Windchill Visualization using Creo license?

[MSC12]

Our company has recently implemented Windchill. We have 2 floating licenses for Creo on our server. One of the interns over the summer was responsible for getting everything set up and working properly. One of the tasks he had to do was get the thumbnails to work and be able to view the models that were created in Creo.

He thought that it was setup correctly, but now Windchill ties up one of the floating licenses and only 1 user is able to use Creo at a time which is a major issue. From my understanding, the visualization shouldv'e come with it's own license, separate from one of the creo licenses we have. Also, my manager had been receiving job failed messages about every hour for a few weeks now. I may have found what that issue is but I want to put an example message here incase it is related somehow.

Here is the messages he has been receiving:

Queue Problems

Class:	class javax.management.Notification
Message:	There are 3,780 total queue entries in queue PublisherQueue1
SequenceNumber:	497
Source:	com.ptc:wt.subsystem=Monitors,wt.monitorType=Queues,Name=PublisherQueue1
TimeStamp:	2014-07-18 15:47:31.472 +0000 [1405698451472]
Type:	wt.queue.QueueWatcherMBean.exceededTotalEntriesThreshold
UserData:	3780
JVM Name:	5828@server04
Queue Info:	WaitingReadyEntries 0 ExecutionThreadLoggerName wt.queue.ProcessingQueue.PublisherQueue1 TotalThreshold 100 MinEntryExecTimeSeconds 0.016 AveEntryExecTimeSeconds 0.742 MinMinutesBetweenNotifications 60 TotalEntries 3780 EntryExecutionTimeThresholdSec 900 LoggerLevel WaitingReadyThreshold 15 TotalExecutionTime 2855188 LoggerName wt.queue.QueueWatcherImpl.PublisherQueue1 MaxEntryExecTimeSeconds 194.684 Name PublisherQueue1 ExecutionThreadLoggerLevel TotalEntriesExecuted 3846

[TomU]

Yes, one visualization license comes included with Windchill. It's called "Creo Foundation for Visualization". You just have to ask your reseller for it. If you intend to run multiple sessions of Creo on the same computer at the same time (and only use one license), then make sure you request a node-locked license instead of a floating license.

The better place to monitor publishing is under "Site", "Utilities", "WVS Job Monitor".

[MSC12]

We need to be able to run multiple sessions of creo on separate computers. I'm completely new with Windchill and Creo. I'm still trying to figure out what the last intern did up until now so I can go from there. Any idea on why there are all the failed jobs? Now theres over 100,000. I ended up deleting the test jobs that were created. I'm thinking that one of them was causing all of the failed queue problems.

[TomU]

You will continue to use your two floating licenses for normal Creo usage. Only the publisher will be using the visualization license.

You can see why a job failed by looking at the WVS Job Monitor. Just pick on a failed job and look at the details below.

You can always go back and republish the failed entries once the problem has been dealt with.

[MSC12]

Alright, I think I have fixed the failed jobs, I'll check on that later today and see if there are any new failed ones. How can I go about fixing the issue of visualization tieing up one of our Creo licenses instead of the correct visualization license?

[TomU]

1. Request a free "Creo Foundation for Visualization" license from your reseller.
2. PTC will email you the license file.
3. Install the license file on the CAD worker.

This will allow Creo installed on the CAD worker to use its own license instead of one of your floating licenses.

[BuddyHudson]

Hey Tom,

I dont agree with this "free Creo Foundation for Visualization" license your talking about. As far as I know, which could be wrong, you have to have a dedciated Creo license to run on the CAD Worker to publish viewables.....I have worked with the CAD worker a great deal over the last few years and have never heard of this..also if you are on PDMLink 10.1. M020 like we are, the cabling viewables will fail all the time with a "-4" error at the end of the information in the monitor...this is a known issue and is not fixed until 10.2 M010.

Buddy Hudson

[TomU]

It is a dedicated Creo license - just for use by the CAD worker. And it comes free with Windchill, but only one per customer.

The closest thing I can find on PTC's site right now is CS129336 (specific to PDM Essentials).

Here is the line from my license file:

Here is the line from my annual maintenance renewal (notice the price):

[MSC12]

I may have come across an issue with the license being tied up. I had an issue with the worker that was setup in Windchill by the previous person. The status for the worker was Failed to start. I would try to manually start the worker and it would just close out and the log file was:

Worker Log File helper_94.log for Worker server04-PROE:1

Logging level set to 0x001 from command argument.

[2014-09-04 10:06:59] timestamps added to logging from command argument.

[2014-09-04 10:06:59] workerhelper - Version : Creo 3.0 - F000 (13.2.0.69) i486_nt

[2014-09-04 10:06:59] Connecting to server "server04" on port 5600

[2014-09-04 10:06:59] Connection established

[2014-09-04 10:06:59] Started worker

[2014-09-04 10:07:10] Worker process 6308 has exited unexpectedly. Shutting down helper.

[2014-09-04 10:07:10] Worker helper shutting down.

[2014-09-04 10:07:10] WorkerHelper completed, exiting.

After looking at the configuration for the worker, the execute command is: E:\ptc\creo_view_adapters\proe_setup\proeworker.bat

I was able to get into Creo with the worker status being Failed to start.

I was given access to the server that Windchill is installed on and I decided to try and start the worker again. This time it started up without an issue. However, I went to open Creo and I received the same error as I did before saying there isn't a license. I manually stopped the worker and re-opened Creo and it worked fine. So for some reason the worker is using one of the 2 floating licenses for Creo. I spoke with a guy this morning that was helping the previous employee fix this issue and he said that this license issue should be a simple fix with just pointing Windchill to use the correct license that should be used for Creo View and not one of the 2 floating licenses on the server.

Anyone have a walk through? Or maybe its as simple as the worker was setup wrong??

[TomU]

The recipe (.rcp) file will list the path to the Creo startup command. Probably something like "C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 3.0\F000\Parametric\bin\parametric.bat". Whatever the name of the batch file (.bat), there will be a corresponding setup file (.psf). Look in this file for a line that starts with "ENV=PTC_D_LICENSE_FILE". This tells Creo where to pull the license. If it's using a floating license, it will list the port and host. If it's using a node-locked license file, then it will list the path to the file.

Floating License:

ENV=PTC_D_LICENSE_FILE-=7788@name_of_license_server

Node Locked:

ENV=PTC_D_LICENSE_FILE-=C:\Program Files\PTC\License\license.txt

Changing license files is as simple as changing this line of text.

[MSC12]

But how do I get Windchill to stop using one of the floating Creo licenses? When I open Creo while someone else has it opened, this is the error for the license I get:

To my knowledge, only Windchill should be on server 4 and both floating licenses for Creo are located on server 2

[TomU]

Whatever installation of Creo the CAD worker is using for publishing is going to pull a license from whatever server it was told to during installation. If you want it to used a different license server, or a stand-alone license file, you have to tell it so by changing the "ENV=PTC_D_LICENSE_FILE" line discussed in the previous post (or rerun the setup program).

[MSC12]

Ok, I understand that part now. Is there a way to locate the stand alone license? I know you said I would have to contact the reseller and request the license but from what I have been told, they already have the license.

Thanks so far for the help. I'm just about clueless when it comes to this but I've learned where a lot of stuff is and am slowly figuring out how Windchill works.

[TomU]

If you have a stand alone license, but aren't currently using it, it could be anywhere. You can always request PTC resend it to you. You can also verify what you really have on the PTC licensing support site. Use the "Business Asset Summary Web Tool". See if "Creo Foundation for Visualization (formerly Pro/ENGINEER)" is listed. If it is, you can use the license tool to retrieve existing license packs. The system will email you the selected license file.

[MSC12]

I was given a new license and was able to locate the correct file that is pointing to the floating licenses we have. I saved the license sent in a folder called License on the server that windchill is located on. I changed the license path to direct to that file. The issue is it isn't working correctly. I was on the phone with support for a different issue and when we tried to start the worker, it kept failing to start. We opened up Creo on the server that Windchill is installed on and it gave a license issue with the exact path that I specified.

How do you configure this license to work properly? We need to be able to use Windchill and Creo view on any computer in our office off of the server that they are installed on. Here is a screenshot of the error message:

[TomU]

Is this a node-locked license or a floating license? It makes a difference because a floating license requires a license server (FlexLM) to be installed. Look in the license file to see.

[MSC12]

It is floating. Is FlexLM a free download with PTC? I'm pretty sure thats what we have installed on the server with the 2 creo floating licenses.

The license file they sent me has all of these included:

Creo Foundation for Visualization

1 Windchill PDM Essentials eLearning Libra

1 Creo View Adapter for Creo

3 Windchill PDM Essentials

[TomU]

None of those will run Creo. They are Windchill licenses, not Creo licenses.

You need to get "Creo Foundation for Visualization" (free) or another "regular" Creo license (not free).

[MSC12]

Thats in there. I accidently deleted the 1 in front of it in the last post.

[TomU · Accepted solution]

Ah, okay. You need to install a license server. It's included on the Creo installation disk or you can download it manually from PTC software download page. Basically you just feed this file into it during installation. I'd recommend you configure it to start up automatically and run as a service.

Once the license server is installed, you can either manually edit the license file line in the PSF file to point to this license server, or you can rerun setup (either using ptcsetup.bat in the bin directory or using the setup disk) and provide the necessary license server information that way.

[MSC12]

Thanks! Support ended up contacting me right when I was going to attempt installing the license server and they were able to walk me through finding the correct version I needed. Works correctly now. Thanks for the help you gave!!