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Patriot_1776
Patriot_177622-Sapphire II
22-Sapphire II
December 28, 2011
Question

Creating new revisions in Windchill

Because of the impossibility of actually being able to revise ONLY the dwg and the top assembly referenced by that dwg without HAL 9000 (i.e.: Windchill)deciding to revise everything under those 2 files (without my direction, permission, or even knowledge until later), I'm going to propose for my company (and anyone else stuck with HAL) to NOT use the W/C revision system at ALL. Instead, I'm going to propose creating a string parameter in Pro/E, and matching "attribute" in W/C that will be a "revision" parameter that will show up in our searches and formats. This way the user will have full control of revisions, as he should, instead of HAL. The rev level can be bumped back as needed if someone makes a mistake, and HAL can never take it upon itself to revise hundreds of unwanted files as has happened recently in my case. Let's not forget that as it stands now, the initiation of advancing a revision is done manually anyways, not automatically upon check-out unless you make the fatal mistake of doing a "Revise and Check Out" in Pro/E. So, in reality, what I'm suggesting is no different than currently done as far as the user ititiating the advance of the revision. It is only in the execution that it is different, and far superior because of the flexibility afforded by this technique. As it stands, now I have to try and specifically delete ONLY the last revision created by me on a huge number of files......and hope it works without deleting the entire file, or leave it alone and realize that a revision was wasted and revision traceability is now lost, perhaps forever. Tons of man-hours have already and are going to be wasted.

Pretty pathetic that it's even gotten to this point, but if the software doesn't work, I'm going to find a Pro/WORKAROUND for it's deficiencies. Sad, because Intralink worked so well in this regard, I wouldn't have to do this. So much for this being an "upgrade".......

To say that I'm furious with "HAL" and the massive performance downgrade is the underestatement of the century.....

13 replies

MikeLockwood22-Sapphire I
22-Sapphire I
December 28, 2011

If some consultant(s) helped you get started and migrated, you should ask for your $ back from them if they did not address this type of subject in detail.

Best bet for now may be to set all the collector preferences related to Revise to "None" at least for now.

This way, the system will not automatically collect anything, leaving it up to the users to select via collection tools.

There are a very large number of preferences (see Site, Utilties, Preference Manager). Search for Revise, then see the collector under this heading.

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Patriot_1776
Patriot_177622-Sapphire IIAuthor
22-Sapphire II
December 28, 2011

Yes, they did. And, I must say, in my professional opinion they did an absolutely piss-poor job. If I had the authority I'd ask for double my money back. We have an overly-invasive internet/network security system here, and for the test runs, the company had it turned off. And, we didn't have any real parts or assemblies to try out in the test runs, so none of these large assembly issues cropped up. Then, when we went live, the security system was turned back on and BAM! Instant problems.

I will tell you that in 3 different companies I've worked for that went to Windchill from Intralink, almost totally univesally, the users all HATE it, for all the reasons I mentioned. I certainly do. In fact, in the almost 3 years I've "used" it, I can tell you that not only has the system not provided any sort of performance gain over Intralink, but it literally takes me at least twice the time to do the same simple tasks, and usually far, far more than that if it even works at all. This is the only software in over 25 years of using CAD software that the more I use it, the more I hate it, instead of eventually liking it or simply forming a truce with it.

I probably don't have the admin preferences needed to set these collector preferences, but I'll try first, then pass this info along if not.

I'm still going to discuss the idea with management of creating our own revision system of parameters/attributes though and completely scrapping the W/C one in toto.

Thanks for your suggestions!

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BrianMartin13-Aquamarine
13-Aquamarine
December 29, 2011

Hi Frank...

I feel your pain. Although I still think you can form that same kind of "truce" with Windchill. Remember how everyone UNIVERSALLY hated Pro/INTRALINK when it first came along? Everyone longed for the simplicity of Pro/PDM which even had some nice scripting abilities. Over time, Pro/INTRALINK got better until it worked really well... except for a few idiosyncrasies. I've used Windchill since its inception and it's gotten much, much better over time. Windchill 10 is getting us much closer to where we need to be... but I understand the path to get there has been painful.

In my opinion, most of the migration consultants and VARs selling migration services are pretty bad. At my company we were extremely lucky to work with an amazing consultant who went far above and beyond to make sure our migration went perfectly. Even with training and the support of a fantastic consultant, we still faced problems like the ones you're describing.

Mike's suggestion about looking through your preferences is definitely a good one. You should have the ability to manage some of the preferences yourself... others will be reserved for your system admins. Your best tool in working with Windchill is EDUCATION. While you can circumvent the system with parameters, I'd advice against it.

I've worked at many companies where they forbade use of certain tools in the name of keeping things simple for the less experienced users. For example, instead of using one complex feature, we were ordered to use 15 "simple" features to do the same job. My feeling is... why slow down your entire workforce? Why not train and mentor everyone to get better and make the most of the tools? It's the same with Windchill.

If you skip the revision functions in Windchill, you're missing a huge benefit of having a PLM system in the first place. Manual parameters are always subject to human error. Human error and faking the rev means you can also fake the release giving you no confidence in the final copies you're creating.

There's a fairly straightforward way to solve the problem you have:

  • Take Mike's suggestion and set the Revision collection preferences to "None". This minimizes the potential for a similar problem to occur again.
  • Educate everyone on how to select objects for revision and use the Advanced Object collector to add related drawings, parts, assemblies, and family table items.
  • Publish a brief, one-page document for all your users explaining the way the Revise command works. By default, the tool bumps the revision on everything related to your selection. Everything's getting revised to the next letter/number unless you EXCLUDE it from the item list. In the old Pro/INTRALINK, you had to manually set the next rev. In the new system, it's automatic.
  • Develop a simple cheat sheet for the "Delete" command. It can be confusing. There's definitely a way to roll back your data to before the problem occured. If you were able to bump hundreds of objects forward in a few moments, you can roll them back that quickly, too.

I've been where you are and users at my company routinely hit these snags. Over the last few months we've really put a premium on education and mentoring. Support calls are down and users are getting comfortable with Windchill. At worst, we've made that truce with the software. We're moving forward and learning to use the tool for what it is while we voice our concerns to PTC. I really believe the software is getting better but it's a tough slog to make it through the initiat transition and get back to full productivity again.

If you need help with any of the suggestions... or would like me to send you some sample documents explaining the revise or delete commands, send me an email. I can't publish these for the community but I can send them to you offline.

Best regards,

-Brian

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    LawrenceS18-Opal
    18-Opal
    July 15, 2014

    Wow, with the difficulties that you have had with how your system was implemented, it makes our WC problems seem miniscule! Revising is simple, easy, and works very well for us. If that didn't work well I am sure I would be as frustrated as you sound! I hope it working a lot better, since this your post is over 2.5 years ago!

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