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tcurry10-Marble
10-Marble
December 14, 2023
Question

PTC Windchill Poorly Designed Logic for Calculated Associations between CAD and WTPart

  • December 14, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 5107 views

We are having issues with Calculated links and the flawed logic that PTC has used in how these associations are determined in some use cases.  One example that keeps coming up lately is when two drawings referenced a single CAD model,  so both drawings became "calculated" to the corresponding WTPart.

The users decide to move all the technical information to one single drawing,  so they revise everything and disconnect the latest version of one drawing from the model.  The model and desired drawing are checked in and will move forward.  The second drawing should be dropped and no longer considered.   But as you can see in the attachment illustrations,  the non-latest version of the disconnected drawing will remain displayed on the WTPart as calculated.  This makes no sense.

I have even gone so far as to create a new 3D model and new WTPart for the disconnected drawing.  That second drawing is linked to the new 3D model and therefore associated to the new WTPart.

Still,  the old version of the drawing remains listed as a "calculated" drawing to the first WTPart.  These items have taken different paths at the fork in the road and should not be associated any longer at the latest versions.   When you view the first version of the WTPart,  yes,  it should show.  It was related at that time.   Today?   It is no longer and should no longer be displayed.

Calculated links are poorly implemented.  Is there a way around this?

 

 

We are to the point that we are discussing generating "content" links for all current "calculated" drawings and then completely disabling the property that displays Calculated links.  Better to not have that feature if PTC can't make it work correctly.

    2 replies

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    tcurry10-MarbleAuthor
    10-Marble
    December 14, 2023

    And it's not like it's a new topic.  I can find evidence of people complaining about the calculated links going back over 10 years ago.  Why does it take so long to fix something?

    HelesicPetr
    22-Sapphire II
    HelesicPetr22-Sapphire II
    22-Sapphire II
    December 15, 2023

    Hi @tcurry 

    This is exactly the situation when the drawing should use a content link instead of auto-calculation

    PetrH

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    tcurry10-MarbleAuthor
    10-Marble
    December 15, 2023

    Hi, @HelesicPetr .
    Using the Content link doesn't solve this issue.  The drawing which we are trying to disconnect and separate will continue to show "Calculated".

    G
    GrahamV12-Amethyst
    12-Amethyst
    December 27, 2023

    I agree, calculated links make big assumptions, they caused us a lot of confusion on our system so I disabled/hid the links a couple of years ago and now force users to associate drawings as Content. 

     

    I think the concept of calculated links is a bit flawed in the first place, how can the system know which is the master drawing, when it can appear on multiple drawings as reference? Maybe they could provide some mechanism for selecting the master drawing from a list of calculated links, with an option to override if it doesn't find it, but i can't see it being much of a benefit over just manually adding the drawing.

    T
    tcurry10-MarbleAuthor
    10-Marble
    March 6, 2024

    I understand the logic in that any drawing which has a CAD reference link to the 3D model is therefore somewhat dependent on that 3D model for it's drawing views.  So associating it to the related WTPart makes sense on the most basic use case.

    What does not make sense is why the above described scenario still shows the non-latest version of the drawing on the revised WTPart even after the drawing was also revised and cleansed of any references to that 3D model.  A line was drawn ('in the sand") and the two objects parted ways.  PTC's logic in the display of Calculated drawings tries to incorrectly keep them associated.  The logic contains flaws and needs enhancement.

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