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L
lhoogeveen17-Peridot
17-Peridot
December 4, 2019
Question

Windchill Desktop Integration Questions

  • December 4, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 12008 views

Trying out Windchill Desktop Integration (WDI) for the first time using Windchill 11.0 M030. Am I doing something wrong?

 

Thoughts:

  • I cannot get WDI to show up on the left side of Windows File Explorer like OneDrive or other similar apps. Is there a way to get it to show by default? WDI very hidden otherwise. See attached image.
  • WDI doesn't not show up as an app anywhere in Windows 10 - it's like a hidden install. Searching for Windchill returns no application in Windows.
  • Dragging files in create new documents seems to work well - sub types and require attributes show up (unlike Drop and Drag Windchill in a browser).
  • I'm limited to Promotion Requests or Set State for promoting - no Change Notice or other Windchill change types?
  • Promotion Requests can only be created from 1 document at a time using WDI? Using Windchill in a browser, you can do multiple objects with 1 promotion request.
  • Inserting Windchill Attributes into Excel is very easy. Linking this could Windchill Document templates could be interesting.

Any ideas? Does Windchill 11.1 or 11.2 fix anything?

4 replies

L
lhoogeveen17-PeridotAuthor
17-Peridot
December 4, 2019

According to the help documentation, Windchill should've shown up in my Windows Explorer favorites by default but it did not. 

J
JHall1-Visitor
1-Visitor
December 6, 2019

@lhoogeveen 
We explored this last month and had similar difficulties. Thankfully we only installed it on one Engineer's computer. We are STILL working on the uninstall, last webex with PTC tech was unsuccessful as their documentation was in error.

 

I like the idea of integrating documents, but this seems clunky at best.

 

James 

Windchill 11.0 M030CPS16

C
ChrisPLM12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
December 9, 2019

Hi guys,

 

I have been away for a few years with Windchill and now back with Windchill 11.  A week or so, one of the internal implementor was telling me how problematic WDI was to integrate with MS Office file unlike another DB they used internally.  I was surprised as I have used for many years WDI with PDMLink 9 and 10.

We had created document templates with content that had links to attributes (system and business). We mastered the synchronisation and ensuring that the parameters were always updated when someone or something (like a pdf publisher) were download the file of a document which was released (eg you checked it in when the doc is at IN WORK, but then change the state, without a working synchronisation, you'd end up download the file and still see IN WORK).

We were very pleased.

 

Now in 11 I see a log of people complaining.  Have PTC regressed in this area ?

 

 

S
21-Topaz I
STEVEG21-Topaz I
21-Topaz I
December 13, 2019

The documentation states DTI is not supported if Office is installed in the cloud.  It has to be installed locally.

C
ChrisPLM12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
December 13, 2019

Hi Steve,

 

ahah,  This is going to be a nightmare then.  I wonder what happens to those who have use Office locally and integrated with Windchill and then have moved to O365 because IT has said so....

 

Thanks for the info.

B
BrianToussaint19-Tanzanite
19-Tanzanite
December 13, 2019

Hello Chris,

 

We had to go to Office365 and even though we have the Office components installed locally, we have had nothing but issues.  Along with the need to "update" WDI every time you run a CPS update, we are getting away from it.  I might revisit it for testing once I have upgraded to 11.2.1 but am very hesitant with all the issues we have run into.  For now my users have to use Replace Content on documents.

S
17-Peridot
ScottMorris17-Peridot
17-Peridot
January 15, 2020

how many other cloud storage apps do you have on your machine? i've seen this be problematic in the past if you have OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox all setup on the machine. i'd be curious to see what happens when you install it on a machine without these apps already installed. 

office365 is all cloud now, but DTI can only be installed on the local office applications. when you're using office cloud apps, you are connected to sharepoint or onedrive as your back end storage system, not windchill. that is why DTI only works on the locally installed office applications. 

DTI was definitely problematic in the WC8-9 era, but was completely rewritten for 10 and improved since then. 

J
JHall1-Visitor
1-Visitor
January 15, 2020

@ScottMorris 
You are quite correct!
We have to turn file sharing off on One Drive so WGM will function, our Office is installed locally and One Drive is there but we don't share on Engineering computers, Google Drive is prohibited here, and our Dropbox is an internal operation.

So many connections one has to be concerned about - ugh.  

🙂  James

    S
    21-Topaz I
    STEVEG21-Topaz I
    21-Topaz I
    January 23, 2020

    One has to wonder how long it will be before PTC stops developing DTI and obsoletes it all together.

    B
    BjoernRueegg17-Peridot
    17-Peridot
    January 23, 2020

    True! I remember that PTC had some presentation around 4 years ago, where they wanted to sync documents like dropbox. So they are stored locally and if they are being changed on server, they would also being changed locally.

    Since this, nothing, and I mean nothing has been changed. I hope, and I really do hope, that PTC will present something new in Windchill 12. Otherwise I'm pretty sure more and more customer will export their documents and stores them in Sharepoint. With Thingworx, PTC has even created a platform to reunite documents and articles... So what is the advantage to store the documents in Windchill (next to the change and release process)? 

     

      B
      BrianToussaint19-Tanzanite
      19-Tanzanite
      January 23, 2020

      Though I detest DTI, we still put a lot of documents in Windchill.  With all the issues we were having with DTI and the fact that every CPS you have to reinstall it, I removed the capability.  I was thinking of seeing if it was improved at all in 11.2.

       

      Being able to create an approval process is a definitely a plus.  Making documents reference documents of wtParts.  The index search functionality.  Once source for engineers to go to.  We are going to start to look at the new functionality of document classification in 11.2.

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