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Patriot_1776
Patriot_177622-Sapphire II
22-Sapphire II
March 9, 2012
Question

So, why doesn't "update" actually WORK?

  • March 9, 2012
  • 7 replies
  • 25090 views

I have "dm_overwrite_contents_on_update" set to "yes", and an overwrite in Intralink worked just fine, every time......yet now in W/C update doesn't actually do anything? Huh?

7 replies

Patriot_1776
Patriot_177622-Sapphire IIAuthor
22-Sapphire II
March 9, 2012

We ended up doing an "Add to Workspace", and choosing NOT to reuse the file did the trick. However, this is still puzzling, why doesn't Update work?

    P
    ptc-41089081-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    March 13, 2012

    We experienced the same problem in Windchill 10 now. But for 9.1 update was working. Hope this can be corrected.

    J
    jbs51-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    March 14, 2012

    I agree with you Frank -

    The bestg thing you can do is "Add to Workspace" and unchecking the "Reuse Content from Target Workspace". It actually gives you flexibility in case if you want to keep your workspace changes.

    Jay

    M
    mtoreskog10-Marble
    10-Marble
    March 22, 2012

    Hi

    The definition of the Update action in Windchill differs from Pro/INTRALINK. In Windchill you use the Update action in order to update out-of-date objects, i.e. retrieve a later version of an object to the workspace from commonspace. E.g. you have version 1.4 (A.4) in the workspace and there's a 1.5 (A.5) version in commonspace. The Update action will overwrite the 1.4 version with the 1.5 version. With the dm_overwrite_contents_on_update preference you can set the default behaviour when you have modified the 1.4 version using continue. If it is set to Yes you will overwrite the modification made to the 1.4 version. If it is set to No you will keep your changes but they will have been made to the 1.5 version. E.g if the 1.4 version is a simple extrude. You have modified the 1.4 version using continue, adding a hole.The 1.5 version contains the simple extrude and a round. If you use Update and have the dm_overwrite_contents_on_update preference set to No you would have the 1.5 version in the workspace with the extrude and the hole without the round (i.e. you have overwitten whats in the commonspace). If you check it out and check it in the 1.5 version would be the extrude+hole and not the extrude+round.

    The action to overwrite modified content in the workspace (made by you) is Add (read Add to workspace). E.g. you have the 1.4 version in the workspace and you have made modifications to it using continue. You can deselect the Reuse content in target workspace or go to the Advanced tab, select the objects and click Download. I would suggest that you go to the Advanced tab so that you can decide what objects to overwrite and what objects to reuse. E.g. if you use the Add action on an assembly the dependencies set to required will overwrite all modifications made to all parts if you deselect the Reuse content in target workspace check box.

    Hope this helps.

    /Martin

    The

    Patriot_1776
    Patriot_177622-Sapphire IIAuthor
    22-Sapphire II
    March 22, 2012

    Thanks, that's helpful, but still too complicated. Still not sure I follow it actually. Honestly, I think I'll just avoid using the command, and stick to "add to workspace". The Intralink definition is so much better and simpler. You update, and it changes whatever was in your Workspace to be what's in commonspace. Simple, easy to understand. I don't see the need to completely refine terms we were all familiar with to completely reverse what they used to do. Think what would happen if the meaning of stoplight colors was reversed.

    P
    ptc-41089081-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    April 10, 2012

    Frank,

    When the update applet appears, click on the download icon to use the file in the commonspace.

    H
    hammerhead1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    April 18, 2012

    Frank,

    Why would someone decide to redefine the meaning of "update" to something else? Update doesn't mean update anymore. What were they thinking? Someday I'm going to meet one of these programmers and maybe we'll be able to come to an understanding. I have never seen a program so unintuitive.

    M
    22-Sapphire I
    MikeLockwood22-Sapphire I
    22-Sapphire I
    April 19, 2012

    The meanings of all these actions are critical - and deserve a lot of attention by PTC. Lots of confusion caused by them.

    Patriot_1776
    Patriot_177622-Sapphire IIAuthor
    22-Sapphire II
    January 15, 2015

    Not just confusion, sometimes it actually works, and sometimes it does not. THAT is far more concerning. I don't have any trust in this software....ZERO.

      Patriot_1776
      Patriot_177622-Sapphire IIAuthor
      22-Sapphire II
      January 14, 2015

      We are now almost done with a project here that used a top-down assembly (skeleton), and have had TONS of lost work and problems because Windburn refuses to actually update the parts referencing the assembly, or worse, updating the skeleton that drives everything. This is totally absurd. We've found here that sometimes it's more robust to do an update, not in windburn, but while in the part or assembly. Of course, sometimes even THIS does not work, and worse, doesn't show in in the workspace that it's out of date, leading to HUGE problems. I've found that the ONLY reliable way to make sure you have the latest files is to DELETE ALL the files in question, then re-add them to the Workspace again, unchecking the re-use box.

      This is truly pathetic. I should send PTC a bill for all the man-hours we've wasted on this garbage.

      I've said it before and I'll say it again: This is, by far, the WORST software I've ever used, anywhere, in almost 30 years of using software. That it's supposed to play such an important role makes it all the more frustrating.

      L
      LoriSood23-Emerald I
      23-Emerald I
      January 16, 2015

      Hi Frank,

      If you are seeing inconsistent behavior with the Update and Add to Workspace functionality or with the config.pro options used in conjunction with Windchill then that should be investigated by PTC. Were cases ever opened for this?

      In general, Update should update out-of-date objects (i.e. there is a newer version on the server because someone else checked it in while the user had it in their workspace). Add to Workspace should let you bring in other non-out-of-date files, where you can either reuse the content already in the workspace or overwrite it. Workspace synchronize will update metadata changes (lifecycles, etc.) from the server.

      If that's not happening then it would be good to investigate the use cases you are seeing to figure out why.

      D
      dschenken1-Visitor
      1-Visitor
      January 16, 2015

      Windchill works great if you are a content consumer. A content consumer can freely delete workspaces as there is nothing they need in them and create new ones to load the currently desired information.

      In a collaborative content creation environment, Windchill is frequently a hassle.

      While I understand there needs to be a lot of redesign to do so, content creators need a system that pushes changes, not waiting for participants to pull them. That is, if I'm working on a complicated assembly and someone else on the team checks in a new version of a part that's in that assembly, then Windchill should push that update automatically to all the Workspaces that item is in and the active Workspace should flag Creo that a new version of the part should be loaded into session.

      This means part files and meta-data.

      Flagging is required for those working on As-Stored data, but that could also be handled with a "Don't Update" flag on the Workspace.

      Instead, in a team environment, Windchill withholds new information unless specifically requested, leaving a pie-in-the-face / rug pulling situation. This is especially true for family table management where Windchill won't automatically gather (at least through 9.x) all the members of a table for Update that are in the Workspace. Instead it's like HAL 9000, "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that," followed by a lengthy separate search for all the individual family table members because Windchill isn't programmed to update the instances when the generic alone is chosen.

      Another place for confusion is where an unwanted change is made.

      The choices are Update and Add. In Intralink, where a lot of people started, Update would overwrite the Workspace version with the Commonspace version, discarding unwanted changes. This is not the same behaviour in Windchill, causing no end of problems for people during their learning transition period.

      There should be a clearly defined operation, like "Restore" that would take modified items and restore them with the Commonspace configuration. Software developers may love overloading operators, but humans don't do so well and benefit from clear differences in descriptors and vocabulary that doesn't change meaning.

        M
        mmontgomery-21-Visitor
        1-Visitor
        February 3, 2015

        As this is getting some attention, is there any constructive advice that could be given to my issues I posted in reply above (starting 7 posts from the top, http://communities.ptc.com/message/269138#269138). We're a smaller company starting out with pdm essentials and while we've certainly had our share of pain with windchill, I'd really like to focus on improving our implementation.

        Thanks, Marc

        C
        Celia5-Regular Member
        5-Regular Member
        February 3, 2015

        Marc,
        It's difficult to address your issue from your description. If you read again Martin's explanation, Update is to be used when there is a later iteration on the server. Is that always your case? Or is it just that they want to undo the changes that they made in the workspace. In that case Update cannot take a later iteration from the server. As others suggested in this thread, you can use Add to Workspace to get the latest as long as you uncheck the box as Marc Bower suggested.

        I wasn't sure from the thread if you did use Add to Worspace action becuase you keep mentioning update in the embedded browser.

        -Celia

        M
        mmontgomery-21-Visitor
        1-Visitor
        February 4, 2015

        Celia,

        Thanks for the response. My issue is simple really, Windchill update is acting different in a stand alone browser vs the embedded browser. Did you read my posts leading up to the last? If WC would do the same thing in each browser I'd be less confused.

        I've set the "reuse modified workspace content" option to "no" and in a browser based session of WC it acts as you would expect, it does not allow you to reuse modified content on update - the only option is to download. This is what I want. However, in the embedded Creo browser when I do the same operation the default is to reuse modified content. This is not what I want. Is there any settings that cause the embedded browser to function differently than a standalone browser?

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