly using basic user priviledges.

Rgds

Gary

[ptc-6419831]

We got this solution from PTC before and tried it already. Unfortunately, didn't work.

[GaryMansell]

Ah - I have just seen your error screenshot that you have posted... I don't think that this is related to running the WWGM as Administrator - this looks to be more likely a Catia issue than a WWGM issue.

I think that this might be due to the Catia Abstraction dll's not being compiled properly for your Catia version - are you compiling the dll's for the exact same version and Service Pack/ Hot Fix of Catia that you are using on the client. Are you running the latest versions of the MS Visual C++ Runtime's on the client machine? Have they been compiled exactly as per the PTC instructions?

Also the error that you are getting is a classic Catia/Graphics Driver symptom (although more usually when you have a model open and graphics displayed) so I would also make sure that your Graphics drivers are updated/good.

Rgds

Gary

[ptc-6419831]

Hmm... this is something I can't confirm if we did properly. I'll check this part again.

[ptc-6419831]

Just wondering:

Even if this turns out to be true, how come it's running fine with admin privileges?

[GaryMansell]

That's a fair point, I agree it seems most likely that it is a permissions issue related to the installaton/configuration of the WWGM.

I mentioned it becuase the "click OK to terminate" error is a common Catia issue caused by problems with the bits of code that integrate with Catia - ie the WWGM Abstraction DLL's and the Graphics Driver dll's.

Thinking about it futher my money would probably be on the fact that the Administrator user has written some WWGM config files/settings/dll's that Catia can't access as a non-priviledged user and this is hence why it works as Admin by but not as a normal user.

Now, I know for sure that we have no problems with running Catia and the WWGM integration as a non-priviledged user, so you have done something wrong with the setup/config somewhere... I think that you must go back to basics and start from fresh again (ie fresh machine), making sure that you are following the instructions exactly per the docs because you should not be seeing this.

Rgds

Gary

[GaryMansell]

There is also something wrong with your install/configure process.

1) Install Catia software as Admin

2) Install WWGM software as Admin

But, do not register the Catia Application within WWGM whilst logged in as Administator user

3) Login as normal user and start WWGM to register the Catia Application.

4) Quit the WWGM and start again from Catia/WWGM icon on user's desktop as the user.

Depending on the location of your WWGM setup Env variables, it is possible that the Administrator has copied/written the WWGM dll's and config to a location not readable/writeable by the Windows user and hence Catia crashes when trying to open.

Note - you would need to completely clear down all your WWGM setup config directories and re-do this again properly.

[ptc-6419831]

Yes, this is exactly we followed.

[GaryMansell]

Do you set the environment variables PTC_WF_ROOT / PTC_WLD_ROOT to control where the WWGM Workspace and configuration files are stored for the user, or do you not set them and allow the WWGM to save its workspace and config data to the user's Windows profile?

If you have set them to a location that is not unique to the user and the administrator has written files to the location (by registering the catia application in the WWGM) that the user then can't read, you might see the problem that you are seeing.

We don't use the default location of allowing the WWGM workspace and config to be stored under the user's profile directory because with long file names, you can over flow the 255 character path limit. To avoid this issue we set them much nearer the root of the user's drive, but we set them to be user specific by using the user's USERNAME variable so that each user who logs into the machine has their own WWGM config and workspace location:

PTC_WF_ROOT=C:\PTC_TEMP\%USERNAME%\uWGM

PTC_WLD_ROOT=C:\PTC_TEMP\%USERNAME%\uWGM

Rgds

Gary