Within a session of Pro/E Wildfire 4 attached to Windchill PDMLink 10, I have the option to save a copy of a CAD file in several formats, such as.igs or .stp, as an attachment to the source CAD Document, or as a separate file. If I create the separate file, it appears as its own line item and is identified in my workspace as a “CAD Document” with the appropriate icon (looks like a piece of paper with a drafting triangle adjacent to it). From that point I can control it just as a native Pro/E file (add to workspace, check-out, rev etc). On the flip side, when I receive a .stp or .igs file from a supplier or customer, there is no way to import it into my workspace to archive it as-supplied under an appropriate product and folder in PDMLink. I can go to Commonspace (Windchill Cabinets) browse to the product, folder etc, create a new document and load the supplied .igs or .stp file as the “Primary Content Source”. When doing this, the file is simply identified as a “Document” with an icon that looks like a page with text on it. If when created and pushed from Pro/E into the PLM system it properly identifies it as a CAD Document, why does the intelligence not exist when I essentially load the .igs or .stp file directly into PDMLink? Do I need to create a soft type? It would seem it already exists and is used when pushed from Pro/E. How do I get PDMLink to treat files of this type the same way no matter how I get it into the system?I want the look and feel of these files to be the same for my users no matter how it gets into PDMLink.
