Windchill packages - include published files

[MikeLockwood]

Hello all, we are starting to use Packages - primarily to start for collecting data to be provided to vendors for direct use, not for import to another Windchill system. 

Just experimenting a bit today to see if we can include files on the Content/Attachments table of CAD Documents. Don't immediately see a way to do this, so asking the community - is there a way to include attachment files in a package to which a CAD Document is added?

Note: We use Attachments extensively, partly due to publishing using publish rules that take advantage of the "additional_files" functionality.

thanks in advance.

[Dobrisa]

We use attachments as well as part of publishing and they regularly get added to the packages. 

First: make sure that on the collection rules you configure that secondary content is in fact included

Make sure you have a package selected (or create a new package) and then select "Configure"This is on the right-hand size. As long as published content is set to all, the package will collect all secondary information.

Second: when locking the package, make sure to include the file extensions you'd like to be included. 

[JoshuaHouser]

Hi folks,

I'm working on this functionality and can't seem to get STEP, DXF or PDF's attached, even though they are already published with our CADWorker (WC 11.0 M030, Creo 4 & Creo 6).

Packages are created, .prt, .asm, .PVZ and .jpg's are zipped up, but none of the neutral files.

Were there any gotchas discovered here? Maybe neutral file names, Worker configurations or??

Any help greatly appreciated!

Josh

[ChiselnMallet1]

I'm in the same boat...!  Lemme know if you found anything!

[BjoernRueegg]

The stp, pdf etc. are zipped in the pvz file. You need to rename the pvz file to xxx.zip unzip it and there they are.

I developed a complete new process to create the zip file. Unfortunately the whole package "module" is not on the newest technology and is not really customizable. Espacially the HTML output pages aren't customizable. So the stp or pdf files won't show up in the offline HTML viewer, which is really annoying. Or also line numbers or quantity would have been a cool extension.

[JoshuaHouser]

Thanks for the feedback.

It turns out that representations of CAD Documents will not be attached to packages if the wtparts with owner links are not included.

The entire process seems a convoluted mess.

[ChiselnMallet1]

I was able to add the Afterloader java class shown in this article

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS216668

and

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs324171

It did the trick... I have pdf and stp in my package now.  But setting the configuration to include secondary content.  

[Dobrisa]

This is really useful bit of code. We have this running and it's what generates the neutral file formats as secondary content in the attachments. 

This is really what enables you to bring this content to the forefront within the package in the first place. 

So to the original question, definitely run the AfterEDRLoader to put your neutral file formats into the attachments. It makes it much easier to get access to those files in the package or anywhere else, for that matter.

[ChiselnMallet1]

Yup.. and you can filter your package to only include the neutral files... which is what we needed.

[Aaronm87]

Can you elaborate on this? How do you include owners links? The wtpart shows the CAD file as being an owner. I'm trying to figure out why I cannot get additional filetypes in my packages and I've performed the suggestions in this thread.

[Behnam]

Just wanted to add that you can use a program like 7zip to unzip all nested pvz files within the main zip file in one single step. This way you dont have to rename and unzip each pvz file individually. 

[Dobrisa]

This is true. 

If you download 7zip (this doesn't work in WinZip for me), you can open/extract the .pvz files. These are in a sense your representations so if your publisher is already generating the .stp, .pdf and any other file formats, you can use this method to get to the content. 

For us, though, what we were looking for is a direct way to collect just the neutral file formats. 

[Dobrisa]

Josh, 

We are running the AfterEDRLoader code (someone added the link to the case below here so I won't repeat it). This brings the neutral file formats of your choosing into the attachments instead of the Representations table. Once you have files there, they are included (through manipulating what you include or exclude) when you create a package. 

For us the biggest gotcha really was to move the published files form the Representations into the Attachments table. 

Then you have direct access to the files in the package Contents folder. Otherwise, you have to go the 7zip/unzip the .pvz file route. 

[JoshuaHouser]

I see that it is not attaching the content files and your initially selected object is a Creo assembly. Was this associated to a wtpart? Just curious because this is the case where it would not include the content for me. If it did not have an associated wtpart, it would include the associated content.

[Dobrisa]

We don't use WTParts in most of our environment. I added a Creo assembly (EPMDocument) to the package. Some of the documents had published content at the time and some didn't. 

The other frustrating thing (and this was before I got the publishing to work reasonably well) was that I'd hope to have Packaging trigger publishing (i.e. generating the .stp, etc.) but at time of this writing I'm still not sure if that's an option. Packaging collects, but doesn't trigger publishing. That realization was what originally pushed us to implement the AfterEDRLoader. So no packaging essentially just "collects" the content. 

[HJ1]

Hi,

we've had the AfterEDRLoader running a couple of years for EPMDocs to get the published pdf & dxf in Attachments. As there's no coders inhouse our VAR did this. Now we're looking for the same for wtDocs to get the pdf to Attachments. Another couple of days of custom coding is required plus I was replied that the request is a bit awkward  😄

However, reading this thread gives me confidence it's not and on the other hand makes one wonder why such a basic thing is not included OOTB. Who'd collect in a zip and send native .doc or .xls as product specs out of the house?

Like mentioned here, Add to Package is way more straight forward to use, also you can at least add Attachments as a link in Structure views to access pdf directly, etc.

I guess the Navigate OOTB apps collect the files from published representations..?

[Behnam]

We shotly had that customization implemented as well. While it did post publish PDFs to a WTDocument automatically, there still wasn't a way to collect and save said WTDocuments for an entire product structure. Our VAR didn't have any solutions for this scenario too.

Navigate can collect PDFs and bundle them together as a ZIP, but only if you type each Number individually. No collector available.

While I do understand that the point of Windchill is to keep everything under wrap with revision control and change management, sometimes it is required to send drawings for review outside the company. I'd be really interested to see how other companies manage this obstacle. We currently use packages and unzipping the productview files. 

[HJ1]

If you implemented CS216668 option 2 for wtDoc it should bring the published pdf as Attachment for wtDoc. Then from structure use "Add to package", collect the wtDocs in the package, "Lock" the package with pdf-files selected, create delivery & zip and in the zip-file the pdfs should appear (without need for unzipping viewables... yuck  😄  )

Or maybe there's something in your scenario I don't get, but for us the above should work.

I hope because:

We use Desktop Integration for wtDocs and currently manually upload pdf to Attachments in order to have them picked in the package as described above. It would be a huge reduction of clicking around it the pdf appeared automatically in Attachments. 

We have this for drawings already, so all docs relevant for sending out the house would follow the same.

So the latest Navigate bundle app still is as clunky as a couple of years ago, per number only?

[Dobrisa]

We have been bringing most of our external suppliers into Windchill through ProjectLink so that they can work directly with correct and up to date content. Our internal users prefer this over Packages, actually. 

There are cases where we have collaborative design but there are also a number of engagements where internal teams just share pdfs, steps, etc. with manufacturers. 

If there's content already published and available in the Attachments table, the supplier just downloads and that's it. 

The post-publish option then is interesting in that you can (in theory) automatically put files into a supplier project. 

Both of those cases bypass Packages.