What are do's and don'ts for first time implementation of windchill Essentials?

[garytinker]

hi all,

We are finally moving from our old spreadsheet / access database to windchill for our cad data management.

are there any pitfalls that we should avoid, ie 50 million categories.

any tips on what structures work.

our product range is made up of many small and extremely similar products, generally our assembly files contain less than 10 parts.

think plastic containers, we have lots of different ones but they are all still all containers. in saying that; we also have all the injection mould tooling that relates to all of them.

lets just say we don't make cars & we don't have more than one cad operator working on a single project at one time.

but we have a large amount of cad data creation.

so hints, tips, traps,  any advice would help

cheers

g

[dschenken]

#1, be sure that the database restore process is working by actually using it. And make sure it's a priority to check that it still works as time goes on. There are stories on ACM RISKS and Daily WTF that cover this.

[mdebower]

Maybe this isn't exactly what you are looking for, but test and pilot the system before you jump headlong into a production migration.   I guarantee there will be things that don't work exactly like you thought they would and will want to change them.   Easier to do that before everyone is using it in production.

-marc

[kpritchard]

Identify any duplicate files and come up with a plan to resolve.  A common situation when CAD files are stored on network drives is the copying of needed files to "project folders" - especially for fasteners etc.  If you have duplicates, you'll need to figure out which one to keep.

other than that...

• Rationalize your metadata.  It's common to have a Parameter or database field that does something that the system inherently does (think Revision for one).  Use system attributes/metadata if available and consolidate if at all possible.  Less is more.
• I'd recommend starting out with minimal Products/Libraries.  You can add more and move things around later if need be.  Participation and permissions are a good litmus test for the need for additional Products/Libraries
• Use States to lock things down and make them non-editable, either through Promotion Request or manually to avoid inadvertent modifications