Explanation of Load Options

[acciardi]

Is there a definition or white paper that describes in detail what the various load options do?

Our site is configured to show the following load options:

Any Status: No Working
Any Status: Working
Latest Working
Latest by Alpha Rev Order
Latest by Creation Date
Precise Only
Precise: Any Status
Precise: Working
Working: Any Status

There is also a 'load as saved' check box that disables all the load options.

I believe I understand Precise and Load as Saved, but I'm confused over the 'Working' status.

Thanks

 

[hudson888]

Can we presume that you're working with Teamcenter?
Load options in native and teamcenter work differently and when using teamcenter the behavior is arguably more likely to be influenced by your site customization.

In Teamcenter.
Latest released picks up what was most recently baselined.

Latest Working picks up the latest available data on the system including what is released.

Setting of the precise toggle is done in the PSE screen within Teamcenter and influences how NX opens the assembly. If it is locked precise with Latest released selected then NX will open the latest released, and vice-versa for latest Working. If precise is set to off, then your load options set within NX will dictate the assembly loading strategy.

Best Regards

Hudson

 

[acciardi]

Thanks Hudson...

Yes, this is within TcEng2005 SR1. Our installation is configured to save all assemblies as Precise.

So what is the difference between 'As Saved' and 'Precise:Working'?

We only have one Status establised. We are proposing to add more, like Obsolete, Sharable, etc.

One final point - can Precise really be Precise if a user can save a new Version without creating a new Revision? It's my understanding that all load options only operate on Revisions, not Versions.

Ed

 

[hudson888]

Ed,

As saved is not to my knowledge a setting available from within the PSE, it is configurable via load options. That would appear to be one main difference. Precise basically refers to the ability of teamcenter via the PSE to lock an assembly so that it loads a specific revision of the components. The two most frequently use settings are "Working" or "Latest Released".

If you're a new user to Teamcenter then expect to be confused about the control you used to have via "Load Options" being in part transferred to the PSE, and about how they interrelate.

I couldn't tell you much about Obsolete or Sharable except to say that they sound like inventions of your own customization rather than out of the box settings that I'm familiar with from elsewhere. The idea of whether a file is sharable may in concept be achieved without creating a specific status to manage who sees the file. Sites I have seen create accounts with working groups so that some groups files are visible only within the group and baseline data is either published in a restricted or general sense. I'd be digging a hole for myself to say that I knew how it was really done, but I have worked under those systems and it appears to be how the product is intended to be used. I'd simply advise you to look to use the product in the way it is intended to be used and avoid over customization, so that from one release to the next you may have a less traumatic time in the future. Any thing you do early on needs to be well thought out because you immediately start to create data with a legacy that may need to be maintained or reworked to fit with the system you eventually settle on.

On your final point I think you may be correct speaking only from observation. As with any system some user input is expected to drive the system to work properly. Sometimes the inputs required don't fit entirely with our expectations and I would in that case query with your local help desk whether there is a setting the you aren't getting right. That is to preface the answer that I believe it works properly from the PSE but I have noted that when loaded directly into NX that new versions aren't always loaded as you might expect. My suspicion is that this may be defined as "a feature not a bug", since it provides that the owner of the assembly controls how it is maintained via the PSE, rather than other users doing so on an ad-hoc basis.

Personally what I see is that most design work is done in the pre-release stage of the product life. Many of the features that do well to maintain systems under change control after drawings have been released seem to get in the way earlier in the process. Teamcenter as I see it tries to strike a balance. It is a very powerful tool with a lot of sophisticated features all of which most of us don't frequently use or understand particularly well. Occasionally controlling that almightiness requires more work of us to maintain than we might welcome.
Simply put I would invite a simpler and quicker way to baseline components and their assemblies with fewer steps and less waiting for the operator, by way of having the system take on more management of these processes, preferably in the background.

Hope this helps

Hudson

 

[acciardi]

Hudson:

Thanks sincerely for taking so much time to pen a detailed reply. Your comments are very helpful and welcomed.

We still have a lot of customizations to do in TcEng, and we are still learning (both users and admins) the intricacies.

I will note that we have not been using the PSE to do any reconfiguring of assembly components. We use the PSE mainly as a viewer to look at the assembly structure and be sure that we have the component revs we want. It looks like the PSE should be able to configure revs, but we do not have that functionality enabled.

It might be necessary for some of the users to take the training to get a better understanding of what this tool can do.

Thanks again,

Ed

 

[fgbrender]

I didn't see this mentioned in any of the other replies but I may have missed it. If you are using Precise assemlies in Tc, the load options really won't do anything. The Tc BOM will load exactly as it was saved. In my experience, this is the method I prefer. It gives much more control over what is being loaded. Keep in mind, when an assembly is created and more importantly when it is released, you don't want it changing. Early on when implementing iMAN at GM the decision was made to not use precise assemblies. It didn't take long for that to change when it became evident that there was no way to load the exact structure that was saved.

A word of advice regarding Tc implementation. Get the training!!! Not only the user training but get someone trained on the configuration and administration as well. I've seen good implementations and very poor implementations. You can't get the most out of it unless you know what you're gettin into.

Good Luck.

 

[DavidTolsma]

Precise is simply a flag or status of the assembly in the PSE. Load options are top to bottom. The top rule is checked then the next and next... If your load option does not have precise first, then if it matches the first rule it will use that.

Confusing, I never use the 'As Saved' option in NX. That is just not my work flow. Also know that latest working and latest Release is based on Time/Date stamp in Teamcenter not alphabetical like you would expect, or further down on the list. You would need to change the view order in Portal based on Time to see what it believes to be the order.

-Dave

http://plmwiki.com

http://groups.google.com/group/NX_CAX/