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erutherford1-Visitor
1-Visitor
January 23, 2017
Solved

Can I save files to my computer instead of my workspace?

  • January 23, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 8849 views

I'm a brand new Windchill user, so I'm still figuring out a lot of things. In particular, is there a way to still save files to my computer instead of to my workspace? I have an assembly saved to my computer, and I edited it a bit today, and now it won't update the file on my computer, it only saves the revision to my workspace.

Best answer by STEVEG

@bwegmann Are you not checking your files in to Windchill?  If you did then you can go back to that version.

However, what happens if you hard drive crashes and you can't get anything from the drive?  No files what so ever.  That is why I tell my users at the very least they need to check in at the end of every day.  They don't always listen but that is what I tell them they need to follow.

 

And if you need to have an iteration for every save then check the files in after each save.  I believe in Creo there is a Save and Check In option.  Write a mapkey that first saves it then checks it in.

 

DO NOT save to your local hard drive is our advice.

4 replies

B
BineshKumar11-Visitor
1-Visitor
January 23, 2017

I think you need to use save a back from save as to save to your computer

B
23-Emerald III
BenLoosli23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
January 23, 2017

WHY are you trying to save to your computer when you have Windchill?

Windchill should be the main repository of all your CAD work.

You can do a Save As - Backup and select a local location. but that can also lead to issues if you open that assembly from the local location in the future.

Saving the active work to a local location would get my users the Broken Finger award for going against company best practices.

B
bwegmann4-Participant
4-Participant
October 12, 2021

When saving to your computer, CREO creates object_name.object_type.version_number for every save. I save a lot, especially when CREO is prone to crashing when a part gets complicated. Every save is available to me on my hard drive. 

 

For example, let's say I just saved bracket.prt.267, but marketing wants to see a iteration of the part I presented on several months ago. It happens to be bracket.prt.13. All I have to do is change the name of bracket.prt.13 to anything else, and I am able to see and edit prt.13 and .prt.267 at the same time. Or, I want to completely revert back to prt.13, all I have to do is change the version number to a number higher than 267.

 

Every version of Windchill before 10, after pressing the CREO save button, will over write the previous file of the same name. Unless you take the time to check things in and out. 

 

 

S
21-Topaz I
STEVEG21-Topaz IAnswer
21-Topaz I
October 13, 2021

@bwegmann Are you not checking your files in to Windchill?  If you did then you can go back to that version.

However, what happens if you hard drive crashes and you can't get anything from the drive?  No files what so ever.  That is why I tell my users at the very least they need to check in at the end of every day.  They don't always listen but that is what I tell them they need to follow.

 

And if you need to have an iteration for every save then check the files in after each save.  I believe in Creo there is a Save and Check In option.  Write a mapkey that first saves it then checks it in.

 

DO NOT save to your local hard drive is our advice.

S
21-Topaz I
STEVEG21-Topaz I
21-Topaz I
October 13, 2021

@erutherford You should never save files to your hard drive once you have Windchill.  See my comment to bwegmann about this.

D
DB_104836761-Visitor
1-Visitor
November 15, 2024

This irked me enough to log in. Answer the question. Don't entirely ignore questions on a forum because it's not standard practice for people with Windchill. Moving an assembly locally....explain that or don't respond.

    I
    IF_92447151-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    March 21, 2024

    I have the same issue as you, and I believe I've found the real solution. (I think the other folks replying probably knew the real solution too, but think they know better than you, so instead of helping you they just tell you to keep working in windchill, while withholding the solution).

    In order to work on files locally, and save them on your hard drive instead of in a windchill workspace, you need to completely disconnect from the windchill server.  On my system, I go into "server management" and then set <NO SERVER> as my primary server.  Hope this helps.

      B
      23-Emerald III
      BenLoosli23-Emerald III
      23-Emerald III
      March 22, 2024

      Saving files to both Windchill and to your disk as a backup is not a good idea! The files can cause all kinds of conflicts if you try to open them from disk while the same named files exist in Windchill.

      The real question is: WHY do you feel you need to save the files locally?

      I
      IF_92447151-Visitor
      1-Visitor
      March 22, 2024

      In this most recent case it's because I experienced an error in Windchill with not enough information to resolve it, so I had to perform the needed operations outside of Windchill. 

       

      I have a large assembly with 500+ parts/assemblies/drawings (and many inter-related references) that I'm trying to take a "snap-shot" of, so I can compare it to future iterations of the assembly (and by "snapshot" I mean a copy of all parts/assemblies/drawings that have a slightly different name - for example "_snapshot" added to each file name).  I spent about a week trying to accomplish this using the "save-as" functionality in Windchill, but was unsuccessful.  The error that finally stumped me was "One or more objects being copied to workspace are not in workspace..." So I backed up all the files to my hard drive, disconnected from the windchill server, did the appropriate renaming of files using Creo, and then checked the new "snapshot" files back into Windchill.

       

      I do 99.99% of my work in Windchill, and I know enough to not try opening duplicate files from my hard drive while I already have them open from Windchill. But there are times when Windchill throws undecipherable errors, or can't handle backup/renaming tasks while maintaining the appropriate links between parts/assemblies/drawings, so it can be useful to know how to do this work outside of Windchill.

       

      If I want to open and compare two assemblies in Creo/Windchill, one being a current version, and one being an older version (say from a year ago, with all the same file names), how would you suggest I do this?

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