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JimTenHoven1-Visitor
1-Visitor
March 15, 2011
Question

Need a simple search UI for Viewables

  • March 15, 2011
  • 7 replies
  • 6348 views

Any recommendations for a simple UI to retreive drawings from Windchill/PDMLink? Our shop floor users need a simple interface where they enter a part number, click search, a list of associated viewables and/or non-CAD documents is returned, they select the desired object, and it opens. Navigating to viewables using Windchill search tools is too complex and time consuming for that particular user base. I'm wondering if others have been down this road and, if so, what they've done as a solution.

Regards,

Jim

7 replies

S
shussaini16-Pearl
16-Pearl
March 22, 2011

Hello Jim,

What version of Windchill you are using. If its 9.1, have you tried using the mini-thumbnails from wherein you can launch the Thumbnail Navigator. This is a real good utlility to navigate the structure for viewables and it also has a button to launch a particular viewable in productview.You can also copy the viewables as you navigate and then launch the collection from clipboard in PV.

Hope that helps

Regards

~Syed

J
JimTenHoven1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
March 22, 2011

Syed,

Thank you for your response. We are targeting an even simpler solution having minimal or no user navigation. Currently, we export viewables to an intranet application for viewing. It provides the simple search and view capability we require because it is separate from Windchill. We want to eliminate the need to export and maintain redundant data sources.

Regards,

Jim

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LakshmanEaswara1-Visitor
1-Visitor
March 22, 2011

We have built something like a Search Portal (basically a simple jsp page where users can enter part/drawing number and associated object will be displayed). See attached. More over the user can view the viewable with out navigating to Windchill.

J
JimTenHoven1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
March 22, 2011

Thank you for your response. What you show is much like what we need. If you don't mind, I have some questions.

1. Do you use Windchill to generate the pdfs and, if so, are they associated to Windchill parts?

2. Does the user need to log into Windchill or does the portal manage that?

Regards,

Jim

L
LakshmanEaswara1-Visitor
1-Visitor
March 22, 2011

1. Do you use Windchill to generate the pdfs and, if so, are they associated to Windchill parts?

Yes, basically publisher. PDF displayed is of WTDocument (Drawing softtype) associated to parts. Our engineers upload the pdf of CAD Drawing as the

primary content of Drawing softtype. Note that our viewables are permanently watermarked.

2. Does the user need to log into Windchill or does the portal manage that?

The user will be prompted to login when search portal (as the search portal pages are in authenticated domain) is accessed but user will never have to log

in directly to Windchill.

FYI, my collegues will be presenting this topic "Scaling Windchill PLM For Dynamic Enterprise Landscape" during this year's PTC User Conf and
they will demo this functionality. Following is a brief session description

Session Description: In today’s business world acquisitions and divestitures have become a common occurrence. Stryker Orthopaedics has leveraged
these avenues to continuously expand its foot print in the medical device sector. Windchill has been a critical component for Stryker Orthopaedics to
manage the controlled data. The goal of this session is highlight the challenges faced by Stryker Orthopaedics in increasing its Windchill
footprint from 400 users to 4400 + users within a period of 5 years. The session is not focused on the hardware scaling but on the process definition and
business alignment hurdles that has made this an interesting journey. The main points to be covered in this session are:

- Explain current footprint of Windchill at Stryker Orthopaedics
- Scaling Windchill from the concept of site specific to Divisional
- Challenges faced related to user experience, support, scalability and solutions developed to overcome them

    F
    FeofilovIvan1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    March 22, 2011

    You can try my Windchill util http://plmservice.ru/2011/03/windchill-commander/.

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