Sharing data with client

AN_9350055 · ‎Sep 21, 2023

Hello!

We installed windchill and are now exploring the possibilities how to use and configure our system. Before Windchill we made a pdf of each part and assembly and made manufactering record book for our customers.

We are now seeking the possibilty to have our electronics BOM seperate from our Mechanics BOM, where the "dummy" mechanic parts are just a representation of space required and the electronics BOM are fully defining the parts using WTParts. Meaning a complete E-BOM will be a mix of the two BOMs. The CAD drawing we earlier sent to our customers will with this solution only refer to dummy mechanical parts.

How do I then share our WTPart structure with our customers to show the build up of an assmbly? We dont want to force our customers over to creo view to spin 3d models for retrieving data. I tried searching the community and reseller regarding this question, but I am not able to get any useful answers on sharing data that currently are shared by a Creo drawing.

If anyone could shed some light on how this is done in other companies I would highly appriciate.

Best regards Arild

HelesicPetr · ‎Sep 22, 2023

Hi @AN_9350055

Similar question was asked few days ago.

Windchill Package can help to share data with your's customer

Try to check the help.

Using Packages to Import and Export Data

Establishing Package Content

As I know the package is not so user friendly and takes a while to collect all data what you need but it is official process that can have own workflow.

Our customers wanted easier tool but it is build on customization.

New Wizard with specific requirements and logic that collects drawing PDFs from WTPart structure..

PetrH

AN_9350055 · ‎Sep 26, 2023

Hi PetrH

Thanks for your answer and pointing to right direction. Do you know if there is some examples to be found somewhere regarding this?

Often after reading the help section, I have new and different questions instead of answers of my original questions 🙂

Should think this is something every company using Windchill needs to output to customers at some point?

Br, Arild

HelesicPetr · ‎Sep 26, 2023

Hi @AN_9350055

Check this video on youtube 😄

Windchill PDMLink 12 - Course 9 - Creating Packages for exporting data

PetrH

Dobi · ‎Sep 26, 2023

Have you considered ProjectLink to share with customers?

You control what you share (and how) and can stop sharing at any point.

We looked at packages for sharing with manufacturers but projectLink turned out to be more effective. The downside is that the customers need access to your Windchill licenses to get to the data.

AN_9350055 · ‎Oct 03, 2023

Hi Dobi!

Thanks for your input!

We haven't considered ProjectLink yet. Are you also using this as your projectplanner/GANTT or is this mainly used for sharing info?

Although, it seems odd. I see as an example John Deere using windchill. I guess you could buy a tractor without having to purchase windchill to axess your drawings and manuals?

Best Regards, Arild

Dobi · ‎Oct 03, 2023

At my last company we set this up exclusively for external access either in the sharing only mode (like sharing models and drawings with manufacturers where they only consume data) or in the design collaboration mode (where an external company is also modeling and contributing to the effort). Just bypassing emailing drawings back and forth as revisions change was worth it.

There is a licensing aspect to keep in mind. If you take advantage of ProjectLink for data access, then it's the external users that consume your licenses. Depending on what you need, a view-only ADU may be sufficient if they are only viewing/downloading published content. If you go the design collaboration route, you're on the hook to provide accounts and licenses for the incoming users. However, the price of the licenses (we calculated) was a fraction of the time savings and data integrity assurance.

I don't know what all John Deere has for a setup but I imagine they'd probably have Thingworx for any sort of external access point.

AN_9350055 · ‎Oct 05, 2023

Hi Dobi

Thanks for your explanation.

This seems like a good solution in the design and collabertian mode as you describe. I have been using email and converting to step files as an external resource was using Autodesk Inventor and it was a lot of hazzle importing/exporting data and replacing components in Creo. This is good input for solving this issue.

The issue i am struggling with understanding is how to show a WTPart structure based on a pdf drawing. I understand a WTPart structure could easily be done with a Creo view, but we dont want to share our models with our clients because it could provide "too much info" and easier to copy our products. A pdf is perfect for this. Hence my comment regarding the John Deere or whirlpool or whatever. If you buy a tractor or dishwasher, you get a useer manual with drawings as a PDF, these drawings can be based on a structure based of WTParts. You dont get an access to Whirpool's or John Deer`s Windchill enviroment. Sorry, for my bad wording and explanation here.

BR Arild

HelesicPetr · ‎Oct 05, 2023

Hi @Dobi

The company invest to an another tool to share information from windchill and create manuals and drawings.

You can share information and build whatever you can imagine, even thou the system does not provide a function.

For example Creo Illustrate is nice tool to create manuals with windchill structure and it can be shared out of windchill but if you want to save user's time then customization is needed to automate some operations.

PetrH

Dobi · ‎Oct 05, 2023

Hi @AN_9350055

With Inventor or any other non-PTC CAD in the collaborative mode, you'll have to have an appropriate Windchill WGM license (Mech1 i think covers Inventor) so that tends to add cost and complexity... it's workable but I'd only go through it again if we're committed to the supplier and the supplier is committed to us for the long term.

I hear you with the struggle of what to share that's enough but not too much. I'm sure there are lots of ways to go about that. Thingworx may be a way to go if cost/benefit works out. For us, it was a bit much both in terms of back end maintenance, front end development and license costs. But it does give you control over what is made available. It is like a data aggregate that pulls from different sources and you can have a mash-up that displays the structure and only allows for access to the published content (so no CAD). And the users dont' directly access Windchill.

You can do something similar with ProjectLink, I think, but I'll have to try some settings. If your publishing is working and you're generating PDFs with drawings and in general of things you want to make available you can have those be generated as stand-alone WTDocuments that are associated to WTParts through Published associations. So then you can share just those (and the thing i'll have to check is whether you can share just those if you were to share your WTPart structure). But I also think that if you're giving your non-internal users something like a view only license (ADU may be a good choice here if you have a lot of users that dont' come in every day) they ought to be able to see the structure and the PDFs but won't have the ability to interact with the CAD (i.e. to download it) even if it comes across.

In ProjectLink you can share WTPart and WTdocument and not CAD so that shouldn't be an issue. And since it's a stand-alone context, you can also make sure there's no CAD access by putting in a deny read on EPMDOcument type... just a thought.

There's also a "make your own" option. The APIs offer OOTB functionality to get WTPart structure and associated content and you can just ensure that you don't program in there any access to EPMDocument types. Then you run the calls from a website and display it for users... it's a home-made Thingworx 🙂

Like @HelesicPetr says, Creo Illustrate is really nice for manuals and graphics but it does take work and you'd have to automate some tasks to have it do what I think you're getting at.